VMs: More shorthand trivia

["GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'd suspected that some of the glyphs appearing on f57v were from
shorthand notation, and now I'm fairly certain about this.

All of the glyphs in the second ring can be found in one or more
early shorthand systems, the o,e,8,9, the G, the gallows, etc.,
even the "picnic table".  Several of the glyphs are from latin
shorthand, and others are standard religious notation, like the
"picnic table", which is used as an abbreviation for the Book of
Galatians (Gal.).

The one I was having problems with is the one at the top of the
ring, which looks like this:

     x  O    x
     x     x   x
     xxxxxx     x

I've been previewing Thomas Shelton's system, which is religiously
based and probably an improvement on what was used in English
universities.  In his book "Zeiglographia" (1650 reprint of the
1620 book), I discovered this glyph without the "O" over the first
part, standing for F.G., short for "Feare of God".  I was very
happy about that, but was concerned about the missing "O".  As it
happens, I was going through his list of words, and ran across the
symbol for "Feare".  It was the first part of the glyph, the L
shaped part, and it has an O over it!  It's almost certain that
the earlier form of the symbol did not omit the "O" as Shelton
did.

In his opening, Shelton recommends shorthand for three groups -
students of Divinity, students of Physike, and students of the
Law.  Our subject matter falls under Physike, one of his three
recommended groups.

There is a collection of 16th century shorthand contained in the
Carlton Collection, at the London University Library, and I wonder
if anyone has had occasion to view this.  At this point it's
fairly important to discover whether or not these symbols were
used in any other shorthand samples outside of England as well.
If not, English authorship is a very good possibility.

My guess is that the symbols for the script were selected as a
cover, so prying eyes would pass over it as a shorthand document
on herbs.

GC