(09-06-2018, 10:16 PM)Koen Gh. wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....
Would the following conclusions be correct?
EVA-l is rare as a non-numeral.
Yes, it is rare as a non-numeral, quite common as a numeral from about 1380 to about 1490. It was a scribal convention (usually superscripted) in some earlier medieval manuscripts, but even then it wasn't super common and the abbreviation fell out of use before the 1400s.
EVA g, m, s, y, n are not particularly rare and generally used for abbreviating.
Yes, EVA-y and EVA-m are especially common and yes, these are used for abbreviating. In fact, you'll often find EVA-y included in pen tests of the alphabet (at the end).
Benches are not particularly rare and are generally ligatures.
Yes, benches are quite common (depending on the scribe) and have many meanings (with the parts standing for c, e, r, i, and t most often) and are usually ligatures.
It's harder to find regular use of (2) ánd (3) in the same manuscript? (this is just from my very limited experience).
In a sense this is true since each scribe tended to latch on to a few favorite abbreviations and ligatures and use those. Some scribes had a broad repertoire and used many, but most just picked a few that they liked and used those, so you won't necessarily find the same ones in different manuscripts (except for the most common ones).
Gallows still lack a decent parallel that coincides with (2) and (3).
What I mean with (4) is that in a "flowy" hand like the one below (early 15thC Spanish) you'll get the abbreviations and flourishes but not really the benches as they appear in the VM.
EVA-k is very common (as a ligature in French, and as Item in several languages, and also as tis when it is short). The other VMS gallows look more like they are constructed of parts to suit the writer's needs. When chars that look like gallows are benched in Latin, it's usually a long macron to indicate several letters missing. When chars are benched in Greek, it's usually Pi being stretched over another character for reasons of space or aesthetics. The particular combination of parts used in the VMS are not especially common but they are not entirely strange either if it turns out that they are composed of parts to be understood individually rather than as a whole character.

