Quote:Morten: Do you think the first character (just to left of the "u") could be an alternative way of writing the glyph k ? The reason I ask is because when a quire 20 paragraph does not begin with a f or a p, it tends to begin with a k or a t. Unlike the f and p, however, the k and t appear on all four sets of 17 glyphs.
The best suggestions I've seen for the first letter of that word are l, k, and b.
Note the line above the "cz". That is a macron, an abbreviation symbol (like an apostrophe). It means letters are missing. The last letter, the one that looks like a "z" might also be an abbreviation symbol (rotated m) which usually means "m", "em", and occasionally "um".
Thus, if the first letter were "l" (as one possibility), then the various possible expansions could be lucem, lucum, lucrum, lucrem, lucorem, lucitem, etc., constructions of that nature. The macron (apostrophe symbol) can stand for more than one letter and sometimes numerous letters were left out. The rotated m symbol also often included a vowel before the m as part of the symbolic representation.