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A
little slow to get around to look at this, but those numbers are interesting
especially if one considers the author's description:
Shown at Right are
some variant forms of the numbers 1 through 9 as seen in early manuscripts of
the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, left to right.
The
variants for the 12th and 14th centuries are closer to the VMS quire signatures
than the 13 and 15th. In particular quire 4 and 14 are good examples of the 4
depicted on this site. 7 is also more like an upside down v than an upside down
L fitting nicely with the 12th and 14th century depictions presented by that
author. The number 5 is more peculiar than the rest and a perfect fit doesn't
show on the site Pam found.
What does this mean? If anything... We knew the numbers on
the folios were of a different style than the quire markings, but perhaps these
dates above just add a little more weight to the age of the VMS - (my view is
that the VMS quire numbers were marked by the author - but there is no way to
substantiate that). Nonetheless, according to this source - the variations of
numerals fell into the above centuries rather neatly and gives us another
reference where at least the quire markings were written prior to the 16th
century [big assumption that the 16th century didn't use the same style of
numerals depicted here].
John.
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