Stolen irreplaceable books found under floor of Romanian house

Re:Stolen irreplaceable books found under floor of Romanian ... by xenocratus on Monday November 16, 2020 @08:03AM (#25111101)

> The value is in the content, not the paper and ink.

That's not entirely true. While it might be considered a bit of am extreme example, think about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropodermic_bibliopegy

The paper and ink can tell/show us things about the technical environment in which these books were created. If you sell them off to a collector, scientists lose access to them.

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Re:Stolen irreplaceable books found under floor of Romanian ... by coldpie on Monday November 16, 2020 @08:54AM (#25111602)

Also sometimes the book bindings themselves contain hidden texts, as they recycled old scraps for the materials[1]. This stuff is fascinating and there's a bunch of great related content on this blog.

[1] https://medievalbooks.nl/2015/12/18/x-rays-expose-a-hidden-m...

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Re:Stolen irreplaceable books found under floor of Romanian ... by bluGill on Monday November 16, 2020 @08:16AM (#25111230)

So long as the collector is known science doesn't lose access. Access becomes harder for sure, but most collectors will let some people view their collection. Many collectables have clubs where club members are invited to each others houses to see their collection. Even where the collector is a very private person, the right person asking can generally get access (so long as they swear to secrecy).

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