f20v - Did the scribe make a mistake?

[bunny]

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.

There are of course many parts that could be referencing medieval shorthand like the 9, but the small superscript 2 = ur/tur seems unlikely otherwise it would occur more frequently than 1-3 times in a whole manuscript?  I have no problem the manuscript being read in Latin but shorthand needs to occur frequently if to be bothered with at all, and if they are "known" contractions then computer analysis of all possible other letter substitution should have given something up by now, assuming of course it is medieval at all and Latin.  The weirdos on f1 for example though are found across many cultures and languages as marginalia, not just Latin.  If it is pure Latin and has common scribal contractions then I expect it to be translated as such and in full already, so why not? 



Bunny