[split] f28v

[-JKP-]

Look at the "U" in "DEUS" in the Visconti Hours:

         

I got shot down when I suggested that the squiggle in the VMS "seagull" glyph was similar to the Latin "smoke" macron (I sometimes call it a squiggle) which, in Latin often represented er/re/ir/ri.  (It wasn't everyone who disagreed, but some people expressed outright skepticism about it.)


The "smoke" macron (which was sometimes horizontal, sometimes vertical and usually a little less wiggly than this, although some scribes drew it somewhat wiggly) was recognized by context, and was usually associated with the letter "v" (which in Latin is "v" or "u"), but not exclusively so. It could be anywhere in words, but it was frequently associated with the letter "v" as in v'sus (versus) and v'ginis (virginis).

So here we have an example of the letter u/v written like a seagull when it is flourished text at the beginning of a paragraph. If the word had been an abbreviated version of VIRGINIS rather than DEUS in the Visconti Hours, there would have been a squiggle macron inside the V shape.


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I don't suppose the "U" shape (that looks more like Omega upside-down than a U) in the VMS rayed plant could be in a different word/acronym than IHS? (like DEUS or something along those lines?).

Edit (addition): Here's another example of seagull "u" with the word written vertically:

   

Note how the gold decoration within the margins of the letter is pseudo-text mimicking some of the shapes of the text on the right.