(02-05-2022, 10:51 AM)zamolxe Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (30-04-2022, 09:10 PM)davidjackson Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (30-04-2022, 07:09 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.This is one of the prime examples where one can suspect that the first characters of lines were put down first of all.
That, of course, implies that an exemplar was used, or at the very least, a rough draft.
I was researching this when I came across your site, Rene - as always, you're one step ahead 
Irrespective of this, I was wondering if this style of layout could be used to narrow down a possible geographical location, or scribal tradition, for the scribes.
The use of a rough draft is not necessarily involved. The first character of each line can be an indication related to the alphabet to be used in the line. Or the indication how to switch in between. Different alphabets can be just another letter order or anything else.
I think you'd still need a rough draft before starting. Maybe you could work it out in your head, but page after page?
And in what order was 66r written?
The very straight left margin, is or course, there to help you, line up your Cardan grille
Nablator pointed out a possible parallel of a ms with accurate left-side alignment and irregular lines You are not allowed to view links.
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You are not allowed to view links.
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The perceived "wobbling" of lines somewhat supports my favourite "multipass" concept, but at the same time it might be attributed to the curvature of parchment, at least in some places. Of course those who saw the MS in its origin can confirm or disprove this effect.
The text reads left to right and is divided into what we call paragraphs (items). The left justification often seems obsessive or excessively stylized, but it is justifications of the final lines of paragraphs that I find most interesting. Quite often, additional words appear with right justification as if they are the completion of the final sentence. But often these additional words are left-hand justified (as we would do) or else centred. Or, sometimes, there is a combination: a few words left justified, a word or two right justified.
As I say, our standard is to return to the left margin and finish the sentence there - it seems natural to left-to-right scripts. In the VMS there is no settled convention. Final words can be justified to either margin, or both, or centred.
I wonder if this is unusual or a common irregularity from before conventions were established?
Since there is much talk about the 'line as a functional unit' and the ends of lines seem to be an environment in which certain glyph transformations take place there might be some other significance to the placement of the final stray words of paragraphs. I'm not convinced these stray words are in fact the completion of the previous line: they may stand alone as separate units. In any case, left, right or centre justifications of the words at the end of many paragraphs seem worthy of discussion.
(I note that Anton started a thread on "orphaned vords" on this question. This is the more active thread so I posted here. In Anton's thread it is noted - importantly - that the inconsistent alignment of "orphaned vords" happens in all sections of the text and seems to be a deliberate, global feature of the work rather than being the idiosyncratic signature of a particular scribe.)
(03-07-2022, 01:03 AM)Hermes777 Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I wonder if this is unusual or a common irregularity from before conventions were established?
It there were any good parallels, common or uncommon, someone would have found them by now. There are, on occasion, end-of-line inserts above or below the line (to save space) and, very frequently, catchwords at the bottom of the page, both in mss. and printed books. Chapter endings in a V shape, with lines becoming progressively shorter until the last word, became fashionable in printed books but I don't remember seeing any in 14th or 15th century manuscripts. Catchwords and cute chapter endings are not really comparable to the right-justified and centered lines in the VMs anyway.