[split] (lack of) scribal mistakes / corrections

[Torsten]

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.

That's a significant claim — 20% error rate would affect virtually every analysis of the text. Could you point to specific instances where you identify an error, or describe the criteria you use to distinguish a "spelling error" from a legitimate word form?