I’ve just added a new page to the Cipher Mysteries site that looks at the (historical) mystery of the Voynich Manuscript’s quire numbers. This is an aspect of the VMs that has had relatively little coverage (apart from pp.15-18 of my book, *sigh*), yet which should form one of the key dating data.
Should be plenty there both (a) to pique the interest of any passing mainstream historians and (b) to annoy late Renaissance hoax theorists. Enjoy! 🙂
Nick, I feel a bit like the Lone Ranger in this post. I missed the thread that you had going on the VM quire numbers. I would just add a comment on Curse, p 17. I think mixed in with the expected Indo-Arabic is some real Arabic that was used in the middle East (Eastern Arabic). I think the number on Q5 is the Arabic numeral for Indo-Arabic #6, i.e. it is not 5 but 6. Q7 is Arabic numeral #8. Q15= 16 in E. Arabic not 15 and finally Q17=18 in Arabic. The defined numbers don’t look like Indo-Arabic, i.e. the usual 1,2,3, etc. I have no idea how the quires line up but just what the numbers look like to me. Cheers, Tom
Dear all, I fear I am about to step into another cowflop but here goes! I think the hidden tiny writing (see Curse, p 97) that Nick has brought to light using image enhancement techniques on a leaf on f2r is not “Voynichese” but rather is Arabic. Here is my argument.
1) The rightmost “C” with a huge flourish is not normally a Voynich glyph. The third glyph from the right is, I think, Arabic for Latin/English “w”; but “backward”. The “S” is also backward for Voynichese or Arabic for “d”.
2) Arabic is read from R->L . If the string of glyphs uncovered on that leaf is “flipped” The “C-like glyph (maybe an “n”) would then be the terminal glyph in an Arabic string where the lead glyph is probably not seen, as just a stub of some glyph is still evident.
3) I propose, for argument’s sake, that the string of Arabic glyphs started life as brushed glyphs in the margin between the two paragraphs of f1v (See Curse p 98) and totally transferred between the two folios during the original drawing and first coloration. The image might have transferred when the coloration of the leaves was fresh and then later recolored one or more times.
4) It is strange that none of the intense green seen on the leaves of f2r did not transfer to f1v but this may have resulted from the VM being stored with f1r being uppermost and their being little pressure on the next heavily colored folio.
So in short, the “hidden” tiny writing on the leaf of f2r detected by Nick, is Arabic, and was transferred somehow from its origin in the inter paragraphing margin of f1v. What it was doing originally at that site and what it meant is not clear at this time, if indeed my scenario is valid. Cheers, Tom
ThomS et al : There are no hidden letters/alphabet in any of the VMs botanical
drawings. The artist was simply trying to indicate the shapes of the petals where they are attached to the stems (shadows/folds…and shape of attachment to stems.
You will eventually be able to identify the saffron Corm: bulb shaped, but with a flat “foot”.
Identify the tree which leaves are fodder for silkworms (hint: that strange item which looks like a pineapple, is a single mulberry).
You wiil then be able to compare the water lily with the water lotus.
Several months/years ago I identified the Yucca (and its use as soap/shampoo.
And then we have a tomatillo — NOT a tomato.
Another item was psyllium (which seed husks were used to ease or prevent constipation).
And the ‘biggie” — the illustrated story of Alcyone and Ceyx. I’ll let Rene and other interested parties find that very interesting work of art which portrays a bird going over a waterfall, and people huddled behind very large mushrooms/toadstools. There are lines of discussion at each corner of that folio — as well as in the very center of that folio.
Nick & friends: I’m singing my ‘swan song’. Nothing like a good murder mystery or two to enliven a worn out folio: Was ceyx poisoned? Did both Alcyone and Ceyx both become the birds which nest on the water — waterfall, lake, or ocean?
bd
Dear all,
I’ve recently shared with my own readers an idea which has grown slowly over the past years – that perhaps the text is not a cipher but a text transcribed from cursive from which the natural ligatures are omitted. I wouldn’t try to argue a case – the written text is not my area – but I thought readers might like to see just how easily misread a text might be that was transcribed from a gothic or semi-gothic hand.
Brilliant example has just been posted at ‘Futility closet’ here. (Imagine the last word missing)
picture:
http://www.futilitycloset.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-05-fenceposts.jpg
associated post with modern transcription:
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2016/07/05/fenceposts/
BD, If you can read the very tiny, “hidden” (to most anyway) writing on a leaf of f2r there is nothing at all wrong with your vision!!
Diane, I doubt there are many ligatures in the VM. Benventon had some like “oe” that resembles an alpha but I have strained to spot any in the VM. I think the gallows tend to resemble glyphs from the Indian subcontinent (like Tamil or Urdu) but differences remain. My guess for the moment is they are unique to the scribes and are used in a haphazard way for consonants but the problem as Nick and I see it is that the same gallows glyph erratically maps to the same Latin/English consonant.
I think all could share in the quest as to where the gallows might have originated.
Nice example you provide of a “cryptic” gothic script being translated into something understandable to the reader not conversant with this script. To my eye, an Italic nib would have to be used, likely of metal.
Cheers, Tom
Dear all, I have puzzled over an oddity (to me, anyway) on the tiny writing on f28v, that Nick has thoughtfully enlarged (see Curse, p 173 ). What troubles me is the guess of Nick’s that the rightmost glyph is an Indo-Arabic numeral “5”. I propose that it is not a “5” in any language but is rather the Urdu glyph for EE. Urdu has most of its alphabet (an abjad system) that resembles Arabic but has slightly different shapes for those glyphs. It does slightly resemble the Eastern Arabic (Perso-Arabic) glyph for the Latin glyph “s”. It may also be that the Indo-Arabic numeral for “7” is Arabic for “6” which is also used in Urdu numerals.
More work on this remains to be done but the “1” and the underline with a hook upward on the right could also be Urdu but I need to strengthen my arguments and also figure out whether these glyphs have numerical values. The rightmost “s” like glyph could have a numerical value of “10” in Indo-Arabic.
l also like Hindi or one of the many derived “abjad” systems (e.g. Punjabi or Sindhi) for the gallows glyphs. To summarize this brief post: I think an Urdu glyph fits closely that rightmost glyph on f28v. More anon.