VMs: RE: VMS Quires

["John Grove" <4groves@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks, but...

	I'm going to have to revisit that page again soon... after a little
math and some logical assumptions:

The person who wrote the page numbers had a stack of loose sheets of vellum
on his desk and numbered each sheet sequentially 1-116.

He didn't have them in the exact right order when he numbered them, which is
somewhat confirmed by the f78/f81 pairing as center of quire 13.

However, this means that six full sheets of vellum are missing - those
numbered
by this individual as 59-60, 61-62, 63-64, 91-92, 97-98, 109-110; along with
two 'half' sheets numbered 12 and 74 (but wait - exciting news coming!)

The person who wrote the quire numbers new what order the pages should go in
but didn't number each page - only counted 16 (except for a few which I'll
address
shortly) and marked it. This individual even counted what amounts to a small
quarter-page
fold which I'll show momentarily...

So the two counts don't look like they match 16 'pages' by the top of the
page numbering
doesn't include any foldouts, while the quire counting does.

Okay, now the exciting stuff... Page 74 isn't one missing 'page' it is
exactly 6 missing
pages. All the zodiac quires amount to half quires - that is they are 4
bi-folios or 8 'pages' and
here's how they go...

Starting with f69r to f69v to 70r1 to 70r2 to 70r3(a quarterpage foldout) to
70v3, 70v2, and finally
to the quire mark on 70v1. (A total of 8 pages).

Next is f71r,71v, 72r1,72r2,72r3,72v3,72v2, to the quire mark on f72v1. (A
total of 8 pages)

Next is 73r,73v, and the six page missing foldout of 74r1,r2,r3,v3,v2, and
where a quire mark will
be 74v1.

I'll have to update my vmsquires booklet soon to reflect this -- I'm
confident enough with the
pattern to say it's right.

I'll also stick my neck out and predict that if anyone ever finds the
missing pages they'll find
the quire mark on f74v1 -- and they'll find that page 12 is a single page
with a herbal on each side
in language A.

As far as the other missing 6 full sheets go - I can't make any predictions
as to them being foldouts or
standard -- but I'm willing to bet the pepperoni and hot peppers that the
total number of vellum sheets
was indeed 116.

John.


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-voynich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-voynich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Nick Pelling
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 4:51 AM
To: Voynich Ms. mailing list
Subject: VMs: Re: VMS Quires


Hi John,

>I've uploaded a web-booklet comparing Rene's quire mark records
>and my re-shuffling based on 'language', context, and quire size.
>
>I don't know if it proves anything -- but for the most part it
>seems as though the quires could fit into standard 16 page quires...
>
>www.morewood.net/vmsquires.html

This is great, thanks - good work! :-)

BTW: is the order you propose consistent with the paint that bleeds across
between folios? That is, have you looked for *paint continuity* (ie
bleed-across) between folios that might either support your idea _or_
indicate that some of the painting was done after subsequent re-ordering?

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