Similarities with V glyphs and alchemical figures

[Diane]

David,
You make interesting points.

I'd love to see a chart showing the when and where some of the more unusual glyphs are known; e.g. We have 'gallows-like' glyphs in the papal secretary hand in 12thC Piacenza, and again in medieval Cairo in connection with an alchemical image (illustrated in Okasha El-Daly's study of medieval Egyptology).  We owe that 'find' to Nick Pelling, I believe.



"Ornate P' forms occur in scripts from the eastern side of the Black Sea, and from older Arabia and elsewhere - all seem to derive from an  Aramaic script.

You are right, I think, in saying that the really "high style' of European alchemy comes far too late to be relevant, and in the early 2000s, Adam McLean - an expert on the history of alchemy by any measure - looked carefully through the Vms and said plainly that it had no alchemical imagery of that sort in it.  I assume he would have noticed any alchemical symbols too.  Of course since then he may have modified his views.

Not that we don't find less elaborate forms of alchemical texts. I've had reason to mention the simpler sort of "alchemy' advocated by Roger Bacon, and written about in the thirteenth century by Paul of Taranto (pseudo-Geber) - extracts from Paul's  "Book of Life' are in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
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What I'd love to know is whether physicians or pharmacists - before 1405 - had any standard abbreviations that they used in writing prescriptions or instructions.

The thing that has always intrigued me about the Voynich script is that it contains no "X" form.
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