Back in February 2016, I posted about a possible “block paradigm” match for the Voynich zodiac section – using a separate text uncovered by secondary research as a close match to the plaintext, and trying to work forward to the ciphertext, rather than blindly backwards from the ciphertext (as normal).
The match I proposed was with Andalò di Negro’s “introductorium ad iudicia astrologie”, a little-known fourteenth century text mentioned by Thorndike that covered per-degree judicial astrology. I tried hard to find a match between the tables in Andalò’s work and the poses of the nymphs in the Voynich zodiac section: but ultimately wasn’t able to. It might be there, it might not: I don’t know either way.
It was a disappointment: but not the end of the road by a long way…
The Paris 7272 Cipher
One of the two extant manuscripts of Andalò di Negro’s Introductorium is BNF Cod. Fonds Latin 7272: interestingly, as I noted back in 2009 when I saw its zodiac images in the Warburg’s photographic archive, this has some shorthand-like marginalia that had never been decrypted.
When I finally managed to get good images of these marginalia and posted about them, it didn’t take long before Marco Ponzi cleverly managed to crack the core of the cipher.
Once decrypted, these marginalia revealed the – apparently top secret – names of the spirits governing each zodiac sign, e.g.:
Aries: NOMEN ARIETIS SOLICET ANGELUS EIUS (EST) “SORON”
Taurus: NOMEN ANGELUS TAURA (EST) “TOION”
Gemini: NOMEN ANGELUS JEMINORUM (EST) “SAISIACIN” “GADLIO[N]I”
Cancer: NOMEN ANGELUS CANCRI (EST) “BARAM”
Leo: NOMEN ANGELUS LEONIS (EST) “COLIN”
The complete set of spirit names for the twelve signs is then revealed to be:
– IN?TIUS
– SORON TOION
– GADLION SAISIACIN
– BARAM COLIN
– MIMIN SUDRAM
– TEDUO GORO(?)
– UDABUL DOLI?IT
What I didn’t point out at the time is that because “GADLION SAISIACIN” would appears to be a single spirit name (that for Gemini), then “IN?TIUS” would appear to be the spirit name for Pisces. Hence Pisces would seem to be the first in the list.
And – I almost need not say, but I’m contractually obliged to – the Voynich Manuscript’s list of zodiac signs begins (slightly unusually) with Pisces. Which gives a small amount of support to the idea that these two documents may both be drawing in some way from the same well. It’s not a big thing, but I thought I ought to mention it regardless. 🙂
Voynich Pisces
Aside from the looking for a block match with the thirty posed per-degree nymphs corresponding to each sign, there’s another possible block match on the same page: with the text on each circular ring.
This doesn’t amount to a great deal of additional text for each sign: but given that something is definitely there, a similarly-sized piece of text associated with the original per-degree table for that sign might conceivably get us close to the original (unenciphered) plaintext for those rings.
In the case of the Voynich Pisces page (f70v2), the three rings of text (in EVA) are as follows:
(R3) Outer ring, clockwise from 11:30 (as per the interlinear transcription) [~43 words]:
okcheo.dar.otey.ykeey.tchy.otsheo.oteotey.shey.sheckh.opcheoldair.dateey.sal.ody.choteey.chocthedy.oteoteotsho.yteos.alain.sheodaly.ckho.aiin.cholkal.chotear.oteody.cholaiin.oteeey.al.ol.sheeor.okey.choldy.otees.chor.ol.ar.otoaiin.oteeody.sor.todaiin.chokain.otalal.otcham.
(R2) Middle ring, clockwise from 11:15 [~32 words]:
chedaiin.oteey.dair.shchey.daiin.chalaly.oteody.chotol.chedy.oteotey.oteeeor.ar.alody.daiir.oteedar.otchy.teey.dalal.cheoltey.oteedy.sheeteey.*.ykeeol.ykeeor.shey.ykear.araralor.daimamdy.otar.am.aral.otar*
(R1) Inner ring, clockwise from 09:00 [~20 words]:
otaldaly.oteoal.dalaildy.otaiin.ar.oteey.shal.o.qoteeal.ar.al.otaiin.al.teodaiin.oteey.cthey.oteeor.oteor.aiin.daim.
