I tried to identify the words present in the question in the header of the bhl-0002-005.tif file. From what I can tell, after the ":" character, it seems like

I tried to identify the words present in the question in the header of the bhl-0002-005.tif file. From what I can tell, after the ":" character, it seems like the author refers to "Jason" and "Aison" (Jason's father). If this assumption is right, the "N"-like character that is heavily present can be identified as the "ON" syllable. Other assumptions: -> From Wikipedia: "[...] letter s appears as a long "s", "st" is a ligature [...]". This leads me to think that: - the striked-"o" character I think is an "S" - the curved-"\" character is a "T" This combination of both characters "ST" can be found heavily in the text. - the "corner"-like character is the "ET" syllable I really do think that the second name is "Aison" because in bhl-0002-005.tif, one of the french sentences on the right side says: "Père de Jason, roi de Phères en Tessalie" which can be translated to: "Father of Jason, king of Pherae in Thessaly" So "father of Jason" would refer to Aison. In the same file, on the bottom left, there is another french sentence : "____! Tyro n'allait pas de main morte!" which can be (very roughly) translated into: "____! Tyro was heavy handed!" Tyro just happens to be Aison's mother ! Just under this sentence, there are some words (mostly nouns), mixed with the other cryptic text. Here's a quick list: - "Phères", the city of Pherae BUT it could also refer to one of Aison's brothers who has the same name - "suppliant(s)", begging - "Amythaon", other brother of Aison Just under this paragraph, in the footer, the first two words next to the number (2) are: "ou Jocaste" - "or Jocasta" another character of the Odyssey. Interestingly, on the upper left side of the second file, you can find a date mentioned: "le 25 avril 1854" so "the 25th of april 1854" Which places the authorship of these side-notes 160 ago almost to the day. Funny coincidence! Some useful / related links: Jocaste / Jocasta: -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocasta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocasta Aison / Aeson: -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeson Tyro: -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyro Amythaon: -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amythaon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amythaon Pheres: -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheres http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheres Pherae (city): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pherae http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pherae