4o

[Davidsch]

Don't bother: I've found it now.  It's actually an common abbrev.  Thanks for the help.

[-JKP-]

Don't bother: I've found it now.  It's actually an common abbrev.  Thanks for the help.

I'm about 200 posts behind so I didn't see this request until after you had found it for yourself (yes, it's often used to indicate quarto in Latin texts, even before the pointy-4 came into regular use).

But I have another example, something that's not uncommon in 14th- and 15th-century texts. In this example...

                  

it's easy to read it as a four, especially if it is followed by a letter that attaches to the top of the right-hand stroke (and makes it look more like an "o") but it's the letter "p". Sometimes the loop on the p is rounder and almost completely detached from the descender and looks very much like the VMS 4o.

I sometimes wonder if this shape served as inspiration for the French code and perhaps also for the VMS glyph-shape 4o. Note that in the French code, the 4o shape stands for "p".

[Wladimir D]

Tell me 40 in this example is this number?
 “Santo 40 primus?”
In the abbreviation “primus,” the macron is usually written over “p”.
   
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[Helmut Winkler]

It rather looks like the quaestio-abbr., it is a longstanding misunderstanding that the B. 408 qo is quarto, quarto would rather lok like xo, the abbr. for primus would be p with an overwritten s.

[MarcoP]

I think it could be "santo 40 ti", with "ti" maybe being a correction: the name, in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. by Giacomo Gastaldi, is Santi Quaranta (40 saints). The site of Troy is a little to the right: qua fu troia grande (here was the great Troy).

PS: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (these are the 40 guys)