The Voynich Ninja

As everyone probably knows, I'm pretty keen on studying the document in depth before forming any opinion about it.

What do you think?

I wonder if you have a premonition about it!

Since this is posted in the resources & links section, let's try to define the best resources to study the document in depth (safe travelling to Beinecke's)?

Gert

I'll be playing around a bit, learning how phpBB works. If I work out how to shift a topic I'll move this one to 'Philosophical issues'.

I think that a "Philosophical Issues" thread is a great idea
Thus I created one and shifted the topic. You (& only you) will notice a pulldown menu on bottom of the post labeled with a hammer. This will allow you to manipulate things like this.

Now.. how about premonitions? Should we trust them?

Best

Gert

Hello all,

just registered and logged in for the first time. Will have to look a round a bit, too.
Is all currently 'play-mode'? I am usually good at breaking things.

What happens when the admin takes a post off the page? (you may use this one as an example)

Best wishes

Juergen

Hello Juergen,

The forum is more in a planning stage. You will notice the "Kickoff Discussion" in the Board Internal section that contains our thoughts on how to actually do things.

In the same area you will find the Moderators Sandbox, which is the place to play around and break stuff.. good that you are good in this
Please let us know whenever something breaks!

There are a few different options to stop posts, deleting only being one of them. Please try them out in the sandbox. I will delete your post from this section after you have read it.

Best

Gert

Hi Gert,
No, I don't believe in premonitions. I am very much a pragmatist sort of historian. I guess it's because I come from a background of archaeology and iconographic analysis, not the history of writing meta-history.

No client would be patient with an iconographic analyst whose opinion began or ended with 'intuition' or 'theory'.

Most of the work we do is for museums or private persons relying on the evaluation to decide whether to purchase a piece, or how to label it.

(29-05-2015, 12:03 PM)Diane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.As everyone probably knows, I'm pretty keen on studying the document in depth before forming any opinion about it.

What do you think?

I think you will naturally form opinions as you study it.  For example, these aren't just women in a bath, they represent stages in a process.  Or, I recognize this star/plant/corpse that has a label.  Problems arise when you make the leap from "I recognize this star as Taurus" to possibly invalid conclusions such as The Author probably called it Taurus too and VMS's script is a phonemic alphabet. 

I agree that the document needs to be considered in some detail before forming firm opinions.  I think it's possible that it's all one document and that even dividing it into The Herbal, The Astrology, The Recipes, etc may be making distinctions that do not aid analysis.  Form opinions, but don't let your opinions become certainties too soon.  And don't accept that generally held conclusions about any part of VMS are correct.

That said, I think its fine to form hypotheses at any time if you can test them.  It's the difference between studying the document and analyzing the content.