Morten St George Theory

[-JKP-]

Part of the problem seems to be an enormous disparity in time: I am claiming that the marginalia was written around the year 1600 and you seem to be thinking in terms of the year 1400. As I can see in the Fama Fraternitatis, written shortly after 1600, German did in fact capitalize its nouns at that time.

You don't appear to have any knowledge of paleography.

This style of handwriting had long since been replaced by humanist-style hands (or hybrids of humanist and Gothic handwriting) by 1600. The marginalia is written in a style common to the 15th century and very uncommon in the year 1600. By the 1500s scholars were rejecting Gothic as ugly and difficult to read (both of which are true) and were modifying their writing. Children were taught a different style.

The new writing that gradually replaced Gothic cursive was inspired in part by Italian handwriting, which was cleaner and more readable than northern Gothic styles.

In fact, the marginalia shows small signs of the 14th century as well. It's possible whoever wrote it was born and learned to write at the end of the 14th century. Either that, or the writer may have lived in a less urban area where the changes occurred more slowly but... this style of writing was almost completely obsolete by 1600.


The quire numbers are also in the old style of writing that had almost disappeared by the early 16th century and mostly disappeared by the mid-16th century.