Who Censored Marie Antoinette's Letters? X-Rays Reveal a Surprise (science.org) 26
sciencehabit shares a report from Science.org: In late 1791 and early 1792, on the eve of the French Revolutionary Wars, Queen Marie Antoinette engaged in a secret correspondence with her confidant and rumored lover, Swedish Count Axel von Fersen. Nearly 50 letters from that exchange survive at the French National Archives. But certain passages in 15 of the letters were unreadable, obscured by redactions made with swirls of dark ink. Now, researchers have revealed the words beneath 45 of these alterations using x-ray technology. They have also discovered the censor's identity: von Fersen, himself. The idea that von Fersen made the redactions is "a revelation," says Catriona Seth, a professor of French literature at the University of Oxford who was not involved with the work. Historians had thought the letters were censored in the second half of the 19th century -- most likely by von Fersen's great-nephew -- to protect the writers' reputations. Now, she says, scholars will need to rethink the cover-up -- and the reasons behind it.
The newly legible passages are largely sentimental, phrases like "made my heart happy," and "you that I love." Comments on politics and world events, meanwhile, remain uncensored. But even these seemingly intimate phrases don't definitively tell historians anything new about Marie Antoinette and von Fersen's relationship, Seth says. Scholars, she notes, already knew Marie Antoinette had "a very deep affection for him." Still, she adds, the letters offer "direct insight into the thoughts and feelings of Marie Antoinette." In the future, the techniques in this study could be used in combination with machine algorithms to automatically transcribe old texts, the researchers say, making it easier to understand these important documents -- and others like them. The researchers published their findings in the journal Science Advances.
The newly legible passages are largely sentimental, phrases like "made my heart happy," and "you that I love." Comments on politics and world events, meanwhile, remain uncensored. But even these seemingly intimate phrases don't definitively tell historians anything new about Marie Antoinette and von Fersen's relationship, Seth says. Scholars, she notes, already knew Marie Antoinette had "a very deep affection for him." Still, she adds, the letters offer "direct insight into the thoughts and feelings of Marie Antoinette." In the future, the techniques in this study could be used in combination with machine algorithms to automatically transcribe old texts, the researchers say, making it easier to understand these important documents -- and others like them. The researchers published their findings in the journal Science Advances.
Who censored? (Score:2, Funny)
Was it Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, or Amazon?
Re: Who censored? (Score:2)
It's right there in TFA: They have also discovered the censor's identity
Louis and Marie Antoinette (Score:5, Funny)
They were neck and neck.
Re:Louis and Marie Antoinette (Score:5, Funny)
It's royalty free.
Re: (Score:2)
Now, THAT's the quality content I expect from slashdot commenters!
In the end, Marie Antoinette could not escape these revolutionary tactics!
Well now (Score:3)
It seems clear on the order of the 1980's Enquirer... interest in the lives of celebrity humans far exceeds any value that information might provide.
It's like we're all peasants, worshipping the nobility for their perceived better extrapolation of living life, instead of pitying their Kardashian need for attention.
Re: Well now (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I believe you are correct.
However, I would also like to take a moment to clear up the common confusion between Cardassians and Kardashians.
One is a group of amoral, vaguely reptilian beings that will stop at nothing to further the agenda for power and influence. The other group, of course, occupied Bajor.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Thank you, I knew I was missing something.
Re: (Score:1)
true, now if Marie were begging for his dick that would have been something. Instead just boring sappy love phrases.
Re: (Score:2)
Queen Marie Antoinette is an important historical figure, whose actions helped to trigger the French Revolution. She's a bit more than just a "celebrity".
I'm sure "Keeping up with the Antoinettes" would get good ratings nowadays, though.
Using x-rays? (Score:1)
no AI, no ultrasound, and no lasers? Blaspheme!
Let the researchers eat cake. (Score:2)
And After Seeing the First 16 Posts On Slashdot... (Score:3)
It appears no nerds care about this at all.
Being able to unscramble the ink by its changing composition from month to month is pretty amazing, really.
Re: (Score:2)
The tech behind it is cool, but I don't have much interest in the letters themselves.
Unfortunately for who knows why, the summary ignored the cool stuff.
And how did they do it? (Score:5, Informative)
The most technically exciting and possibly news for nerds component of the story was left out of the summary in favour of a some pointless history about a heartthrob.
Turns out to identify the words under the text they had to isolate the formula for the inks which allowed them to separate the ink used to write the letters from the ink used to censor them. To everyone's surprise the ink used to censor them was the same ink used to copywrite by Fersen and since this ink formulation changed very rapidly it's not just a coincidence that someone bought the same batch of ink.
OMG (Score:1)