(12-02-2021, 07:51 PM)Koen G wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The fact that a line of "normal" Latin text cannot be interpreted with certainty is certainly not unique to the VM, so this may have nothing to do with cryptology. Maybe the handwriting is extra confusing, or whatever they copied became corrupted beyond easy recognition. This has little to do with the relevance of linguists.
Having studied the handwriting for years (and collecting literally thousands of samples to document similar hands), I can say that the handwriting is not confusing.
As Lisa points out, there are a few things we can't be sure of, like the "x". It is probably an x, but we don't know for certain. Similarly in "po* lebe*" we cannot be certain of the last letter because it is faint and unclear. It could be "r" or "n" or something that they started to scrape away because it didn't belong.
Also, are the "v"-like letters on the last line "v" or are they "p" with the tail wiped out (there are removed marks under the last line)? This too is unclear.
BUT, the majority of the characters are readable and mostly typical for the time. When I can fit it in, I will post examples of similar hands.