One of the things I have noticed in many of the rota in the VMS is the reluctance of the scribe to turn the page until absolutely necessary.
One can see quite frequently where the angle and shape of the letters degrade (note the zodiac-symbols section, particular) and then straighten up again, degrade and straighten up again, as the hand tries to turn to follow the circle and then eventually, when it's too much of a twist of the hand to be comfortable (or legible), the folio is turned again.
This might be laziness, or it might be because the folios were scribed at a podium (as was common for monks and commercial scriptoria), rather than on a table. On a table, it's not hard to rotate a page, on a podium it's a problem because you only have four edges on a sheet, if you rotate only part way, then the corner of the folio points down like a pivot point and doesn't want to stay still, it wants to slide, so there would be a reluctance to turn it until you can put it on the next "footing" edge.
I haven't methodically gone through every page with rota analyzing the slant of the letters (haven't had time) to see if they all have this characteristic, but I have looked at quite a few of them.
If an amateur did this (someone who didn't have access to a podium in a traditional scriptorium), it's possible they did it on a flat surface. If it were done in a scriptorium, it's more likely done on a podium because that's how they were trained to do it. and both secular scribes and monks were trained in procedure and very disciplined.
I thought it might provide a tiny clue as to the environment in which this was done but it's hard to tell because maybe the scribe didn't bother to turn the page until necessary in order to do it quickly (and well enough) rather than doing it perfectly.
....
Another possibly related point... those who are unfamiliar with working with a quill or stylus pen very often will accidentally smear the ink with the opposite hand (or sometimes the pen hand) because they forget to let the ink dry before letting a hand touch the surface. If you are turning a page to write in a circle near the edge of a folio, it would be especially easy to accidentally put a finger on a part that was just inked.
On vellum/parchment it takes even longer for the ink to dry (less porous than paper), and it takes time to learn not to touch it accidentally, children will almost always accidentally smear the ink.
One can see quite frequently where the angle and shape of the letters degrade (note the zodiac-symbols section, particular) and then straighten up again, degrade and straighten up again, as the hand tries to turn to follow the circle and then eventually, when it's too much of a twist of the hand to be comfortable (or legible), the folio is turned again.
This might be laziness, or it might be because the folios were scribed at a podium (as was common for monks and commercial scriptoria), rather than on a table. On a table, it's not hard to rotate a page, on a podium it's a problem because you only have four edges on a sheet, if you rotate only part way, then the corner of the folio points down like a pivot point and doesn't want to stay still, it wants to slide, so there would be a reluctance to turn it until you can put it on the next "footing" edge.
I haven't methodically gone through every page with rota analyzing the slant of the letters (haven't had time) to see if they all have this characteristic, but I have looked at quite a few of them.
If an amateur did this (someone who didn't have access to a podium in a traditional scriptorium), it's possible they did it on a flat surface. If it were done in a scriptorium, it's more likely done on a podium because that's how they were trained to do it. and both secular scribes and monks were trained in procedure and very disciplined.
I thought it might provide a tiny clue as to the environment in which this was done but it's hard to tell because maybe the scribe didn't bother to turn the page until necessary in order to do it quickly (and well enough) rather than doing it perfectly.
....
Another possibly related point... those who are unfamiliar with working with a quill or stylus pen very often will accidentally smear the ink with the opposite hand (or sometimes the pen hand) because they forget to let the ink dry before letting a hand touch the surface. If you are turning a page to write in a circle near the edge of a folio, it would be especially easy to accidentally put a finger on a part that was just inked.
On vellum/parchment it takes even longer for the ink to dry (less porous than paper), and it takes time to learn not to touch it accidentally, children will almost always accidentally smear the ink.