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+--- Thread: Alignment of orphaned vords (/thread-3816.html)
Alignment of orphaned vords - Anton - 06-06-2022
I don't remember if we discussed this previously, but this is the matter that I've been thinking of recently.
By "orphaned vords" I mean vords that do not follow the preceding vords immediately, but are preceded by a large gap instead. The quickest example are endings of paragraphs in f1r, sometimes suggested to be "chapter headings".
Again, there must have been some established term for those pieces of script, but, failing to recall it, I quickly invented the handy designation of "orphaned vords".
So, the foremost question is of course why they are orphaned at all. However, I do not touch this question here. Suppose they are for a reason. But the second question is why they are aligned as they are - and they are aligned in a seemingly inconsistent fashion.
Consider f8r. In paragraphs 2 and 3, okokchodg and dchol saim, respectively, are perfectly right-aligned. This looks somewhat "natural", so we could expect other orphaned vords to be aligned in the same fashion. But then in paragraph 1 dcho daiin is not right-aligned, although nothing prevents it to be.
I considered the possibility that the width of the gap must be constant. But neither in plain distance nor in the number of characters that one can fit into, the gap widths in the three paragraphs do not match.
What might be the rule here?
![[Image: image.jpg?ref=f8r&q=f8r-178-732.2000122070312-918-301]](https://voynich.ninja/extractor/image.jpg?ref=f8r&q=f8r-178-732.2000122070312-918-301)
RE: Alignment of orphaned vords - Scarecrow - 07-06-2022
Just some considerations.
Maybe to give space for the drawing, like in f7r, but then the plans changed and space was not used. In the picture there, maybe some leaf or something was supposed to be near "dcho". Or other kind of placeholder.
Or just a simple plain mistake, thought to write something else and then changed mind.
Or could be a hint of the writing process, there was something after "dain" but needed to write the last part first, "dcho daiin" and then write the part after "dain" but somehow didn't work out.
Or...
RE: Alignment of orphaned vords - Scarecrow - 07-06-2022
There are some examples of leaving the text unjustified in the middle, so maybe it could be one scribes matter of style, some important last words or anything.
Are they from the same scribe/hand?
/edit - as there are many examples in all sections, possibly a matter of style or some kind of emphasis, potentially not scribe/hand related.
RE: Alignment of orphaned vords - Anton - 07-06-2022
Very well noted that this appears to be scribe-independent, I did not think this way!
RE: Alignment of orphaned vords - davidjackson - 07-06-2022
When you look at them like that, the first thing that jumps to mind would be some sort of signature or attribution.
RE: Alignment of orphaned vords - tavie - 07-06-2022
Yes, to our eyes they look like a signature or maybe a date/place reference that you add when you have finished something. But I vaguely recall Lisa being asked about this and she said it was anachronistic. I can't find this so I might be misremembering, or it might have been in a lecture q&a.
I'd love to hear from Lisa or another palaeography about the extent to which it is unusual to see such central or right margin alignment in a text of such period and if it was done elsewhere what the reasons were, if known.
RE: Alignment of orphaned vords - MichelleL11 - 07-06-2022
(07-06-2022, 04:51 PM)tavie Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I'd love to hear from Lisa or another palaeography about the extent to which it is unusual to see such central or right margin alignment in a text of such period and if it was done elsewhere what the reasons were, if known.
Hi, tavie:
I have found the work by Erik Kwakkel on these kinds of topics (see, for example, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) to be very illuminating.
Yes, that is a medieval studies joke that I am sure has been told many times -- but, whatever.
Michelle