[split] EVA-y as Latin "-us" etc.

[cvetkakocj@rogers.com]

There was a lot of debate on the question of EVA-y (9-like glyph in the VM). While it is true that such letter was definitely used for Latin abbreviation cum/con at the beginning, and us/um at the end, it is also true that in the non-Latin writing, that same glyph often stood for the letter i/y. I suppose when the Latin ending ending -us was dropped in the Italian language, they began to read the names of the saints with the ending -i, not -us. I have noticed such two way spelling in many 15th century calendar Housebooks and even in the bibles that contained the names of the saints.

I am interested in the use of 9 as i/Y. Do you know with more precision when and where its use started?

I don't know exactly when the change was made. As it looks, it was gradual, after the Calendars with the name of the saints became widely used. I believe it has a lot to do with the humanistic movement which embraced the Bogomil/Patareni /Cathari ideas that the Christians should read the Bible in their own vernacular languages. The Patareni in the Northern Italy were suppressed by inquisition, the humanistic writers, like Dante and Petrarch used symbolic language to spread their ideas among the like-minded. The Slovenian people at the time were divided among Austria, Italy, and Hungary, and most were under the religious authority of the Patriarchate of Aquileia.  From the examples I am enclosing, it is clear that in Latin writing, the 9 is still used in the 15th century for con and us, but the Latin abbreviations -us and -con began to be pronouced as Y/i, ij.        

In these samples, you might also notice the 4-shaped q, a similarity of 9y and 9q, Voynich shape of R (but very small) used interchangeably with r, as well as Voynich 8-shaped d.