ARTIFACTS IN THE TEXT.

[-JKP-]

The thing about Latin scribal abbreviations/ligatures is that there weren't any rules (it's better to think of them as conventions), which means scribes could apply them as they liked and, as long as they fit the logic of how that symbol was used, other scribes could read them.


For example, the "-is" abbreviation (the symbol that looks like the loop on m and g) was generally used at the ends of words. Most scribes didn't put it in the middles of words, but... some did, and it was still perfectly readable.

The word cistus (a kind of wild rose) is usually written cisty (cist + [us]), but occasionally it was written gm (cis+tis) and this less common variation was perfectly readable.