06-06-2025, 09:22 AM
I think the time has come to say something of my thoughts of the single leg gallows characters. These being f p .
Within the manuscript gallows characters are seen to be written tall in some places and short in others. Here is part of f106v.
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Page first lines and paragraph first lines where the line above has ended early seem to be the places where gallow characters are written tall. Or where a line slopes and creates a gap above. These are places where there is room to extend upwards. You can see this clearly in f111v. Where space is limited t k can easily be written short, and often so. But not f p . They cannot easily be written short because they need more room for the backwards line. So this explains why they don’t appear often within a paragraph of packed text. The authors avoid using them there. In a number of occasions where they do come mid-paragraph they appear deformed or collide with neighouring words.
[attachment=10774]
[attachment=10776]
Here also ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ) tchedarchy fchosaiin polaiin polkeeey was written tall, but the line sloped too much and the author then added an extra line sairy ore daiindy ytam to fill the gap.
[attachment=10777]
The authors do like to write f p with a downward swing at the end of the backward line. So whenever they come after another character they need extra height to avoid a clash.
[attachment=10775]
This might possibly be the explanation why f p often appear as the first character in a word, where they can be written freely without being obstructed by any leading character. When they come as the first character of a paragraph first word they are often elaborately fashioned. It might just be a fad of the authors, to want to start a paragraph with the wiggliest possible character.
So f p are being used where it is convenient, and not according to any rule or method, neither linguistic, grammatic, cypheric nor cryptographic. They cannot be separate letters in some language alphabet. The close similarity in the appearance of f p k t suggests that f and p might be nothing more than stylised variants of the more commoner double leg gallows. No particular purpose for them. Just a preference of the authors for writing them that way.
Within the manuscript gallows characters are seen to be written tall in some places and short in others. Here is part of f106v.
[attachment=10773]
Page first lines and paragraph first lines where the line above has ended early seem to be the places where gallow characters are written tall. Or where a line slopes and creates a gap above. These are places where there is room to extend upwards. You can see this clearly in f111v. Where space is limited t k can easily be written short, and often so. But not f p . They cannot easily be written short because they need more room for the backwards line. So this explains why they don’t appear often within a paragraph of packed text. The authors avoid using them there. In a number of occasions where they do come mid-paragraph they appear deformed or collide with neighouring words.
[attachment=10774]
[attachment=10776]
Here also ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ) tchedarchy fchosaiin polaiin polkeeey was written tall, but the line sloped too much and the author then added an extra line sairy ore daiindy ytam to fill the gap.
[attachment=10777]
The authors do like to write f p with a downward swing at the end of the backward line. So whenever they come after another character they need extra height to avoid a clash.
[attachment=10775]
This might possibly be the explanation why f p often appear as the first character in a word, where they can be written freely without being obstructed by any leading character. When they come as the first character of a paragraph first word they are often elaborately fashioned. It might just be a fad of the authors, to want to start a paragraph with the wiggliest possible character.
So f p are being used where it is convenient, and not according to any rule or method, neither linguistic, grammatic, cypheric nor cryptographic. They cannot be separate letters in some language alphabet. The close similarity in the appearance of f p k t suggests that f and p might be nothing more than stylised variants of the more commoner double leg gallows. No particular purpose for them. Just a preference of the authors for writing them that way.