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+--- Thread: Do Split Gallows have rules? (/thread-6043.html)
Do Split Gallows have rules? - Grove - 26-08-2026
Paragraph initial words primarily, but not always, begin with a plain gallows (K, F, T, P) and almost never a benched gallows - but…
When a paragraph does start with a benched gallows it is most often going to be a split gallows.
Bear with my slight variation of transliteration for the peculiarities of a split gallows.
Not split:
F1r cpho
F65v cphy
F76v cphdar
F101r cphoar
Split:
F8r ctho-cthey
F8v cthod-soocth
F30v: cthscthain
F35r cthoo-r-choly-cthy
F42r stho-ofaiin-cthaihcthy
F80r: cthcthey
F86v6: ctholcthy
F90v2 cphdaithy
F100v: cthdeecthy
F102r2: cthol-dcthody
Not quite a bench:
F101r: etolctheol
F111v: psalar (not split either)
Non-bench split gallows:
F56r: Otchal-chchsty
F68r1: poeeodcthy (label)
F68r2: opol-chcthy (label)
F95v1: polteedy-ctho
F99v: oteol-socthey
The other ‘decorative’ paragraph initials where a P extends over one or more words before returning to cross the leg might also wrap those words into one highlighted segment. Of course, we may never know if they mean something at all, but I still like to think there’s more to these markers than just decoration.
RE: Do Split Gallows have rules? - Dunsel - 27-08-2026
When asking if they're more than decoration, I have to ask myself this: Is there currently any substantive proof that anything in the Voynich isn't just decoration? What I'd like to believe is unfortunately not what I'm being led to believe.
RE: Do Split Gallows have rules? - Jorge_Stolfi - 27-08-2026
(27-08-2026, 12:16 AM)Dunsel Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.When asking if they're more than decoration, I have to ask myself this: Is there currently any substantive proof that anything in the Voynich isn't just decoration?
Even if you don't believe the SPS=SBJ claim, the word structure and other text statistics are too complicated and consistent throughout the manuscript to be just decoration.
As for the figures, I believe that many of the details (including all the nymphs, the stars in Zodiac and Recipes, and the jars in Pharma) are just decoration. But other details, like the "organs" in Bio and the plant sketches in Pharma do not look like decoration.
The problem is telling the two apart. For instance, the four human figures in the "stages of life" figure f85r2 were apparently copied from a German almanac, but the Artist misunderstood them. So how could that figure have come about?
Maybe the Author intend to the diagram to depict the four seasons or stages of life with those specific metaphors from that German almanac, and thus gave the almanac to the Artist to copy it from.
Maybe the Author intended the diagram to represent the four seasons or stages of life, but had no specific metaphors for them. He looked through his books, found that almanac with illustrations for the four seasons or stages of life, and thus told the Artist to use those images. Maybe he specified with image should go in each slot, or maybe he did not understand or care about the metaphors and so let the Artist choose the slots. (Then those figures would be "semi-decorative".)
Or maybe the Author intended the diagram to represent the four elements/humors/cardinal directions/whatever, and just told the artist to draw four human figures in the quadrants, purely for decoration. And the Artist looked through the Author's books, found a diagram with four human figures, and copied them.
All the best, --stolfi
RE: Do Split Gallows have rules? - Grove - 27-08-2026
(27-08-2026, 12:16 AM)Dunsel Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.…What I'd like to believe is unfortunately not what I'm being led to believe.
What are you being led to believe and by who? Proving a hoax is in my opinion slightly more difficult than proving a solution and I haven’t seen strong evidence of either. However, there is an underlying structure to the text at the word and paragraph levels, the diagrams seem to provide context that the text could relate to, but at least has a recognizable feel.
Humans unfortunately can see patterns that don’t exactly exist, but sometimes those patterns turn out to lead toward meaning.
RE: Do Split Gallows have rules? - Koen G - 27-08-2026
Given common practice in medieval texts, I would think that these special gallows are elaborate versions of the normal thing. If I were researching this topic, my focus would be trying to figure out which more regular occurrence is being made more fancy here.
RE: Do Split Gallows have rules? - LisaFaginDavis - 27-08-2026
I have some thoughts about complex gallows characters here:
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RE: Do Split Gallows have rules? - Grove - 27-08-2026
(27-08-2026, 01:44 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Given common practice in medieval texts, I would think that these special gallows are elaborate versions of the normal thing. If I were researching this topic, my focus would be trying to figure out which more regular occurrence is being made more fancy here.
(27-08-2026, 04:58 PM)LisaFaginDavis Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I have some thoughts about complex gallows characters here:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Thank you, I just found an earlier thread where you shared this. The thread was entitled “Scribes and elaborate gallows”.
RE: Do Split Gallows have rules? - pfeaster - 28-08-2026
(26-08-2026, 10:40 PM)Grove Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Paragraph initial words primarily, but not always, begin with a plain gallows (K, F, T, P) and almost never a benched gallows - but…
When a paragraph does start with a benched gallows it is most often going to be a split gallows.
There certainly appears to be a pattern, whether or not it rises to the level of a set of "rules" or not.
I wonder whether this pattern might be due to the same factor (whatever it is) that discourages benched gallows from line-initial position generally. That is, could whatever discourages benched gallows from appearing at the start of "ordinary" lines also have a tendency to produce split benched gallows at the start of paragraph-initial lines? Could these two patterns together reveal something about the logic behind how gallows and benches interact?