VMs: What's Missing or Different? What Conventions are There?

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

Thinking about things like missing rulings, I got to wondering what else
is missing or different, relative to various manuscript traditions.  More
generally, what conventions seem to exist, and how to they differ from or
resemble those of other materials.  If we can't read the text, maybe we
can recognize other sorts of patterns.

I'm no specialist in such things, but a few things occur to me:

As various close students of the text have noted, there is relatively
little correction, though there is some.

I can't answer as to issues like the pattern of binding vis-a-vis common
patterns in historical Europe, which side of the hide face which ways,
quality of material, etc., though there are detailed discussions in
circulation of the pagination and binding.

It seems to me that one oddity relative to standard European manuscripts
is that many standard formats of abbreviation and use of symbols are not
observable:  we don't see smaller letters above or below other letters or
the usual line.  And we don't see much in the way of wavy marks trailing
from the end of words in various directions.  Exagerated flourishes,
certainly, but no obviously different class of marks such as those that
follow initial letters to indicate the rest of a common word or follow
stems to indicate common suffixes.  On the other hand, some of the letters
do actually resemble common abbreviatory flourishes and I gather that
some people are working along lines of assuming that they are just that.

We also don't see much use of large initials for first letters in sections
or lines, or for specially significant words, though there is some of this
with the gallows class of characters in particular.

We don't see much in the way of interlinear insertions, crowded in
marginalia or lines trailing up margins, though there are a few
interlinears in the final star section as recently mentioned.

No notes connected to their proper place by arrows or marginal letters -
a big feature of my rough drafts in the pre-computer era.

No crossings out, right? Though some materials are erased or painted over.

There is no punctuation, though this is generally eliminated in cyphers
anyway, I think, and is missing in many early traditions.

I think there is no paragraphing except where that is associated with an
ennumerative or labeling device, e.g., the final "starred" section.  On
the other hand, is the idea of alligning units with hanging ennumerators
like this a universal one?  I think many writing traditions simply squeeze
things together linearly for economy.

Does text ever seem to continue across a page-end?  Apart from series of
paragraphs with associated stars?

More generally, there is fairly elaborate use of layout - physical
organization, especially by juxtaposition.  Text also avoids images and
allows images to create delineated areas - boxes - for the text. Some
image pages strike me as laid out like complex printed plates with
subimages arranged linearly in lines like text.

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