Re: VMs: Three questions

[Nick Pelling <nickpelling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

At 23:41 15/05/2005 +0100, Jeff Haley wrote:
> Question three:
> EVA qo is said to have been used in either Tranchedino or
> Tironian notae. Was there a standard meaning for this
> combination?

Not in those sources AFAIK. However, I believe that in the 14th century, 
"4o" (ie "qo") was often used as a legal abbreviation for (or rather, 
contraction of) "q[uaesti]o", in places where we would now use "?". For a 
limited discussion on this, see:-
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_mark
Essentially, the theory goes that the modern question mark contains "qo" 
rearranged so that the loop of the "q" is its upper loop and the circle of 
the "o" is its dot.

Even so, I don't recall seeing "qo"-style question marks (ie literally 
q-above-o) in incunabula (please correct me if I'm wrong!), so suspect that 
this use of "qo" would already have been archaic by 1460. The qo's in the 
Tranchedino cipher ledger don't seem obviously connected to this tradition 
at all.

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 


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