Whose fingerprint is it? Is it a reader’s, printer’s, or binder’s fingerprint? I’ve been asking myself this question since I saw this trace in a Reformation pamphlet 1. It is placed in the gutter of the page and it is of a dark brown color ink (rather than black). Any thoughts on this are welcomed.
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Comments
Squashing a pesky bug of a bookworm may account for it.:)
Asta — June 28, 2022
Well, it’s a bit hard to tell from the image, but to me it looks as though those are really two fingerprints (probably index and middle finger) placed very closely together, presumably to push down and hold the pamphlet in place. So the most logical conclusion would be that those are the fingerprints of whoever removed the binding / the facing page, i.e. either an early owner or the binder.
Elisabeth Chaghafi — June 29, 2022
It’s purely a guess, but I’d suspect the binder got some glue on his(?) finger. It is not unreasonable to think it could be “his” or “her” because nuns were occasionally employed in the printing trade.
Allan Mahnke — June 29, 2022
If the fingerprint is on the first page of a section or signature perhaps it was the result of a careless printer picking up a pile of already dry and folded sections.
Peter Criddle — June 29, 2022
It looks like two fingerprints (thumbprint and fingerprint?) pressing down on the inner bound border of the codex perhaps to open the volume for some reason? Does the work have annotations in the same ink?
Steve May — June 29, 2022