Note that this is my own reading of these lines, which is slightly different to other researchers’ readings. But that’s fairly immaterial here, because we’re looking for word-level matches with a parallel text: and remember that we have no evidence of any encipherer systematically hiding word divisions in a ciphertext until the early sixteenth century, some decades after the Voynich Manuscript was made.
The question now becomes: is there a similar-sized block of text for Pisces in Andalò di Negro’s “introductorium ad iudicia astrologie”? And if so, what happens if we try to make a block paradigm-style “block match” between it and the text in the Voynich Manuscript’s Pisces rings?
Zodiac Texts
It just so happens that there is such a text. In fact, I posted the complete set from the two extant Introductorium manuscripts on the Cipher Foundation website earlier in the year.
In the London manuscript, the Pisces text block looks like this:
In the Paris manuscript, the Pisces text block looks like this (with one extra sentence):
This is roughly half the number of words of the Voynich Pisces ring texts: but once again, there’s a further short piece of useful text attached to the tables that (I expect) would also need to be carried across:
Most of the text in the table is formulaic (i.e. common to all twelve zodiac tables), but some lines (specifically the top three lines of text) seem to be largely specific to Pisces.
I suspect that if you add these two half-blocks together, you would get close to the same number of words that the Pisces rings contain. Might there be a match of some sort in there? Very possibly, I’d say. So perhaps this may yet prove to be a practical start towards a decryption of this page, let’s keep our fingers crossed, eh?
And My Conclusion?
Well… sadly, I don’t have a conclusion yet. I’ve posted this as a set of work-in-progress notes for myself, and as a broad guide to the kind of approach I believe stands a good chance of cracking the Voynich Manuscript (in time) for others, rather than as a decryption as such.
But perhaps any passing Latinists will be so kind as to parse the handwriting and expand out the late medieval abbreviations, I’m sure that would be a very great help for anyone who would like to try to make a forward (block) match for this page. Thanks!
Transcriptions:
A
In piscibus sunt stelle 34 videlict 2 de magnitudine tertia 22 de quarta 3 de quinta et 7 de sexta.
Item extra formam sunt stelle 4 de magnitudine 4.
B
In forma piscium sunt stelle 34 videlicet due de magnitudine 3a 22 de 4a 2 de 3a et 7 de 6a.
Item extra formam sunt stelle 4 de magnitudine 4a.
Regunt (?) annos menses dies horae
12 12 30 et 12
12
C
Piscis est domus Iouis.
Venus exaltatur in pisce et maxime in 6′ 27o
Huius triplicitatis domini sunt in die veneris. In nocte mars, particeps in die ac nocte est luna.
Terminum Venus Jupiter Mercurii Mars Saturnus
Facies Saturnus Jupiter Mars
Gradus masculini feminini maculini feminini masculine
Gradus tenebrosi Lucidi tenebrosi lucidi vacui lucidi tenebrosi
Gradus nigri dicuntur putei
Gradus rubei dicuntur augmentantes fortunam
“Thou hast besides all this the truth
By practise truly tride..”
E.G.R.T.A.R.F.T.S.
Philip: that’s extremely kind and helpful of you, thanks very much! 🙂
Ah, Mr. Neal ! I’m so relieved to see that you are still alive! Several years ago, I was able to peruse some of your archive — fabulously interesting! This latest item: Engrossing !
bdid1dr
We get a network of stars -angel (-names?) and radii in connection with Kabbalah.
(keeping in mind that Irwin Panofsky saw something in the ms which he saw as kabbalistic)
Jean Thenaud, Introduction to the Kabbalah, dedicated to King Francis I
http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/bge/fr0167
I know that manuscript is late (1536) but the information in it not necessarily so.
Why have you reverted to the EVA, Nick? Why do you refer to the Kaballah, Diane?
Has Panofsky given you any valid ‘code’ within the “Voynich” folios? I’m sticking with the works of Fray Sahagun and his Nahuatl parishioners and students/translators/and artists of Spanish and Nahuatl.
