Given that most Voynich furrows have been heavily overploughed over the last two decades, it has become rare for something novel to pop up on my Voynich radar. On those rare occasions such a thing does happen (e.g. the Sagittarius crossbowman, etc), I do try to use my posts to communicate a sense of enthusiasm and excitement.
And so here’s something that might well prove to be interesting: an “Honors senior thesis presentation” courtesy of Adam Lewis at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma in Washington, entitled “An Anatomy of Failure: Analysis Attempts to Decode the Voynich Manuscript” – 6pm-7pm on 21st February 2018, at UPS’s Wyatt Hall, Room 109.
Incidentally, here’s a picture of the University of Puget Sound’s mascot “Grizz the Logger” in action:
So… why is it that the floor around the VMs is littered with so many dead bodies, so many foolish theories, indeed so many grotesquely idiotic theories? What is it about the Voynich Manuscript that draws out the airiest and least tethered of speculations from people? It’s certainly a topic I’ve thought a lot about over the years, and so I look forward to (eventually) reading Adam Lewis’s senior thesis: it should be fun.
Incidentally, I don’t believe I’ve ever talked with Adam, but I suspect this is his LinkedIn profile here.
On the down side, however, I should point out that the talk is marked as “Campus Only” on the website, so even if you do want to go along, you may not actually get in: hence I’d certainly advise phoning or emailing beforehand if you are considering this.
As a sidenote, fans of Alex Scarrow’s books will probably remember that “Timeriders: The Doomsday Code” features a computer hacker called Alex Lewis, who finds his name hidden in the Voynich Manuscript. That’s probably just coincidental (or possibly some time travelling geocache trickery), but I thought I’d mention it anyway. 😉
Interesting. James Comegys, author of Keys for the Voynich Scholar (2001) attended University of Puget Sound 1969-70. Odd. How many coincidences does it take to make a synchronicity? PS How do I get those signed copies of Curse of the Voynich?
Best, John
Nick, you’re too fixated on wrong approaches, bad theories, speculative dead ends and just plain fantasy that will never solve it.
How about some articles on good approaches.
There’s your theory, there’s the intriguing Aztec related hypothesis by an outstanding botanist supported by observations and some actual, at the very least tenable decodings at least for some illustrations and there are others.
These can be analyzed objectively without falling into the linguistic quagmire which you correctly criticize.
How about a review of Voynich declensions (or whatever you’d want to call them)? What words often appear at the end of “sentences” ? Which words are often followed by other words. Which sections are written in Voynich A and which in B. A good summary of these oddities would be great but right now they are scattered around in various articles, books and web sites. Is the EVA transcription boon or bane ?
Most importantly, particularly on the excellent work you have done, which folios were originally next to one another based on your handwriting style and other suppositions. I recall you’ve done some mention of this somewhere.
All this would be putting people in the right direction instead of trying to identify some obscure detail of a drawing which might, just might be similar to some similar thing in some obscure book from the 1500 or 1400’s or, ditto, some handwriting oddity?
If any of you might be visiting the US, you might like to visit Canyon de Chelley, New Mexico….. Or the Hopi Reservation — not far from the canyon.
I most enjoyed my visit with Valjean Josevema : He showed me a group photograph of his male relatives — code talkers and radiomen during WWII.
bd
Correction : Valjean Joshevema …. Forgive me, sir, for my misspelling of your name. He showed my husband his work-shop behind his main building and some of the antique greenstone as well as turquoise items made by himself as well as his students.
bd
Voynich / Beinecke manuscript-77r is electrolytic cell, scripture is calculations & formulas with Gregg shorthand principle applied. There are numerous examples of astronomy, botany, biology, physics, chemistry- “crystalline detector”,opsonin, piezoelectricity, electrogenesis, cathodes, anodes, filaments, diodes, “biofuel”, electromagnetics, illustrations are on an atomic level, women figures are elements or energy, 15th century of the mysteries of the universe, in color. The universal field guide of knowledge. Everything you would want the next intelligent generation to decipher. Concluding the cycle of knowledge
Hi Nick, thanks for posting about Adam’s thesis. We just uploaded an interview with him, in case you want to learn more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8ZMnhWuXHw
There is a key to cipher the Voynich manuscript.
The key to the cipher manuscript placed in the manuscript. It is placed throughout the text. Part of the key hints is placed on the sheet 14. With her help was able to translate a few dozen words that are completely relevant to the theme sections.
The Voynich manuscript is not written with letters. It is written in signs. Characters replace the letters of the alphabet one of the ancient language. Moreover, in the text there are 2 levels of encryption. I figured out the key by which the first section could read the following words: hemp, wearing hemp; food, food (sheet 20 at the numbering on the Internet); to clean (gut), knowledge, perhaps the desire, to drink, sweet beverage (nectar), maturation (maturity), to consider, to believe (sheet 107); to drink; six; flourishing; increasing; intense; peas; sweet drink, nectar, etc. Is just the short words, 2-3 sign. To translate words with more than 2-3 characters requires knowledge of this ancient language. The fact that some symbols represent two letters. In the end, the word consisting of three characters can fit up to six letters. Three letters are superfluous. In the end, you need six characters to define the semantic word of three letters. Of course, without knowledge of this language make it very difficult even with a dictionary.
And most important. In the manuscript there is information about “the Holy Grail”.
If you are interested in this topic, I am ready to provide detailed information.
Nikolai.