At 04:01 PM 8/25/2005, Alain Veylit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Matanya, >This strikes me as an extremely naive attitude. Documental evidence >has lead many people to the wrong conclusions, as documented by the >thousands (millions, actually) of pseudo-scholarly papers churned >out by both private and public research facilities. I'd rather read >liner notes by someone who knows what he is doing, because the >chances of his being wrong leading to an interesting mistake are much higher.
I am sure there is a negative missing someplace in the above sentence... I agree with you that there have been a great deal of pseudo-scholarly papers with the wrong conclusions. But here is the the rub: the only way to know that they were wrong conclusions and that the scholarliness was less than first rate, is by checking the documental evidence provided. Without it, we must resort to trust based on personal admiration to the writer, which is what you seem to be implying here. If that works for you, then of course I wish the best of happiness with the knowledge you obtained. Being an iconoclast heretic, I am not willing to trust anyone, not even myself, on anything. I need to be shown that facts, not somebody's recollections of them. In other words, unless I can lay my hands on the original Codex transcribed by Chilesotti and examine it myself, that Codex does not exist. Even if the story is true and indeed there is some mysterious Italian collector who has it, the mere fact that it is not available for mere mortals like you and me for consultation, renders it into a fairy tale. A pretty one, and no doubt prettier when told by some one you admire and love, but nevertheless, a fairy tale. Of course, I will make a point of getting hold of this O'Dette CD and find out exactly what he says there. By now, it is clear that trusting Arthur Ness to correctly report on stuff he had read someplace, is not a reliable way of learning. Matanya Ophee Editions Orphe'e, Inc., 1240 Clubview Blvd. N. Columbus, OH 43235-1226 Phone: 614-846-9517 Fax: 614-846-9794 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.orphee.com http://www.livejournal.com/users/matanya/ To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
