Re: Quire signatures revisited

["John Grove" <John@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jorge Stolfi" <stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <voynich@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2001 11:37 AM
Subject: Re: Quire signatures revisited

>
> Cuiriosity: does the us/mus choice matches the Latin endings?
>
>   PriMUS  - yes
>     SecundUS - yes
>     TertiUS - yes
>     QuartUS - yes
>     QuintUS - not quite - there seems to be a little something before the
'us'
>     SextUS - ditto
>   SeptiMUS - yes
>     OctavUS - looks like 'cc' precedes the 'us'
>     NonUS - something like 6 & 7 above
>   DeciMUS - yes
>   UndeciMUS - yes
>   DuodeciMUS (Missing page)
>   TerdeciMUS  - no - uses the numerals 13 followed by -us
>   Quartus deciMUS -  same as 13
>   Quintus deciMUS - same as 13
>   Sextus deciMUS  (Missing page)
>   Septimus deciMus - same as 13
>   Octavus deciMUS  (Missing page)
>   Nonus deciMUS - no - just numerals - no 'us'
>   VicesiMUS  - ditto.



> Note that quire sizes are fairly uniform *within each section*:

However, several of these are mixed up with A & B languages so the real
size of the quire isn't evident. Quire signatures 5,6, and 8 are written on
B language pages, while later in the book Quire signatures 15 & 17 are
written on A language pages.

>     > Therefore, QS#9 which is oddly placed immediately following QS#8
marker
>     > dramatically out of place - There should be 15 pages in between the
two with
>     > QS#9 being the final page of that quire - not the first!
> Ouch, I ran out of synapses at this point. Let me build a paper model...
I have to stress this point as it is obvious to me that although the person
who provided the quire signatures may not have been able to read the book -
he may have actually been capable - but someone else found the manuscript in
a rather shabby condition and tried to re-bind it using those quire
signatures to provide a 'general order'. The pages within the quire may not
belong to that quire - but the ones fortunate enough to have a quire
signature are themselves in the original order in relation to one another.

Quire signature #9 should not be on the page immediately following the one
with Quire signature #8. There should be a series of folios ending in #9 on
the verso.

John.