Re: VMs: Possible explanation for Quire 20...

["GC" <gc-@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John wrote:

> GC,
>
> Since 116v is somewhat void of content, how does this equate to the
writing
> on a flat bifolio? 103r and 116v would share the same side of vellum,
while
> 103v and 116r are the opposite side. Three out of the four panels have a
lot
> of text.
> If the bifolio was written before binding on one side first, obviously
f103v
> and f116r were written first (since 116v is void of real content).
However,
> 116r looks more likely to be the last page written because both 103r and
> 103v are consistent with the starred paragraphs - while 116r commences
with
> starred paragraphs but has an addendum tacked on the bottom. I'm not sure
if
> this is really indicative of writing the panels in sequence or not, but it
> seems to suggest the author did write 103r then 103v...hmmmm

I attempted to clarify that my comments were limited to the herbal section,
and what I said about the last quire is :

 "The last quire would be the one I'd question in regard to my hypothesis,
but we don't know yet if the stars section is in the right order, or that it
even requires an order to be read."

There's nothing to say that the quire had to be bound at this point.  It
could have been a set of loose folded sheets.  The writing would have been
easier to perform in this state, but it did not necessarily have to be
bifolio by bifolio here, and I haven't run any tests to determine if this is
the case in this particular quire.  IF the information found in the stars
section requires a certain order of presentation, it was probably written
page by page, and therefore it doesn't matter if the quire was loose or
bound with regard to the order of writing.  My guess from looking at the
margins however, is that the bifolios were loose.  It's pretty hard to get
the writing into those tight folds we see on the verso folios, and I don't
expect that the original binding was much looser than the current binding.
I would suggest that the verso margins would be a bit larger if the bifolios
were pre-bound, but this is only an opinion.

> What if... Each bifolio was written separately, but sequentially within
the
> bifolio... such that the author wrote f103r, flipped the vellum wrote
f103v,
> flipped the vellum wrote f116r, and flipped the vellum and drew some
> pictures on f116v then died (or got bored or had nothing further to say).

In that case, maybe the doodle on f116v says in effect "Help, I've fallen
and I can't get up!" :-)

GC

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