Re: VMs: The nature of the symbols...

["Maurizio M. Gavioli" <mmg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 17:23 27/02/2004 -0500, John Grove wrote (quoting from Currier):
> 1. THE NATURE OF THE SYMBOLS.
>
> I've looked at most of these letters under a magnifying
> glass, so I think I know how they were all actually made.
> These letters: <o>, <8>, <9>, <z>, all seem to start with a
> "c"-curve[...] The forms all
> have counterparts starting with <i>: <ig>, <x>, <2>, etc. We
> also have <a> = <c>+<i>.[...]

Currier's article is another of the files I have saved for further careful 
reading (I definitely need a sabbatical year...). I will not comment the 
notes about frequencies / distributions, about which I feel not 
knowledgeable enough (yet?).

The analysis of letter forms, though, is a direct (and authoritative) 
confirmation of what I intended with "stroke assimilation". In the Vms. 
context, it might have other implications, but it is a fact that this way 
of making letter forms by composing common elements is a 'founding 
principle' of the _littera moderna_. Even the particular common elements 
quoted are (some of) the common elements actually used by the _littera 
moderna_.

This makes me even more confident that the writer of the ms. was very 
familiar with the writing technique of the _l. m._ (opposed to a simple 
familiarity with its letter forms 'statically' seen) and, in particular, 
not with the later, North-Europe, _l. m-_ (like the _lettre batarde_ or the 
_Fraktur_), but some earlier kind. I believe this could be restricted 
chronologically in some way, but I believe it is too soon for me to venture 
into hypotheses.

Maurizio


 Maurizio M. Gavioli -  VistaMare  Software
 via San Bernardo 5, I-16030 Pieve Ligure, ITALY
 http://www.vistamaresoft.com/

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