VMs: Quires, folios, numbers

[Rene Zandbergen <r_zandbergen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all,

I tend to agree with John on quite a number
of observations, but I'm not so sure about
the purpose of the foldouts.
The biological and stars quires are not really
'standard' since the are not made up of 
four leaves.
Also, indeed, there is exactly one page number
which is not in the upper right corner when the
page is folded, but this is most likely the 
result of the page fold having 'changed direction'
with time. As usual ( :-) ) this is explained 
somewhere in the archive...
On the whole, it is clear that the page numbers
were written either after the book was bound,
or immediately before it. Further, it is 
important to point out various other consistent
features:
- missing quire numbers coincide with missing
  folio numbers. Maybe the foliator still had
  them, or possibly he was just guessing...
- missing bifolios are always missing from the
  centre of the quire. The foliator must have
  had them.
- both missing single pages show a short stub
  where it was cut out (but note that the book
  has probably been rebound by the Jesuits).

Since no remaining quire which consist of only
one bifolio has only four pages (i.e. these 
are always foldouts), I agree that f74 was probably
also a foldout - same for the missing quires
17 and 19.
It is possible, but IMHO very unlikely, that
there were more quires after the stars section.

As to the identity of the foliator: the handwriting
does not look too much like Marci's. Baresch is
already closer, but it would be particularly
interesting to get a sample of Jacobus de Tepenec'
handwriting. Finally, Daniel Froeschl, who wrote
the  inventory of Rudolpf's 'Kunstkammer' in
1607-1611, wrote his numbers quite similarly to
the VMs, but let's not get too carried away on this. 
(I have some pictures of it, but need to
upload them first).

Cheers, Rene

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