VMs: Shorthand as a source?

["GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I already had a list of the many symbols that
appear in Latin shorthand, but I was surprised to
find that virtually all simple characters can be
found in English shorthand books of the 16th and
17th centuries.  This includes Currier's "S", the
two "cc"s joined at the top to form a bent leg
table.  There may even be found the variation of
this character where the second "c" is an "o".
The advanced method of shorthand writing involved
compounds of the simpler forms.

The one thing I've noticed is that while there are
some books on shorthand directed at the secretary
profession, most of these are from ecclesiastical
sources, designed for the copying of scripture and
the real-time capture of sermons, etc.  I only
mention this because of my sense that this person
had ample religious training, and may have been a
member of the clergy.

I hold this theory for several reasons, not the
least of which is an apparent "class" difference
between physicions and other levels of learning.
The vast majority of English writers on astrology,
astronomy, and physike for the early 16th century
were either monks in good standing at a university
or abbey, practicing their skill where it was
needed most, and most had taken some sort of vow
to the church.  There were a few notable
exceptions, but even these exceptions tend to have
specialized in mathematics or surgery.  The
likelihood in my estimation that our author was a
member of the church is relatively high.

This shorthand phenomenon even extends to the new
characters introduced on folio 57v.  The "carat" ^
symbol was almost universally an A.  The "picnic
table" is found in almost every system I've
viewed, and even the symbol that resembles an
upside down square root with a dot above it may be
found in various forms.

Several forms can be found in a single book by
Timothy Bright (Doctor of Physike), in his "An
Arte of Shorte, Swifte, and Secrete Writing by
Character" of 1588.  I don't know where I would
begin the search, but it seems to me that there
may have been some basic system of shorthand that
was part of the teaching for clergy, and
variations of this system may have been the
inspiration for the Voynich script.

Just a thought.
GC