116v

[MarcoP]

But I noticed the word before "maria" in the VM could be Greek as well. Apparently this was addressed before in this thread, though it didn't gain much traction.

I remember one interpretation, but not sure by whom, where 'ahia' was considered to mean (h)agia i.e. Greek for holy or saint. What I don't remember is whether use of ahia in this sense was attested elsewhere. That is of course important.

Greek for "Holy Mary" is, according to the wiki list linked above Ἁγία Μαρία. This is so close to the VM's "ahia maria" that I'm starting to wonder why it is not yet generally accepted as the most likely reading.

Hi Koen,
I think that 'agios' (ἅγιος) could appear at the end of 17r in the Iceland ms:
emanuel, tetragrammaton, aries, otheos [o theos?], agios, istirios[???], ignos[???], athan[a]tos, amen


I guess there are two problems with 'ahia maria' in VMS 116v:

1. as Rene said, it is not clear that the spelling 'ahia' is documented
   
2. the word in 116v is closer to 'abia' (no descender and possibly closed lower loop)
   

BTW, I fixed an error in the previous image: sadly, there is no occurrence of 'portas'.