Signed, Sealed, And Undelivered

Signed, Sealed, and Undelivered




http://hyperallergic.com/252028/wax...red-letters/ ... article w/ useful links & excellent images

http://brienne.org/lettersindex/ ... project home page

I always knew that 3D x-ray tomography would be good for something, someday.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

And all those letters the sender most likely assumed the person got them, some of these may have changed someones life if delivered.

Not all that likely. In the 1600s, for overseas mail, people frequently copied a letter, and sent it twice - once via some ship sailing thissaway, and another via some ship sailing thattaway.

And life was short, while mail was slow. A six-month write-and-return-cycle starts to look pretty long ...




Can't wait to read those translations, eh?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I would sure like to get my hands on that trunk of old letters. The diamond shape letters very scare and expensive these days. Great to see so many wax seals to. I would have a great time selling these early 17thc letters in my ebay store

Any thoughts on why they were folded into a diamond shape?

One is so accustomed to seeing rectangles.

I could see folding a letter into a triangle.

I am willing to posit that the same piece of paper, folded into a triangle of the same area as the respective rectangle (eg, the height of the triangle would be greater than the height of the rectangle, so there is no advantage conferred by simply being 'smaller'), would better resist damage.

The reason, of course, would be that three corners are fewer than four and would, therefor, each be made from more paper. even as each was formed into a narrower angle.

Don't wait to be convinced: I cannot prove the Five Color Map Theorem, either.

But a diamond shape?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey