Physical damage suggests alt. early orderings

[Koen G]

Very easy to understand, thank you   And very interesting.

If the groups of sheets indeed were damaged by only two incidents (thus creating a set with bottom creasing and one with side creasing), what are we picturing? The only thing I can think of is that a number of leaves, stacked, underwent the same fold as if they were one sheet, so to speak? 

I can also imaging that the MS at some point underwent a sideways force that drew a crease in a number of pages, which would lead to only vaguely matching folds, not necessarily in immediately adjacent folios.

If it can be shown to have been one fold that affected a stack of pages at once, then it is established that those were at one point adjacent. If it was more of a general force that made some pages rub against others and create folds, then their location may have been more dispersed.