25-03-2026, 08:40 AM
I have come to believe that the VMS text contains a rather large number of errors. Maybe as many as 20% of the words have at least one "spelling error". Meaning that the word that we have in the transcription is not the word that was meant to be there.
A fraction of those errors were made by the transcribers, like swapping r for s or omitting the ligature on a ch. But I suspect that the Scribe himself often made such mistakes. Probably because he found it difficult to read the Author's handwriting on the draft.
Besides the above pairs that transcribers have trouble with, he may have confused other glyphs or glyph combinations that are close in "ink distance". I have pointed out before that, in sloppy handwriting the ending in can be confused with an r. But also a short k can be confused with a d:
One more confounding possibility to keep in mind...
All the best, --stolfi
A fraction of those errors were made by the transcribers, like swapping r for s or omitting the ligature on a ch. But I suspect that the Scribe himself often made such mistakes. Probably because he found it difficult to read the Author's handwriting on the draft.
Besides the above pairs that transcribers have trouble with, he may have confused other glyphs or glyph combinations that are close in "ink distance". I have pointed out before that, in sloppy handwriting the ending in can be confused with an r. But also a short k can be confused with a d:
One more confounding possibility to keep in mind...
All the best, --stolfi