Re: VMs: f11v - dd vs. gg

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

On Tue, 24 May 2005 fion@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> (manipulus florum)
> gg      Non queritur.in Christianis inicium
>         sed finis.gg.l.xxxviii.mo(ralis)
>
> (voynich ms)
> dd      soydy qoteey qot chor dy ddy
>
> Here the gg is used as a shorthand for Gregorius (libro 38 moralis) and
> also as an annotation/index. The graphical version looks better.
>
> What is this supposed to mean ? I don't know, probably it is just a simple
> coincidence. I just keep it as an argument for "intentional annotations".
> I thought it will be nice to share it, maybe it will trigger some ideas.

...

> It will be funny if "ddy" would be found to be a shorthand for a word with
> a similar pattern : g--g--us , d--d--us ... s.o.  :)

Or here, apparently, gg ggus.

I'm not sure I would see the texts as parallel, but the example is
nevertheless useful, because, if the text is scholarly Latin, or some
European vernacular for the same approximate period, it's apt to contain
precisely this sort of abbreviation and reference.  Even if it's not, it's
likely to contain analogous practices.  In any event, it seems highly
unlikely to me that it contains nothing but fully spelled words.  I would
expect it to contain numerals and extensive abbreviation.  I would also
expect it to contain numerous borrowings from other languages with
different patterns of spelling, perhaps rendered literally rather than
adjusted to the spelling of the main language of a section.

I think I'd also expect it to contain various references to persons,
perhaps abbreviated or pseudonymized, and, if it is from Medieval Europe
I'd expect numerous references to Christian doctrine, especially to the
Trinity and its components or possibly to related heretical views of
religion.

In this period, divine references were often abbreviated or indicated with
special signs, e.g., Greek monograms, in Medieval writing. Presumably in a
secret manuscript one would eliminate such things, or at least make them
less obtrusive, to avoid providing a path of attack, but perhaps the
tendency would be so instinctive that it would creep in here and there.
Any ornate bit of non-initial text might be worth examining closely from
this perspective.

Perhaps the gallows and their ornate variants are relevant here.  And, if
anything resembles monogramming it would be the intertwining of the
gallows and bench charactes, or the occasional bracketing of sections of
writing within gallows.

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