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Re: VMs: f112r-f112v
Hi everyone,
At 16:31 03/05/2005 -0600, John E Koontz wrote:
Another of the pages in this section - I don't have the number handy - has
a stray fragment of a line above the right end of the first line in a
paragraph. Although I couldn't certainly detect any sort of insertion
mark, it looked like it might be a case of an omission being added after
the fact.
f114r, paras 10-11?
Hmm. I searched for 112r without turning up your comments! Maybe I
should have tried f112r or 112?
That's a bit strange: those messages ought to be there somewhere. :-o
But why would a person copying a text copy a gap in it? An archivist or
student of the text as historical object would do that sort of thing, but
anyone conversant with the text and interested in it per se would simply
fill the full breadth of the line even if it resulted in a shorter page.
They might even squeeze more text from the next page onto the current
page, taking advantage of the additional space.
Now you're starting to ask the right question - basically, if the VMs is
(in some way) a copy of a pre-existing document, why on earth would someone
go to the trouble of copying a gap?
Perhaps the original was also enciphered or in a non-obvious shorthand, so
the copyist has tried to retain incidental detail where the meaning was
uncertain?
Because of considerations like this, I'm inclined to see the gap as a
product of this version of the manuscript, even supposing it to be a copy
or collection of extracts. There is a visible collop of page missing, but
the text avoids a far larger area. Maybe the explanation is as GC
suggested - there is something wrong with the material here. Perhaps the
surface wouldn't take ink? The same underlying problem with the material
might explain the visibly missing collop.
I'm not sure you could have a vellum flaw that would prevent its taking ink
on both sides: and there seems to have been no attempt to try to do so.
Even so, a physical examination should make this absolutely clear.
You might also consider from the pattern of the stars beside the text on
f112v whether they were in the original or were introduced in the copying
process... something to think about! :-)
I was just wondering if
such spots are a known problem with old manuscripts and have parallels in
things we can actually read.
I personally haven't heard or read of any, but a codicologist would
probably be able to say yea or nay with far more certainty.
Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....
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