I'm sorry, Helmut, I don't know where you are seeing the "i".
There are definitely two ells there, with loops of slightly different shapes, but on 116v (which I'm almost certain is the same writer), the loops on the ell are also several different shapes, so the writer seems to draw the loop differently each time, just as the figure-8 character is drawn differently every time.
One thing the writer DOES do consistently is to start the "i" shape with a long serif. All of them have it, including the one in "...llier".
Are you saying the "e" and "i" are joined? I have never seen that. I have seen many many ligatures, they definitely join a LOT of letters, but I have never seen "e" and "i" squished together.
I really do think it's a double-story "a". It's the right shape and the right height (they are always taller than the other lower-case letters) and the right distance from the letters before and after even if the stroke order is funny. If it were "e" and "i", why would they be taller than the other "e" and "i"s?
There are definitely two ells there, with loops of slightly different shapes, but on 116v (which I'm almost certain is the same writer), the loops on the ell are also several different shapes, so the writer seems to draw the loop differently each time, just as the figure-8 character is drawn differently every time.
One thing the writer DOES do consistently is to start the "i" shape with a long serif. All of them have it, including the one in "...llier".
Are you saying the "e" and "i" are joined? I have never seen that. I have seen many many ligatures, they definitely join a LOT of letters, but I have never seen "e" and "i" squished together.
I really do think it's a double-story "a". It's the right shape and the right height (they are always taller than the other lower-case letters) and the right distance from the letters before and after even if the stroke order is funny. If it were "e" and "i", why would they be taller than the other "e" and "i"s?