Opinions on: line as a functional unit

[Jorge_Stolfi]

I found this in a medical context and it's not poetry...

I still wonder whether those detached initials may have served some purpose.  Perhaps they could be a simple replacement to line numbers?  So that one could cite or note down "Book SoAndSo, page Nnn, Q" to mean a line that started with "Q"?  Of course there could be more than one such line on that page, but it would still help a lot.

Why don't just number the lines, you may ask.  Well, that would mean more work for the scribe, take up more space, and distract while reading.  Plus there was the risk of skipping or duplicating a number, which would look bad on the scribe and would be a pain to correct.

Another possibility is that the detached (or highlighted) initial letters helped the reader to find the correct line after a line break.  He would subconsciously remember the initial of the line he was reading, and resume reading at the line just below that.

In poetry, acrostic messages are another explanation.  But maybe those are an evolution of the "functional" detached initials?  That is, detached or highlighted initials were in used for functional purposes, and then some poet had the idea of composing the verses so that those letters spelled "Romeo loves Juliet" or whatever?

By the way, are those detached initials and other medieval scribal customs the reason why we today often capitalize the first letter of each verse in poetry and lyrics, rather than the first letter or each sentence, and omit punctuation?

Could something like this make sense?

All the best, --stolfi