I've spent almost every day since 2008 looking at manuscripts, reading manuscripts, to try to figure out which kinds of variations are natural and which kinds of variations might be deliberate. I have a huge database of examples.
I don't know if the filled dots, in some instances, represent blobs (filled-in ink), different characters, or possibly a deliberately blotted (removed) character, but when the difference is also reflected in the order of the glyphs, when it occurs in a token with an anomalous glyph-pattern, then there is a possibility that some of them might be.
As for different scribes... folio 26 and 31 are definitely a different scribe. I have enough experience with scripts to see that and I have no doubt about it. It's not the same scribe on a different day, it's a different scribe. I do not know how many other scribes contributed to the VMS because I haven't had a chance to study the handwriting of the other sections in depth, but if I ever get a chance, it might turn out that my impression agrees with that of Lisa Fagin Davis. I simply can't say yet but will probably have a chance within the next three months or so to look at it in more detail.
I don't know if the filled dots, in some instances, represent blobs (filled-in ink), different characters, or possibly a deliberately blotted (removed) character, but when the difference is also reflected in the order of the glyphs, when it occurs in a token with an anomalous glyph-pattern, then there is a possibility that some of them might be.
As for different scribes... folio 26 and 31 are definitely a different scribe. I have enough experience with scripts to see that and I have no doubt about it. It's not the same scribe on a different day, it's a different scribe. I do not know how many other scribes contributed to the VMS because I haven't had a chance to study the handwriting of the other sections in depth, but if I ever get a chance, it might turn out that my impression agrees with that of Lisa Fagin Davis. I simply can't say yet but will probably have a chance within the next three months or so to look at it in more detail.