Fray Sahagun was under siege for most of his years in “New Spain”. Between the actions of Dominican monks and Cortez’s rape of Malinche, and the eventual appearance of European diseases and sicknesses (syphilis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, typhus….) it is a wonder that Sahagun and his students were able to function at all.
I’m becoming more frail with every month (73 in September). I hope to see a full translation of B-408 — soon !
I guess I’m going to have to resign myself to not getting a two-volume set of your Voynich studies. (I promised to buy your book if, and when, it became a set of two books; and only if you put aside the EVA codiology.
I am grateful that I can follow your discussions online. So, I won’t be contributing as often as I have in the past. I have been translating some of the ‘bulleted (stars or flowers) folios — fascinating!
Still 1-dr-ing…….beady-eyed wonder-er
Besides the Nahuatl/Spanish being written in the so-called “Voynich” manuscript, there are (here and there) references to Caryotides, Carnations Dianthus, yucca roots, Strangler figs, monkshood, mulberry bark paper being preferred over mulberry/fig combined paper.
The last few folios are ‘recipes’ for various previously mentioned hand-illustrated roots, bark, berries & vines — and whether hot or cold water is used in the brews.
Those strange tubular (red and blue) containers are measuring cups and indications of the proportions of the hot and cold liquids which are being measured into the pharma jars.
bd
@ Diane: What’s with all those alphabet and dots with which you ended your discussion on this topic? (……practice truly tride ….. ? I am so tired of the endless references to Panofski /Panovski — and references to Kaballa . I am surprised that Philip Neal hasn’t given up posting his very sensible discussions on Nick’s pages.
I’m returning to my earlier discussion of the products of the mulberry tree: that one enlargement of what was a mulberry fruit was so that the scribe and artist could identify its use: mulberry ripe fruit was pleasantly edible. Its juice could be used as stain or ink. Its leaves fed the newly hatched silkworm larvae. The bark of the mulberry tree was considered quite valuable in the production of paper (which eventually overtook the production of papyrus or animal skins).
Another source of paper was flax/line/linen.
Just for fun, I recently removed the leaves from some ears of corn which I had boiled for eating. Today, I am taking the leaves down to my patio where I can pound them into fibrous ‘mush’ and — maybe end up with something resembling papyrus/papyrus.
bd
If this is a change from poetic formatting to astronomical one-liners, how does the block paradigm still apply? I thought the idea of the block paradigm was to match the relative length of the lines in the text into a pattern like the individual teeth on a key. A plain text that matched to a VMs text would be a candidate for further investigation. And that, on a slim chance, might be interesting, but the actual implementation of such a task is horrendously daunting.
Nevertheless, if that is a correct understanding of the block paradigm, then how does it apply to VMs Pisces? The three text bands of Pisces give us only three teeth in the key – rather than the dozen or more found in a page of poetic text. And further more, due to the physical constraints of decreasing circumference in the circular text bands the teeth in the key will always stand in the same diminishing relationship: longest, intermediate, shortest. Pattern matching doesn’t work.
A different paradigm is needed and looking at other Pisces texts to compare with the VMs Pisces text has the advantage of a specific set of restrictions that greatly limit the number of possibilities. It certainly may be a helpful selection criteria, but how does the block paradigm apply?
Another paradigm starts on VMs Pisces. One that is plain and simple, and frequently overlooked. That paradigm is the pairing of images in the central medallions for the first five houses of the VMs Zodiac, starting with Pisces (!) and going to Cancer. Two pairs of aquatic animals. And two pairs of land animals – the hard way. And then the pairing continues anew.
There is another factor that is significant in textual comparison, if we are trying to match something in the VMs with any example of plain text and that is the repeated or multiple use of a particular word in a designated segment of text. Not only would a pair of repeated words in comparative texts make for a better potential correspondence, it would give one word translated. More than that, multiple repeated words produce a pattern: A1, A2, B1, B2 versus A1, B1, A2, B2 etc. etc. More words produce more variations.
