The Voynich Ninja

R.Sale: I put a [Just for fun] tag on this thread because it's not about evidence. It's about the gut feeling that lives in the community, the first guesses. The only purpose of this thread is to do the same again next year, and see if there have been any shifts in the answers, both on the personal level as in the community as a whole. It's not about being right - in fact I really hope there will be some shifts because that will mean that we learned something that changed our views, in whatever way this may be.

Consider this a study of the Voynich community as a whole rather than of the Voynich itself.

Koen,

As a member of the community, I thought I would offer a reply - rather than abstain. However my 'first guesses' are a decade old. And I have done my best to form my current opinion on evidence that I feel is valid. I cannot offer an opinion that is 'evidence free'. Who can?

I would question whether the attempt to measure this potential change in 'gut feeling' is really going to measure any change in the *opinion* of the community or a change in the *composition* of the community.

Either way, the results will be interesting

1. Pictorial text - yes; Written text - probably.
   
2. no comment - unknown.
   
3. no comment - unknown.
   
4. Yes.
   
5. Yes.
   
6. Mostly no. some of the 'bathy-' section -maybe.
   
7. no comment - unknown
   
8. definitely yes to astronomy; no sign of planetary astrology.
   
9. not obviously. Possibly.
   
10. definitely not.
    
11. no comment - unknown
    
12. Yes.
    
13. YES - If not scotched to keep older theories as 'orthodoxy'. The mass of sollid 'nonconformist' research has been building for a good while.
    
14. Definitely no.
    
    

Open questions:

1. Mixed content; partly sea-routes and ports; partly meteorological matter affecting navigation; partly other. (Is that few enough)?
   
2. no comment. unknown.
   
3. no comment. unknown.
   

Sorry Koen, I just can't use 'gut feeling' to form an opinion, even in fun.  Dreary but I'm an evidence-first sorta gal.  Same for 'yes/no'.  Tried, but it felt dishonest. 

Diane: no problem, I adapted my excel formula already to account for blank answers - I appreciate that you still gave it a try 

Koen, even my 'no comment' is a positive opinion.

1[font=Times New Roman]    [/font]Herbal partition and the partition roots and leaves – yes. Q13, Q20 – 50/50% ?
2[font=Times New Roman]    [/font]YES
3[font=Times New Roman]    [/font]YES
4[font=Times New Roman]    [/font]YES
5[font=Times New Roman]    [/font]NO
6[font=Times New Roman]    [/font]YES
7[font=Times New Roman]    [/font]NO
8[font=Times New Roman]    [/font]NO
9[font=Times New Roman]    [/font]YES
10[font=Times New Roman] [/font]NO
11[font=Times New Roman] [/font]NO
12[font=Times New Roman] [/font]YES , but first we get rambling text, because of shuffling of words
13[font=Times New Roman] [/font]YES
14[font=Times New Roman] [/font]NO
 
1 hygiene and anatomy
2 in Q20 - 162 group of recipes. Each group describes one plant of the herbal section.
3  Syllabic writing.   I got an alphabet of 18 letters (+2, ee and ii, and one special character - Designation of the universe).
 All basic symbols EVA  (except e and i) are digrams (n-grams)

Thanks to everybody who participated - we've got 13 submissions so far. We should be able to get at least above 15

So far the only statement nobody agrees with is the one about the MS being a kind of hoax.

Quote:

1. Does the text contain any meaning?
   
2. Has the text been purposefully enciphered to conceal its meaning?
   
3. Do the images match the text?
   
4. Are the plants meant to refer to real plants?
   
5. Is the majority of the plants exotic from a European perspective (Asian, African, American...)?
   
6. Have the images been made ambiguous or otherwise strange to conceal their true meaning?
   
7. Is alchemy an important part of the manuscript?
   
8. Is astronomy and/or astrology an important part of the MS?
   
9. Is medicine an important part of the MS?
   
10. Is the MS the creative product of one mind, i.e. an author? (Taking into account the possibility that one or more scribes helped to fashion the physical manuscript)
    
11. Is the MS authored by a known historical figure?
    
12. Will we ever be able to read the MS?
    
13. Will there be any breakthrough in Voynich studies in 2017?
    
14. Is the MS any kind of hoax?
    

1. Open questions:
   
2. In a few words, what is quire 13 about? (bathing, anatomy, angels......)
   
3. In a few words, what is quire 20 about?
   
4. If we were able to read the script, which language(s) would we read, if any?
   

@ Koen and all,

1) Yes
2) Yes
3) Yes
4) Yes-and hidden messages
5) No
6) No- The Artist either had a time constraint or was an average Artist; that is why it looks odd.
7) Yes
8) Yes
9) Yes
10) Yes
11) Yes the cipher implies this, because he came in contact with many powerful people. i.e. Zodiac imagery
12) Yes- I am
13) Yes
14) The VMS text has meaning, but we don't know when the text was written on the Vellum.
     
    Open Questions:
     1) Quire 13, relates to middle age woman preparing for suicide or the next demension, Rainbows.  Tombstones and Cross, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. uses alchemy to try and cure these woman.  Another idea here is they are pregnant and know there is a possibility of death from abortion.
     2) Proverbs-Solomon
     3) Middle English, Maybe Modern English, Latin, Greek, French

Quote:Ophelia's death is eroticized and associated with female gendered nature; even her drowning ‘has associations with the feminine and the irrational, since water is the organic symbol of woman's fluidity: blood, milk, tears’.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. As in Desdemona's story of Barbary, Ophelia is described as singing as she dies:
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Stellar, does that mean a "no" for hoax?