RE: VMs: Re: Currier A and B

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi GC,

> Picking a page at random, say 34v -
> Here's how the lines break down - this is accurate but slightly generalized,
> since the difference between a1 and b2 on these pages is keyed not directly
> to lines themselves, but to another factor, heh heh.

According to Steve Ekwall, the 8-glyph Neal key on each page would be used 
to rotate the mono-alphabetic cipher used for each part of his key: but the 
(I'm presuming pair) cipher contents of each key would remain intact, only 
their order would change.

I would therefore be unsurprised if a[1/2] and b[1/2] turn out to be 
associated with (say) one side of his "folding key", and that individual 
pages tend to remain just on one side.

Speculating further, I'd guess that the two sides (4 code tables each?) 
might well have been optimised for two different types of language: and 
that the (plaintext) contents of the pages we mark as a[1/2] and b[1/2] 
were originally written in those two types of language. That is, plaintext 
language --> code mechanism configuration --> code language (ie, an 
indirect content-related linkage, rather than a direct content-related 
linkage).

For Steve, then, the gallows characters act as the triggers to change 
between code tables: so would predict that perhaps the most recent gallows 
character encountered on f34v is correlated with the a1/b2 line correlation 
observed? Just a thought... :-)

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


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