I've seen those shapes quite frequently in Mediterranean, Spanish, Latin, and Greek texts from the 16th century and earlier.
The squiggle above the V-shape is a very common Latin and Greek abbreviation (especially Latin) and was familiar to literate Europeans of the time. The seagull character is sometimes used as a pilcrow character in Spanish documents and serves another purpose in Mediterranean documents. The top-right symbol isn't as common, but I've come across that one as well (I can't remember where, I would have to look at my notes).
I'm pretty sure they don't mean the same thing in the VMS as they do in other contexts, but the shapes themselves were not unfamiliar to medieval scribes. I think the VMS author coopted familiar shapes for other purposes, sometimes with slight modifications.
The squiggle above the V-shape is a very common Latin and Greek abbreviation (especially Latin) and was familiar to literate Europeans of the time. The seagull character is sometimes used as a pilcrow character in Spanish documents and serves another purpose in Mediterranean documents. The top-right symbol isn't as common, but I've come across that one as well (I can't remember where, I would have to look at my notes).
I'm pretty sure they don't mean the same thing in the VMS as they do in other contexts, but the shapes themselves were not unfamiliar to medieval scribes. I think the VMS author coopted familiar shapes for other purposes, sometimes with slight modifications.