Re: VMs: f112r-f112v

[Koontz John E <John.Koontz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 4 May 2005, Nick Pelling wrote:
> 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?

No, I think it was f105r, para. 2-3 (between).  However, f114r, para.
10-11 (between) is quite similar.  And this is another place where a sort
of collop is missing from the margin of a page, though without the large
"avoidance are" around it.

Another interesting thing about f105r is tha it begins with a star that is
placed above the start of the first paragraph.  This is an 8-pointed
tailed star with a red blob or ball in the middle of it.  The last
paragraph of f104v is marked marignally with the same kind of star.
Perhaps the first paragraph of f105r is an addendum to the last paragraph
of f104v?  The last paragraph ends with a short line, so this
suppositional addendum is a separate paragraph.

Not that I have any suggestions why, but the "addendum" begins paiindar,
with a particularly ornate p, which coms close to circumfixing the word
instead of simply crossing back over the stem as usual.  Maybe it's a t
instead.  The transcription file plumps for "paiin dar," I see.  Either
way, p or t, it really ought to be written with a vine-entwined Gothic
capital, considering the florishes adorning it.  The last paragraph on
104v ends "okeeey qokeeey okeey okeey."  Perhaps the composer was trying
to make up for that?

> >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

Not via the Google Search at http://www.voynich.net/.  Perhaps if I
downloaded one of the archives?

> >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.
>
> 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?

I've encountered the following amusing item of relevance to gaps:

http://www.ilab-lila.com/images/abcforbookcollectors.pdf (p. 42)

BLANK LEAVES, BLANKS

Where these are an integral part of the book as completed by the
printer, the bibliographer will record, and the fastidious collector will
insist on, their presence, though the collector may make allowances in
the case of a very rare book. Mere readers will prefer to remember the
note printed, in Greek and Latin, on the otherwise blank leaf A. of
the Aldine Isocrates of ...., which, freely translated, reads: "This leaf
is an integral part of the book, but cut it out if it bothers your
reading, for it is nothing."

You see some similar annotations in compuer manuals, but not so amusingly
put:  "This page left deliberately blank."  (Except for the comment,
anyway.)  These blanks are there to make sure the fronts and backs don't
get out of sync.

> 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.

How about a spill of wax or oil?  I assume direct examination would
elucidate any number of things.  Still, a picture is better than a
transcription.  Someday someone with a magnifying lense screwed into his
eye may reveal that the sheep that gave its life for this page had a bad
ulceration in its hide at this point.

> 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! :-)

Your question presumes a copying process was involved in preparation,
which I think is going a bit far.  It's just one possibility.  I'll answer
more generallly, in terms of relative ordering.

I see no way to determine whether the stars here (or on other pages of
this section - f103r-end)  were prepared before or after the text, except
this:  if the text was not copied exactly, line for line, from an
original, then it would be easier to associate a star with a paragraph
after the preceding paragraph was written.  The paragraphs can be detected
easily enough because the last line is generally shorter.  Also, there is
sometimes a bit of a blank area across the page between successive
paragraphs.

I'm just looking through this section, and I may notice more after I look
more.

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