Morten St George Theory

[-JKP-]

Did you ever ask yourself why the author decided to put marginalia on the top of page 17 and not on some other page? Are you able to link anything whatsoever in that marginalia with the plant drawing below?

The answer has to be the great big number "17" just to the right of the marginalia. Seventeen is the number of symbols in the transliteration alphabet repeated four times on f57v. Thus, in a debate on whether the characters under the bar are Latin letters or VMS symbols, I'd choose the VMS symbols without question.

That's the page number. It has been added in a later hand (probably after 1470 and before 1640 based on the number style and type of pen).

The person who created the VMS probably did not assign page numbers or know what they were going to be. That was usually done by later owners who took the leaves to a bindery to have them bound. There's evidence that the manuscript may not have been bound in the order originally intended (especially in the nymphy sections) and my own research shows that the plants may have been re-arranged, as well.

The person who wrote the marginalia used 15th-century script. So the marginalia may have added long before the manuscript was numbered and bound. In the Middle Ages, manuscripts were usually purchased (or given to their patrons) unbound and usually un-numbered, as well, since the creator didn't know how many extra leaves would be added to the beginning and end and in between sections. The binder's assistant or apprentice was probably the one adding the numbers. There is evidence of division of labor in added page numbers.

If you look at the Vatican manuscripts and the St. Gall manuscripts, you will see that many of them were foliated in the same hand, with the same writing implement, in a style that is much later than the original manuscripts (which were all from different time periods). This is not unusual, many manuscripts went unbound for a long time, or were refoliated and rebound. The VMS also shows signs of having been rebound.