4o...

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

While trying to think of a reason why "4o" [EVA qo] should be a symbol on 
its own, and also why it should have appeared in a couple of contemporary 
ciphers (as noted in Tranchedino's codebook), I had the following thoughts:-

(1) "4o" is, of course, "quarto". Perhaps the fact that the pair of symbols 
was already known as a composite symbol influenced its inclusion as a 
(deliberately misleading) code symbol? Or, more interestingly...

(2) The definition of "quarto" I found on the Internet is "a book made from 
sheets folded twice, giving signatures of four leaves (eight pages)". Could 
it be actually be an indication that symbols following it relate to 
code-words on a page elsewhere in the VMS that has been folded twice (ie 
folded in four)?

Does anyone know how many sheets of the VMS are folded in four?

Perhaps we're simply not thinking spatially enough!

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....