Morten St George Theory

[Morten St. George]

I don't have time to look up who wrote y-with-a-macron like that (it's very late and I haven't had any sleep), but I glanced through my files to see who wrote "g" in this style and almost all of them were from between 1400 and 1433 and, interestingly, mostly from France (one is thought to be from France or Leipzig), one from near Stuttgart (c. 1433), and one from the Tirol (c. 1460).

So the time period is consistent with the style of quire numbers and the radio-carbon dating.

This is just glancing through, not an exhaustive search.

JP, We seem to agree that whatever it is, a 5 or a g, it has a macron (bar) which is really all I care about. For all those other instances where you found a g that looks like that, were any of them isolated letters g? If so, what was the meaning or purpose of this isolated g so that we can determine it fits in the context of f57v?  As usual, JP, you are technically correct but one should also consider motive and purpose. Here we are dealing with an author who is trying to provide us with decoding information yet deter the Inquisition. Things are not normal.

Note that the macron (bar) of the 5 can join with the macron on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (which has pointers to the alphabet wheel on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. as previously discussed) to allude to the double bar on the alphabet wheel and that the macron of the 5 can also join with the macron over the e of octebre on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. to allude to the double bar on the bottom right-hand corner of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (the 11th quire number). Thus, it might not be necessary to assume that the 5 is a number or anything else.