The Voynich Ninja

Grove's Titles

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The term 'titles' was introduced by John Grove.
This term is related to the layout of the last lines of some paragraphs.
Normally, these last lines are left-justified and do not reach the right margin.

Three alternative formats are used occasionally:
    The last line is short and centred
    The last line is short and right-justified
    The last line is left-justified, but has additional words that are right-justified

The last example is strictly speaking what John Grove called titles, but all three cases are of interest.
    17 pages that include centred end lines,
    11 pages with right-justified end lines,
    05 pages that use 'titles'.

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Groves list:
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Some brief chat on the old mailing list about 'catchwords':
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Some stuff here, which leads to the suggestion they are unfinished parts of sentences:
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A good example is on folio You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. where all 3 paragraphs have 'Titles'.

To quote VViews from the above thread:
"My questions remain: what can these "titles" be? What is their role? Why is their layout like that?"

Answers to VViews questions and any additional information would be most welcome.

On You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. it is noticeable that the last two titles are clearly right-justified, while the upper one is centered. Perhaps the space requirement for the lower two titles was simply miscalculated.  On the other hand, the author knew exactly where to start writing in order not to overwrite the illustration. He left plenty of space between the last two words in the lower title, as if it should be right-justified intentionally.

Aha found some prallels,maybe.
2-right justified texts in red here You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..

And on the next folio, 2 centred texts and 2 grove titles  also in red ink. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Thats UPenn Schoenberg LJS 62.
the notes say "headings, captions, small initials, and large initials (sometimes with flourishes and extensions)"

Don't know quite what headings and captions refers to in a Medieval mss or why there are 3 types.

If someone could explain more that would be great.

I don't think it applies in the case of the VMS (based on length and position), but there are also catchwords in medieval manuscripts.

Interestingly the LJS 62 was a manuscript which Alain Touwaide chose to compare with the VMS. So at least as far as the titles are concerned there seem to be indeed parallels.

The ones that grabbed my attention the most are those on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. Maybe they refer to the different sections/topics, or maybe about the 4 people who wrote/contributed to it.. Since it comes on the first page I've always been interested in it..

(27-10-2019, 12:33 PM)RobGea Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Aha found some prallels,maybe.
2-right justified texts in red here You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..

And on the next folio, 2 centred texts and 2 grove titles  also in red ink. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Thats UPenn Schoenberg LJS 62.
the notes say "headings, captions, small initials, and large initials (sometimes with flourishes and extensions)"

Don't know quite what headings and captions refers to in a Medieval mss or why there are 3 types.

If someone could explain more that would be great.

Headings are the titles/superscrptions of the chapters in the text, written in the beginning of the text and captions the subheadings/subscriptions of the illustrations, written under the lower margin of the illustrations

Being unable to read the Greek text, it is difficult to make sense of the layout of LJS 62. According to Helmut's definition, these red lines likely refer to the paragraphs below, as real "titles" (which typically come before the content).

In VMS You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. it seems that the shorter lines belong to the preceding paragraph: the first two are closer to the paragraph above than to that below, and the last one obviously is not followed by a paragraph. 
The one in the middle could also be a "caption" for the red plant, since the other rare trait of this page is that it includes two different plants.

So, while the Greek parallel is interesting, the VMS appears to be different. But as always looking for parallels is a good idea and could suggest possible interpretations...

(27-10-2019, 03:53 PM)MarcoP Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Being unable to read the Greek text, it is difficult to make sense of the layout of LJS 62. According to Helmut's definition, these red lines likely refer to the paragraphs below, as real "titles" (which typically come before the content).

In VMS You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. it seems that the shorter lines belong to the preceding paragraph: the first two are closer to the paragraph above than to that below, and the last one obviously is not followed by a paragraph. 
The one in the middle could also be a "caption" for the red plant, since the other rare trait of this page is that it includes two different plants.

So, while the Greek parallel is interesting, the VMS appears to be different. But as always looking for parallels is a good idea and could suggest possible interpretations...

I think you are misunderstanding, caption refers to the illustrations, headings to the text

(27-10-2019, 03:57 PM)Helmut Winkler Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I think you are misunderstanding, caption refers to the illustrations, headings to the text

I expressed myself poorly: I apologize.

I mean that the red text lines in the Greek manuscript LJS 62 pointed out by RobGea appear to be headings: they refer to the following text. I think the word "heading" (from "head") implies the property of appearing at the top of a text.

In VMS You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., the shorter lines appear to be integral to the preceding text, so I don't think they can be properly named "headings". My obviously superficial and totally speculative impression is that the line I highlighted in red might be a caption referred to the illustration of the red plant immediately to its right.

In both images, I highlighted in green some of those that I guess are text units: heading+paragraph in the Greek ms. Paragraph+I_dont_know in the VMS in two cases. The middle one could be a third Paragraph+I_dont_know or maybe a caption (like the "labels" in the pharma section).