To find such an example with multiple repetitions in an interesting pattern, unique in the VMs Zodiac, it is necessary to turn the page to the illustration of White Aries (f71r) in the text segment of the outer band, that also contains one of Stolfi’s markers. Potentially significant segments of text are designated by certain markers. Potentially significant markers are identified by tradition and by the relevant, historical context of that tradition. The papelonny pun is intentionally built into the VMs construction by the author.
Out*of*the*Blue: the block paradigm applies because (a) there has long been reasonable speculation that the Voynich zodiac pages encode some kind of per-degree astrology, of the type associated with Pietro d’Abano (c.1257-1316), (b) the candidate source (plaintext) document I put forward here and elsewhere is Andalo di Negro’s Introductorium, which describes per-degree astrology with tables and associated text, and (c) the amount of associated text per table is not too far from the amount of associated text per zodiac roundel. Couldn’t be much plainer.
But really: it takes less than five minutes to create your own blog on wordpress.com, why not document your papellony / cryptoheraldry ideas there rather than filling up comment boxes here and elsewhere any time someone talks about a Voynich Manuscript page you’re interested in?
Bd1dr
I was trying to offer a minor puzzle for people who plainly like unknotting a bit of a puzzle. Nothing evil about it – I thought it might be fun.
I guess there was a bit of an intelligent point too, which was that orthography is so hugely important – in addition to the problematic issues of palaeography which Nick often reminds readers to consider. The thing is that when I ‘corrected’ the orthography of that verse, even the enormous well of comparative base data accessible through the www (and my browser of course), couldn’t find a single match.
Exactly reproducing the historically appropriate orthography gives not only the line, but explains the simple series of abbreviation too.
I don’t know enough about cryptology to imagine how someone not brainwashed into believing that I’m some wicked horned creature from a southern region called ‘infernal’ might go about tackling the decoding/decryption but my guess is that some would assume the initial letters were the thing to focus on, and would not pay much attention to the old-fashioned spelling except as indication of probable date of composition.
So you see – that’s me; very plain, pretty ordinary, just a bit of a sense of humour and a devil of a time forgetting how to act like a teacher. 🙂
PS I keep referring to Panofsky because his opinion deserves attention, and for some it so conflicts with their theory that their reaction to my reminding people of that opinion is pure “Sprague effect” – spin out, by-pass the objective matter and impugn the motives of the person presenting it.
Total classic!
@ Diane: Whoo ! Check Phillip (double ell, Phillip?) Neal’s latest contribution.
Rick Roberts has also recently appeared, if only briefly.
BTW, Nick: Did you notice that the Pisces page/calenar dates were 28-29. 29-30 ….
Perhaps dependent on the phases of the moon?
bd
Nick,
Although I expect that Thorndike would have noticed if there were anything relevant to the Vms in the English scientific and pseudo-scientific literature, I’ve noticed (in searching for Betson’s notebook) a rather good publication with a not-very-good choice of title.
Do you know it?
Penn State issued it in 1998 as
Conjuring Spirits… (etc)
Betson’s notebook is too late for us, though not his sources, one of which is said to be a work entitled “Liber de Angelis”.
The paper – very solid – by Juris G. Lidaka offers commentary, transcription and translation (with lots of maths).
The next in the same volume is by John B. Friedman, ‘Safe Magic and Invisible Writing in the Secretum Philosophorum’.
Friedman describes is as a mixture of ‘learned hermetic treatise’ and items of ‘vernacular artisans’ technical recipes’.
Hi Nick,
Even though I have no knowledge of cryptography, the Voynich Manuscript has always interested me greatly. I check your blog from time to time to see what kind of progress, if any, has been made on decoding the VM. The other day I ended up on the weird area of Youtube and came across a funny hollow earth conspiracy theory video and I was somehow struck with the odd feeling that the VM may have been alluding to hollow earth theory in some way. In particular, I felt like the image on the left [ http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WdR2wdqzSIs/VlblMhXMVFI/AAAAAAAAbko/vMNTcPBnOcs/s1600/02%2Bvoynich%2Bmanuscript.jpg ] could be a depiction of the hollow earth.
I know it’s highly unlikely but I thought I might as well throw it out there. Please don’t ever stop trying to crack the Voynich!