(29-06-2020, 07:30 PM)bunny wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
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Likewise the qo*?8 on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. does not appear to be an error but another rare insertion, the "correction"could refer to a deity named in the following word.
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The small superscripted 9 shape is the most common medieval abbreviation in languages that use Latin characters. It was so common that pen tests often included it in the alphabet after the letter z. So common that even unabbreviated text sometimes used this one abbreviation. So common that the modern apostrophe is shaped somewhat the same way.
It didn't make any difference whether it was written large and in line with the other characters, or if it was written small and superscripted, both forms meant the same thing (con/com/us/um symbol).
Most of the time, the 9 character (in the VMS) is in line with the other letters, as in oly, but it shows up superscripted about 3 or so times (I can't remember exactly how many).
Some scribes chose to write it one way or the other (superscripted or inline). Some scribes alternated between the two positions without any particular pattern.
If you look closely at the curved shape above sh, you will notice that some of them are also written quite clearly as the common 9 symbol (the small version). Others are written like a semicircle (which was a different abbreviation symbol, a curved macron, which meant the same thing as a straight macron). I don't know if the "caps" above sh are intended to be different or if they are simply pen variations (I tend to think they are pen variations), but the scribes may have sometimes unconsciously written them as a 9 char because it is so common in medieval texts. The hand gets used to writing certain shapes in certain ways.