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Scribes and elaborate gallows - Koen G - 19-02-2026
I've been wondering for a while whether there is any connection between LFD's scribes and the use of ornate & special gallows. I just spent some time skimming each page of the manuscript, paying special attention to top lines. This is far from exhaustive, but should be sufficient to start a discussion.
Some preliminary notes:
- I did not pay too much attention to circular diagrams and left Scribe 4 out of the equation. The ornate gallow is more of a thing for paragraphs. There are some clear exception in f57v, with some very loopy gallows. This is the only diagram not done by scribe 4. It is also part of weird Quire 8, and hence cursed.
- Long-P stretching over various glyphs is omnipresent and cannot be used as a discriminating factor.
- Some areas of the MS are more prone to get fancy gallows than others. (Relative scarcity in some pharma and Q20 pages). This may be due to layout, text type or scribal preference.
Observations
- Scribe 1 masters the "bridging gallow", connecting one word with another. I found only one modest instance by scribe 2 (f80r), though there may be more that I overlooked.
- Moving one tier down, we also notice that Scribe 1 likes to add extra loops. This is rare in other scribes. However, notice the top red arrow. Scribe 1 and scribe 3 have the exact same shape here. This cannot be a coincidence.
- One tier down again from the red arrow, scribe 2 comes in with the "twist" (f76v mark), moving the top of the gallows to the right of the legs. Scribe 1 also has twists, but Scribe 2 has his own recognizable varieties.
- One tier down again (f22r, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. mark), I noted that all scribes have a few lanky, awkwardly looped gallows.
- At the bottom, there are some uniquely embellished ones. Scribe 1 mikes dots. Scribe 2 has the "ribbon" and groups of 3 lines.
- The second red arrow shows another instance where scribe 3 does exactly the same thing as Scribe 1: scallops on top of the long horizontal, dots beneath. (These are only a few folios removed in the current binding! 102r-105r)
Conclusions
Abnormal/ornamental gallow usage has constants throughout the manuscript (long P, taller gallows on top lines), but some scribes leave their own marks. Scribe 1 likes the most variation, with bridging gallows and extra loops. Scribe 2 thinks about going there sometimes, but us much more careful and restrained. Despite having produced a lot of text, scribe 3 does not use many ornamental gallows. When he does, he acts very much like Scribe 1.
Finally, there is also this page, but I'm not even sure which scribe this is supposed to be. The Rosettes foldout is one of those where several scribes were active. I see TWO instances of rare gallows on this one odd page: a modest bridge, and a Scribe 1-style extra loop.
RE: Scribes and elaborate gallows - R. Sale - 19-02-2026
RE: Scribes and elaborate gallows - LisaFaginDavis - 20-02-2026
RE: Scribes and elaborate gallows - Skoove - 20-02-2026
RE: Scribes and elaborate gallows - Koen G - 20-02-2026
RE: Scribes and elaborate gallows - Rafal - 20-02-2026
RE: Scribes and elaborate gallows - Koen G - 20-02-2026
RE: Scribes and elaborate gallows - Jorge_Stolfi - 20-02-2026
RE: Scribes and elaborate gallows - Dana Scott - 20-02-2026
RE: Scribes and elaborate gallows - Rafal - 20-02-2026