Numbering Quire and pages

[ChenZheChina]

But isn't Zhe right that the "ij" part in Xij could be what is meant in f57v, in other words, this is just the Roman numeral for 2? The whole reason why the letter j came to exist was for creating contrast in "ii" clusters.

That would leave the macron to be explained, which might be instead of the two dots or indicating an ordinal number?

Yes, what I thought was the ȳ on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. might be similar to ii of Xii.

And I thought that the macron was just a decorated, exaggerated, or connected version of dots.

That’s why I thought that it might be 2.

I don't think this is a macron. I know it looks like it, but some scribes wrote "g" like that and the letter "y" was almost non-existent at the time. It would be less common to see a y with a macron (or ij or ÿ with a macron).

I posted examples on another thread. I'll try to find them.

Okay, some examples. I didn't search hard for these, I know I have better ones (ones that are closer), but these were the ones I was able to grab quickly. The scribe writes a y-shape and then adds the line and the line is often disconnected from the lower part of the letter:

Especially notice how the tail swings far to the left. When it was ij or ÿ this was not usual, it was usually more vertical. The g tail often swung far left.

But yes, it also look like these “g”s you posted. So it may not be Roman numeral II, but lowercase g.