Spectroscopy reveals crossed-out passages in Marie Antoinette’s love letters

[OCArt]

The podcast Stationery Orbit pointed me to a couple of articles discussing how x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy was used to 'uncover' the redacted portions of Marie Antoinette's love letters.

"A team of researchers, led by Anne Michelin from the Research Center for Conservation in Paris, tested whether common forensic techniques could differentiate between the inks used to write the passages and those used to cross them out. The composition of the two inks is very similar, which made the project challenging. After exploring analytical techniques, Michelin’s group found they could use the consistent copper-to-iron ratio between the inks in some of the original letters to uncover crossed-out words between the putative lovers.
Using x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and a suite of data processing tools, they deciphered the redacted text, which included words like “beloved,” “adore,” and “madly.” Historians had hypothesized that the Count’s great-nephew censored the letters to protect the von Fersen family’s reputation. But after analyzing the overlying redaction inks and comparing their composition to the inks that the Count used to write the letters, the researchers found that the inks were nearly identical and are now confident that it was the Count himself who censored the letters. Michelin, reached over email, says that result surprised her: “We didn’t think we would have such strong evidence.”

 

 

see this link for website    or this link for even more background info

[ridiculopathy]

This took me down into a rabbit hole of the French Revolution. Thanks for sharing!

[TSherbs]

On 12/1/2021 at 5:10 AM, OCArt said:

The podcast Stationery Orbit pointed me to a couple of articles discussing how x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy was used to 'uncover' the redacted portions of Marie Antoinette's love letters.

"A team of researchers, led by Anne Michelin from the Research Center for Conservation in Paris, tested whether common forensic techniques could differentiate between the inks used to write the passages and those used to cross them out. The composition of the two inks is very similar, which made the project challenging. After exploring analytical techniques, Michelin’s group found they could use the consistent copper-to-iron ratio between the inks in some of the original letters to uncover crossed-out words between the putative lovers.
Using x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and a suite of data processing tools, they deciphered the redacted text, which included words like “beloved,” “adore,” and “madly.” Historians had hypothesized that the Count’s great-nephew censored the letters to protect the von Fersen family’s reputation. But after analyzing the overlying redaction inks and comparing their composition to the inks that the Count used to write the letters, the researchers found that the inks were nearly identical and are now confident that it was the Count himself who censored the letters. Michelin, reached over email, says that result surprised her: “We didn’t think we would have such strong evidence.”

 

 

see this link for website    or this link for even more background info

Mon Dieu! It's not cursive! 😉