VMs: RE: VMS: Personal Guess - Beneventan script?

["legal1@xxxxxxxxx" <legal1@xxxxxxxxx>]

GC says:

>I think what he was pointing to is that the cipher was not
>something new to the time period, but an odd use of an existing method of
>encipherment.

which makes perfect sense.

Speaking of abbreviations:

According to some evellum.com website, when it comes to this type of
shorthand, "There are three main categories of abbreviations: suspensions
[marking an abbreviated word-ending]; contractions [the abbreviating of
part of a word, other than its ending]; and abbreviation symbols [symbols
used for whole words]."

Some notes on those "tironian notes":

"So-called Tironian notes are preserved in a number of Latin manuscripts of
the Carolingian period, see Schmitz (1893). A recent collection of the
various signs is to be found in Costamagna, Baroni and Zagni (1983). In
what is still the most thorough treatment of the subject, Mentz (1944),
three different systems are analysed: System A = the so-called Tironian
notes. These are to be seen in use in Merovingian and Carolingian charters
from the seventh century onwards and in manuscripts of the ninth and tenth
centuries. System B and System C are only attested in papyri from Ravenna,
the earliest evidence being from the sixth century; they both use a
syllabic system, different from the system employed for true Tironian
notes."

source:
http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk:8080/tablets/TVIIcat-shand.shtml

Strangely, it fails to mention 'Polygraphia' and that encyclopedic work on
t-notes, (Ulrico) Kopp's "Paleographia critica seu tachigraphia veterum
exposita" (Manheim, 1817).
 
Now, in reference to an old avenue mentioned by Jacques (I think so?), who
had pointed to the familiarity of the Dalmatian Beneventan script (mostly
developed at Monte Cassino) as yet another probable feature of the VMS
author, here's a title worth examining:  

http://www.evellum.com/ductus/demo/engine/ductus/frames/bibliography/lowe_lo
ew1972a.html

and some samples, for entertainment:

http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/seminar/benevent.html

in particular:
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/seminar/benevent/XLIIa.jpg
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/seminar/benevent/XLIIa.jpg
http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/dlo?obj=COLUMBIA.DS.4152&size=medium

Yet more:

http://www.nd.edu/~medvllib/musnot/benevscript.jpg
http://www.humi.keio.ac.jp/~matsuda/graphic/closeup/116k0002s01w.jpg
http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/graphics/text/grabs/exult3.jpg

but this Beneventan script fell out of fashion/use in the late XIII Century?

Finally, for those who might care to visit Monte Cassino someday:
http://www.officine.it/montecassino/main_h.htm


Luis

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