julian,
perhaps you've already seen this but Nick Pelling has made an interesting page about this section, although he takes it in a different direction.
In particular, the following observations may be relevant to your query (edited by me for brevity, see his You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. for the full text):
"(1) that the tails on the paragraph stars are probably hiding ‘y’, short for ‘ytem’ or ‘ybidem’;
(2) that the tail-less paragraph stars on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. were added in after the event – that is, that You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. was originally written unstarred, but that untailed stars were later added in so that this page blended in better with the others (but I don’t know why, or what this means);
(3) that Q20 was originally formed of two distinct gatherings, with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. the first page of the first gathering (‘Q20a’) and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. the last page of the last gathering (‘Q20b’);
(4) that the last paragraph of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. probably contains some kind of attribution or conclusion;
(5) that even though we currently have between 345 and 347 starred paragraphs and four missing pages (i.e. two missing folios, or rather one missing bifolio), I think – because I’m far from convinced that all the paragraph stars are definitely genuine ‘item’ markers – we have to be very wary about trusting that the number of starred paragraphs we see is an accurate representation of the number of itemized paragraphs in the original."
Also, and this is a personal observation: what to make of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. & v? These folios have an identical structure, with star shaped "bullet points" marking each paragraph. I've wondered if they are connected, or could have originally been adjacent You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
perhaps you've already seen this but Nick Pelling has made an interesting page about this section, although he takes it in a different direction.
In particular, the following observations may be relevant to your query (edited by me for brevity, see his You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. for the full text):
"(1) that the tails on the paragraph stars are probably hiding ‘y’, short for ‘ytem’ or ‘ybidem’;
(2) that the tail-less paragraph stars on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. were added in after the event – that is, that You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. was originally written unstarred, but that untailed stars were later added in so that this page blended in better with the others (but I don’t know why, or what this means);
(3) that Q20 was originally formed of two distinct gatherings, with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. the first page of the first gathering (‘Q20a’) and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. the last page of the last gathering (‘Q20b’);
(4) that the last paragraph of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. probably contains some kind of attribution or conclusion;
(5) that even though we currently have between 345 and 347 starred paragraphs and four missing pages (i.e. two missing folios, or rather one missing bifolio), I think – because I’m far from convinced that all the paragraph stars are definitely genuine ‘item’ markers – we have to be very wary about trusting that the number of starred paragraphs we see is an accurate representation of the number of itemized paragraphs in the original."
Also, and this is a personal observation: what to make of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. & v? These folios have an identical structure, with star shaped "bullet points" marking each paragraph. I've wondered if they are connected, or could have originally been adjacent You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..