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Wikikiki-com t1_j45sddq wrote

Conservators have discovered that the red ink on the set of 16th century hand-drawn maps of the Spanish Armada’s failed invasion of England is of far more recent extraction. They look integral and original, but all of the red accents — ships on fire, city markers, compass points — were added in the late 19th century to enhance the maps’ salability.

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Mr_Blu_Sq t1_j46rg9g wrote

Thas a real shame, but common (alike practices) Its really a crappy thing 2 do, but i must not judge sum poor geezer hundreds of yrs ago hoping for a taste of the good life.

Gives it more interest i suppose.

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JovahkiinVIII t1_j49bvff wrote

I guess there’s also the line between when is something a historical artifact as opposed to just a text with information. Nowadays we digitize everything, and have copies of copies of stuff. In the 19th century they could definitely mass produce books, but still a book was where legitimate data was stored. If you find that an old text is fading or otherwise is seen as needing clarity, it might not be seen as very crazy to just update your stuff.

Not that I like it. But I wonder how different the perspective was of the guy who did it

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