Quote:Hmmm, could you summarise what exactly is the reason why it should read anchiton and not michiton?
I really did not see it. A very tentative explanation of what 'anchiton' could mean does not settle it in my opinion, especially
since most of the other words cannot be read with certainty.
Well, honestly that was a bit of a joke relating to that old doubt between "anchiton" and "michiton", but as the Russian proverb goes, "each joke has a bit of truth in it". The great advantage of "anchiton" is its meaningful sense, as discovered now, and this is opposed to "michiton", which would make sense probably if space is introduced to make it "michi ton", and that would also need to fit into the grammatical context.
Also (from my non-professional view), if the first letter is treated as "m", we should admit that it would be different from "m" in "marix" or "mich", which ceteris paribus makes it less probable than "a".
Now, it is important that "anchiton" is mentioned in the N. De Lyra's comments (if I am not mistaken, those were his comments?!) which, as I guess, were very widespread and known to learned people. Note that not even it is mentioned, but it is specifically rubricated in the margin, as if to put forward the association between the biblical wood "setim", on one side, and something called "anchiton" on the other side. This suggests that the notion of "anchiton" was some general place, like when a commenter deals with the text speaking of "setim", he explains: "guys, this biblical setim is nothing other than the anchiton that we all know of".
So the great advantage of "anchiton" is that it can be taken at its face value, without any superfluous explanations such as introducing spaces or considering abbreviations.
Of course, this is far from conclusive, especially until "oladabas" is demystified. The fact that "oladabas" is not separated by a cross from "anchiton" suggests that it is closely related to the latter and that the two present an expression.
Now, I would not strive for seeking explanations involving the literal meaning of anchiton, since a spell not necessarily deals with literal meanings, and may be rendered in the "abracadabra style".
As for "portas", yes that is lucrative (as I noted above), but at the same time we should be careful, cause the Latin word form would be "porta" or "portae", while "portas" looks like something Portuguese.
Well, maybe after "oladabas" is explained we will be able to decipher all those scribbles between it and "portas".
Quote:You write that "valsen" must be "valden". Ok, if it is "valden", the rest three words are "dabad" (dabat?), "miltod" (miltot?) and "portad" (portat?) since they have the same character "8"; if it is "valsen", at least, the rest three words are "dabas", "miltos" and "portas".
No, that's not necessarily correct. The 8 shape may represent "s" as well as "d", depending on the position in a word.