Quire 13. Text first. Pictures after.

[Koen G]

Overall, I favour the option that the text and drawings may have been added concurrently.
Without being at all sure of course.

This is possible, in the sense that someone may have done the drawing and then filled up the page with text. But I'm not sure if I understand the arguments in favor of a text-first approach on any page. I'll go over dashstofsk's initial observations:

f79r and f79v. The text margin is straight and does not flow around the contours of the pictures.

I hadn't noticed this before, and it's certainly true. But does this mean that the text came first, or that the scribe decided that the images allowed him to commit to a straight margin? I think the answer lies in the verso: the writer also prefers the straight margin here, but sees himself forced to interrupt it for the prone nymph's feet. So what I see here are images that are designed to go in the margins and text that behaves accordingly, but the fact that the images were drawn first interferes with this plan.

f81r. Space had been left on the right of the page for drawings that were never made. There wasn't enough space at the top to fully draw the bath tub thing that was intended. The bath tub at the bottom has also not been completed. Perhaps the writer just got annoyed with himself and abandoned this page.

I agree that this is a weird space. But to me it seems like the outer margin of the parchment was somehow not very suited for writing. You can see on the verso that the text does a similar avoiding maneuver of this area (but smaller). See: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

That thread also refers to some earlier speculation that the lines are like poetry. Whatever may be the case, the blank space is remarkable and unusual in the MS. But there are several possible explanations and I wouldn't call this a smoking gun for a text-first scenario.

f84v. The text on the right does not align with the bulk of the text. If text came last then it would have aligned. So it looks like that text was added after the drawings were done, and these drawings after the main text was done.

I see what you mean, but not how this would imply that the drawings were made after the main text. The additional text seems to perform a label- or title-like function in several Q13 pages - it was probably not meant to align. This becomes clear when you look at the top-right text on this same page. It appears that some words are written in three similar areas: at the inlet of the top pool and at the inlet and outlet of the bottom pool.

f82v and other pages. The drawings on the right hand sides were done cramped. Had they been done first they would have commanded more space and the writing would have stopped short.

Here I see the same ambitions of attempting to draw marginal images and as straight as possible left text margins. But you can see them struggle with this at the middle-left nymph with the green arch. This whole section is one of text adapting to images (and presumably to parchment trouble in one case).