Re: About the "|_/\" symbol

["Dana F. Scott" <dfscott@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jorge,
    Thank you for your response. There interpretation of these glyphs does
appear to be somewhat complex, especially with their limited usage in the
VMS. The interpretation of | /\ as 17 is quite interesting. I was reminded
of the Arabic numerical system used in the Middle East.

http://www.sakkal.com/instrctn/Arabic_Numerals.html

Using the Arabic/Middle East  numbers, | /\ becomes 18 when translated
to the Arabic/West number system. And then there is also the dot for zero
so we can curiously get 180 or half of a 360 degree circle. Hmm?
Interesting,
but I'm not convinced.

These glyphs in the VMS seem more likely to have geometric/angular
significance, but I really can't tell at this point what they refer to
exactly.

Regards,
Dana


Jorge Stolfi wrote:

>     > http://highway49.library.yale.edu/PHOTONEG/zoom/z361/z3610554.jpg
>     >
>     > [Dana Scott:] Now, I am wondering what a symbol (may be a
>     > compound symbol) that looks something like |_/\ with a plume
>     > above the underline cross-bar might be a reference to?
>
> I tink it was Rene who made us notice that "17" would be written
> "| /\" in 15th century texts, at least in Germany:
>
>   http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/voynich/misc/german3.gif
>
> Coincidentally, that ring of text consists of 17 symbols, repeated 4
> times (with minor variations).
>
> Apparently, this coincidence was noticed before: on the Marshall
> Library photocopy of this page, someone scribbled "17" next to that
> glyph.
>
> The "underscore" between the two digits could be just a calligraphic
> ligature. The small circle above it is harder to explain. It could be
> just a dot, to mark the sequence's starting/ending points. Or it could
> be a 10's place symbol, as in (ahem) Chinese --- where the number 17
> is written with three symbols, literally "one-ten-seven".
>
> All the best,
>
> --stolfi

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