Miscellany...

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

(1) Kristeller's vast Iter Italicum index of Renaissance manuscripts is now 
online and searchable:-

	http://imdatabases.library.utoronto.ca/iter/iter/query.htm

(2) I mentioned ligatured vernacular Engish letters in an earlier posting - 
it turns out these were borrowed from Latin and elsewhere, but given runic 
names:-
	AE	Aesh
	OE	Oegule
(and not forgetting Thorn, Wynn, Eszed, Eth, and Yogh). More on this on:-

	http://www.ualberta.ca/~sreimer/ms-course/course/eng-chrs.htm

(3) "Miniature" is actually derived from "minium", meaning the red used for 
rubricating and decorating manuscripts. A sizeable page for this kind of 
thing (and numerous other manuscript-related issues, plus lots of good 
links) is:-

	http://www.umilta.net/folio.html

(4) Shorthand fell into disrepute in the very early middle ages (it was 
thought to be runic and hence witchcraft) - but was partially revived by 
Thomas Becket.

	http://www.ualberta.ca/~sreimer/ms-course/course/abbrevtn.htm

Part of my VMS working hypothesis is that - in the spirit of obfuscation - 
single letters were expanded into pairs (like "ol"), while some common 
pairs were reduced down to single stroke letters (like "9"). Viewed in this 
light, the differently embellished picnic tables become eerily reminiscent 
of medieval abbreviations of Latin "q"-words, like "qui", "quid", "quo", etc.

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