f49v and the 2 in the text

[-JKP-]

I was looking at something else and noticed that on the page You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. there is a clear 2 (two).

That shape occurs in quite a few places... in the starred-text folios at the end, as well. Also sometimes at the beginnings of lines.

I think it might be a mistake to call it a "2". For the one lower on the folio, the bottom tail curves down too much for the way they wrote two and it is out of proportion (a bit too large relative to the other characters) and the upper curve is larger than was usual for the time.

Most of the time, when I encounter it in the VMS, it is more similar to r than it is to "2" in the sense that it is a stem with a tail, and the slight curve to the stem might be a variation on r or it might be the same glyph but written a little more curvy. The one You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. line 11 is unusual—compared to the other places it shows up in the VMS, it does look like a 2, it leans at a different angle, but I have seen abbreviation symbols in early- and mid-medieval manuscripts that look just like "2" and sometimes they lean back and sometimes they lean less (so they look more like r), but they mean the same thing.


So, it's possible it's based on the shape for an abbreviation symbol, rather than the shape for a number. Or it's possible the one higher on the folio is something different from the one we see down lower. We probably shouldn't try to classify it too soon.