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VMs: Re: VMS Quires

Hi Rene,

A real problem is posed by the foldouts.
Why are they there in the first place?
Did the author only have some leftover pieces of
vellum that could not be cut to the proper size?
Then if so, shouldn't they be at the end of the
book (either physically, or [chrono]logically)?

That depends on whether you think the foldouts are integral to the text, or just interesting-looking appendices. I suspect the former, but it's hard to make a definitive call one way or another. :-/

According to the digraph statistical analysis
I once did, the text characteristics of the text
on the foldout pages marks a transition from A
to B language. {Since Currier largely used the text
on normal pages for his analysis, he found the
two distinct sets which he called A and B.}
So also in this context they are not the 'end'
of the document.

Did you ever check the degree to which label text and non-label text differs on the foldouts?

For example, I suspect that the text labelling the stars on the astro "volvelle" pages has quite different stats from the text contained in the rings.

Could the transition you observed be an indication of two languages co-existing on the same page?

Also: if part of the cipher was based on a number code, that code may only have been a good match for certain subject matters, but a bad match for others - that too could be a driver for two apparent languages (within a single code).

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