I mean, really, why would it be encrypted?

[RenegadeHealer]

Just a general remark about Fontana: His writings, which are not in normal script, are not ciphres in the real sense,   they are inventrd symbols and seem not to   have been intended as a 'secret'. That is one of the reasons I think the B. 408 author knew Fontana

Taking this back to basic semiotics and communication theory, I'm struck that the difference between a cipher, a constructed language (conlang) and a system of shorthand is really only one of the communicator's intent, which has mostly to do with who the audience of his message is. I define communication as one agent trying to exert their will on at least one other agent. This is why when attempting to understand any sort of symbolic communication, I find two good questions to start with are: Who was (s)he trying to communicate with, and what effect was (s)he trying to have on them?

I'm not too familiar with Giovanni Fontana. Can you comment on any of the following?:

• What types of messages did Fontana use his novel writing systems to express?
  
• Who were the intended recipients of the messages Fontana wrote in the symbols he invented?
  
• How did Fontana's use of a novel symbolic communication system help him deliver his messages the way he intended to the people he intended them for?
  

We can (and IMHO should) ask these three questions about any person we suspect may have been a forerunner or influence on the creator of the VMS's patently synthetic set of symbols.