VMs: Mid-gallows pause (WAS: Determining the writing speed...?)

["Mike Stannett" <m.stannett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry for the delay. The best example I've found so far of a
"mid-gallows pause" is in word 5 on the first line of f23v. It has a
pronounced wobble halfway down the right hand vertical, following what
looks like a reapplication of the pen. This is the one that first made
me think (that part of, at least) the document was copied from an
original.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Nick Pelling
Sent: 08 September 2003 15:47
To: vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: VMs: RE: Determining the writing speed...?


Hi Mike,

At 12:56 08/09/2003 +0100, Mike Stannett wrote:
>I've left my photocopies at home, so no precise details I'm afraid.
>However, I've noticed that some of the gallows characters suggest (to
>my admittedly untrained eye) that parts of the manuscript are
>definitely copied from an original. It looks in places like the
scribe
>has drawn the left hand vertical, then the top horizontal with both
of
>its loops, and is on his way back down again, when he seems to have
>forgotten which character it is he's writing. Consequently, there's a
>small glitch in the character, suggesting he's looked away from the
MS
>to consult the master copy, and has then continued with the remainder
>of the character.
>
>As well as suggesting that the extant version is copied from an
>original, this also suggests that the scribe may not have understood
>that characters he was writing. It's rather like us having to consult
>an original to decide if a letter is a "b" or a "d". For users of our
>alphabet this is fairly easily remembered, but for non-users the
>characters may be perceived simply as shapes, hence more tricky to
>retain in short-term memory.

The four gallows shapes all start with a vertical leg, and have two
binary
decision points - the top left loop (loop or skip) & where to finish
up
(straight legs or crossed legs). I agree, this would seem to point to
a
copier inexperienced with Voynichese, writing at a reasonably fast
(but
perhaps not blistering) rate.

Any page/line references to this kind of "mid-gallows pause" you can
dig up
would be great! :-)

Thanks, .....Nick Pelling.....


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