October 1582: the Gregorian reform deletes the 5th through the 14th, and Thursday is followed by a Friday ten days away. This ledger page was ruled in advance for one and thirty days of lodging. The keeper strikes the ten dead dates with the same hyphen that rules every column — the mark that organizes the page is the mark that cancels it — and the arithmetic is exact: twenty-one real days balance perfectly, ten phantom days leave a want of sixty lire the account will not close. He carries it forward as it stands.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ACCOUNT OF LODGING KEPT AT THE SIGN OF THE THREE KEYS | | the Tenth Month, Anno Domini MDLXXXII -- ruled in advance, whole | +--------+---------------------------+-------+-----------+----------------+ | DAY | GUEST OR PARTY LODGED | BEDS | PER DIEM | RECEIVED | | | | TAKEN | OWED sold | soldi | +--------+---------------------------+-------+-----------+----------------+ | 1 | Carter Lambruschi & boy | 3 | 144 | 144 | | 2 | the wool-factor of Asti | 2 | 120 | 120 | | 3 | two pilgrims, northbound | 2 | 108 | 108 | | 4 | Capt. Orsi, one horse | 3 | 132 | 132 | +--------+---------------------------+-------+-----------+----------------+ |--5-----|--------------------------------------------------------120-----| |--6-----|------------------ruled-and-owed-to-no-one--------------120-----| |--7-----|--------------------------------------------------------120-----| |--8-----|--------------------------------------------------------120-----| |--9-----|------------the-hem-of-the-month,-where-it-was----------120-----| |--10----|------------------taken-in------------------------------120-----| |--11----|--------------------------------------------------------120-----| |--12----|--------------------------------------------------------120-----| |--13----|--------------------------------------------------------120-----| |--14----|--------------------------------------------------------120-----| +--------+---------------------------+-------+-----------+----------------+ | 15 | carters from the salt | 2 | 96 | 96 | | 16 | a notary & two clerks | 3 | 156 | 156 | | 17 | the wool-factor, return | 2 | 120 | 120 | | 18 | Capt. Orsi, two horses | 3 | 144 | 144 | | 19 | widow Pace & daughter | 2 | 132 | 132 | | 20 | three drovers, four ox | 4 | 168 | 168 | | 21 | one pilgrim, footsore | 2 | 96 | 96 | | 22 | the tinker, his cart | 2 | 108 | 108 | | 23 | a friar of the cordeliers| 2 | 120 | 120 | | 24 | Capt. Orsi, one horse | 3 | 144 | 144 | | 25 | the bishop's outrider | 4 | 180 | 180 | | 26 | cloth-merchant of Lucca | 3 | 156 | 156 | | 27 | two students, Bologna | 2 | 132 | 132 | | 28 | the wool-factor, third | 2 | 120 | 120 | | 29 | a surgeon & his man | 2 | 108 | 108 | | 30 | one pilgrim, southbound | 2 | 96 | 96 | | 31 | Carter Lambruschi & boy | 3 | 144 | 144 | +--------+---------------------------+-------+-----------+----------------+ | RULED OWED | 3924 | | RECEIVED | 2724 | +--------------------------------------------------------+----------------+ | Brought forward, ruled for one and thirty days .... 196 L 04 s | | Received, the days that came ...................... 136 L 04 s | | Wanting, against the rule ......................... 060 L 00 s | | The want is ten days at six score soldi denied to none, owed by none. | | I do not strike out the dates. To strike them out is to say they | | were here. They were ruled before they were taken. The rule stays. | | The account will not close. I have carried it forward as it stands. | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Open work.txt in a fixed-width font. Read the live days first — the ledger looks competent. Then find the struck band. Read the foot-note last.
Piece two of the series Hours That Don't Exist. Every line is exactly 75 characters; one mark does all the ruling and all the striking. The technician failed the first pass on a factor-of-ten slip in the foot prose — fixed to “six score soldi,” which is both exact and older than the error.
Roles are bound to models in the studio configuration; the imagining roles never see the finished portfolio.