The Voynich Ninja

Ah, these scribbles are an interesting thing. I don't support the idea of anything being encoded there, but I mean another thing. It is best seen if you rotate the pic provided by coded (stellar) by 180 degrees. You will then see that these scribbles repeat the capital letter "M" a number of times (three or four times, if I remember correctly) inscribed in the same ornate way (I mean the way that the pen goes). Given this ornate way repeating several times, I wonder if this can be a signature (or part of signature) of the scribe. This could then be a valuable clue.

Children very commonly copy shapes they have been shown and one of the first things they are often shown, after the alphabet, is their own name.

The way this is drawn is like a child's scribble, someone with only partly developed motor skills who is beginning to recognize the shapes but doesn't fully have the hand-eye coordination to render it neatly.

Do you think a child would have been admitted to draw something in such a precious manuscript? A child with quite developed motor skills, by the way, - because there's also a T-O map there, beside the "scribble".

(13-04-2017, 05:18 PM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Do you think a child would have been admitted to draw something in such a precious manuscript? A child with quite developed motor skills, by the way, - because there's also a T-O map there, beside the "scribble".

The T-O map isn't beside the scribble, it's on top of it (or under it, but it looks like it's on top) and there's Voynich text next to it also.


It shows all the characteristics of a child's scribble, the wiggles in the lines, the pen not quite going the right direction, the hesitation, the unevenness of the pressure, the way it scrawls in a wavy line instead of in relatively straight lines, the way the forms are bigger (children have difficulty writing small letters). I've seen plenty of child's scribbles and this is what they look like. It even looks like it's a slightly darker ink than the T-O map and the VMS text (which is slightly more golden-brown).

I think this is just pen trying.

(13-04-2017, 08:14 PM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I think this is just pen trying.

Pen tests tend to be quite orderly, even the messy ones. Here are some I've collected:

Maybe the ink in his biro wasn't flowing so he scribbled until it came.....

(14-04-2017, 07:51 AM)davidjackson Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Maybe the ink in his biro wasn't flowing so he scribbled until it came.....

But it looks like the same hand that put the scribble on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. with a child's drawing. The color, shapes, and the unevenness of the pen pressure are pretty much the same and the drawing to the right of it is done the same as many children's drawings. I even found a child's stick figure on the Web that was almost exactly the same, with a square head and arms and legs coming out of the head.

If you look at the two pages together, it looks like a child trying to write (one who has been shown some letter shapes but doesn't have enough practice and coordination to do it right yet) and who has created a typical child's stick figure.


Adults learn to write smaller, with more even, controlled shapes. Once they learn that, they don't usually go back to the large, scratchy uncoordinated shapes they made as a child.

Sorry JKP, I was being frivolous.

What is interesting is to consider the type of material used. Is this ink or pencil? It's obviously a very different ink flow than that used in the main lettering.

If this is child scribbling - which I agree it looks like - what sort of implement would allow a child to scribble like that? A traditional ink quill would require constant re-inking and you would expect a child to blot constantly.

I split this thread for a separate discussion about these scribbles.