29-06-2017, 09:46 PM
I am very ambivalent about whether the text on 116v is one of the scribes or perhaps a "commentator" or mentor, or perhaps an immediately following owner or user of the VMS (assuming it is a practical manual).
I keep going back and forth on it, but I'm leaning about 55% in favor of the marginalia writer being a different person from whoever scribed the main text. Most of the letter forms are different, even if only slightly so.
So... the crosses on 116v may have little to do with other cross shapes in the manuscripts.
If the marginalia on 116v is a healing charm, the crosses are probably crosses (genuflect signs). If the marginalia is not a healing charm, then they might be plus signs. Plus signs that were not crosses were not common in medieval texts but I think I have seen them.
I keep going back and forth on it, but I'm leaning about 55% in favor of the marginalia writer being a different person from whoever scribed the main text. Most of the letter forms are different, even if only slightly so.
So... the crosses on 116v may have little to do with other cross shapes in the manuscripts.
If the marginalia on 116v is a healing charm, the crosses are probably crosses (genuflect signs). If the marginalia is not a healing charm, then they might be plus signs. Plus signs that were not crosses were not common in medieval texts but I think I have seen them.