VMs: RE: John M. Manly's 1922 Harpers article...

["GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Ink-related questions:
> (1) *is* the VMS' ink atypically thick?
> (2) does any other source think it might be similar to
> printer's ink?
> (3) what function could such thick ink have performed?
> (4) would the author have needed to use a different ink
> for (eg) detail on
> the 9-rosette page?

About the only one of these questions I can comment on is number
3.  While researching the ink question myself, I discovered that
(unfortunately) the brown ink was not as rare as I had hoped, but
that the thickness of the ink may make a statement about the
climate where the manuscript was written.  In moist climates with
a lot of rain (such as England), paper and vellum absorbed quite a
bit of moisture and handled something like a limp rag.  Since
firewood was expensive, few but the wealthy houses had dry rooms
during the winter and the rainy seasons.  It became necessary to
mix a very thick ink to get it to stick to the pages and keep it
from running.  Then the page had to be set next to a source of
heat and carefully dried to set the ink.

This may not be the case with the VMS though.  The characters are
so small print that I can't see them being produced on a damp
surface.  Thick ink to counter the effects of moisture is only one
option to consider.  I wonder from looking at the pages if the ink
is thick throughout, or only on certain pages.  It probably varied
according to the weather on the days the pages were produced.

> PS: one thing Newbold mentioned that I thought was
> worth noting explicitly:
>
> 	Of the letters, 14 are derived from Greek
> tachygraphic signs.

Whatever the origins of the VMS characters, the shorthand symbols
also match up to several Latin symbols.  Timothy Bright's
"Characterie, An Arte of Shorte, Swifte, and Secrete Writing by
Character", 1588, also makes use of several of the VMS character
forms, an indication that the VMS glyphs were probably prepared by
someone familiar with university and ecclesiastical shorthand
systems.  Shorthand was quite popular among the clergy for taking
down sermons.

I just happen to be working on a page that breaks down the VMS
characters according to Bright's description of how a compound
glyph is created, beginning with simple glyphs which are readily
identified, and adding strokes to form compound glyphs.  If you
look at the cipher alphabets in Porta and Trithemius, you'll see
the human tendency to modify basic shapes in sets, but the
modifications are not standard between sets of base glyphs.
Shorthand however, begins with base glyphs and adds a defined set
of modifications in order to build the compound glyphs.  This is
precisely the method used in the VMS.  There is also the
predominant tail on characters at the end of words as an artistic
addition.  8's at the end of a word many times have a downward
tail, and many characters have an upward tail.  Forms of the 'm'
and 'n' looking characters which appear at the ends of words with
tails also appear in the middle of words without tails, etc., and
the 'ccc' character at the end of a word has a tail, while no tail
exists for the same character in the middle of a word.

If the VMS is loosely based on a tachygraphic concept, one has to
consider that the additions made to a simple glyph in shorthand
carries an instruction or meaning.  Is this also the case for the
system in the VMS?  Fascinating stuff.

GC