[split] (lack of) scribal mistakes / corrections

[Jorge_Stolfi]

If we're talking about someone transcribing/ retracing from a difficult to read text that reads "ai?", a guessing scribe will end up writing both.

That is indeed a possibility, that could explain the apparent high frequency of "rhyming" word pairs like otedy.otody  lkeedy.lkeody okar.otar. (However, I have not actually counted such pairs -- maybe their 'high frequencey" is just a mistaken impression.)

It could be the case that the % of mistakes between a -> o is quite consistent throughout the text and across words. If that is so, there should be an "a variant" and a "o variant" of various words across the manuscript. Comparing the ratio between various a/o variants may show a pattern. Perhaps common words containing "a" have an "o" variant with ~20% the frequency on average, who knows.

That is a good idea.  We should test it.  But keep in mind that the Author's handwriting may have been very uneven, being more sloppy on certain pages or sections than on others.

I cannot push aside the idea that the Author was old and poor and with failing eyesight when he decided to put his notes to vellum.  And that the Scribe may have been a bright 13-year-old nephew who agreed to do his uncle this favor for a pittance.  And thus the old man had to accept all the errors that the boy made.  And probably not even the Author himself could read his own handwriting of 30 years earlier...

All the best, --stolfi