[Interview] Can statistics help crack the mysterious Voynich manuscript?

[LisaFaginDavis]

Nick, xpi dni et al. are considered abbreviations. (I'm sure you know this, but for others reading this it's XPI for Christus, not XRI - the X is Greek [chi] and the P is Greek [rho] - and DNI not DMI for [domini]). The nomina sacra are abbreviations for the complete words Christus Dominus Jhesus Christus in all of their Latin forms. Even the Tironian [et] in common use in the fifteenth century would be considered an abbreviation, not a shorthand symbol, since the distinction had been lost for most scribes by that time.

At any rate, Cappelli is not going to be useful for VMS because, in spite of what others have argued, VMS glyphs are definitely not medieval abbreviations or any known system of shorthand.