The Voynich Ninja

In Voynich research, theories and approaches to the script predominate. This has always been the case, and it seems contradictory because common sense tells us that we can understand a good number of images (not all) and build hypotheses about them rather than attempting to address a cryptic and intractable script. A study of Voynich iconography as intense as that of the script would certainly be productive. But unfortunately, in this century, the humanities are not in fashion.

  For me, the script is a byproduct, something secondary. What I mean is, the Voynich authors created an astrological book full of images to convey a message quite common in their time: the power of the stars. They could have left the illustrations alone, without the script, and the message would have been clear to the educated people of their time.

  One of them came up with the idea that the images could be accompanied by a kind of explanatory text, but what text can there be for something that the illustrations themselves already explain? That's how I think the script was born, an iconic code of symbols and astronomical positions that was included in the book as text. A kind of game.

Although with obvious differences, my theory about the script is comparable to the conclusion that William Friedman reached after many years of study.

As is known, Friedman thought that the Voynich script was an early attempt to construct an artificial or universal language of a priori type. That is, he didn't believe that groups of glyphs should be read as if they were words, but rather that each glyph should be interpreted separately, given that it represented a concept or category. Although he didn't make it explicit, according to his model, language would be formed by interpreting the first glyph of each group as containing a general idea, the second glyph would continue to develop the idea, and so on.

What I agree with him on is that each glyph has a semantic content; it's a symbol that represents a reality. It can be a celestial object or a position on the eclitic circle. Each group of glyphs would represent a celestial configuration. Friedman, for example, would see gallows as a category that forms a chain encompassing other, smaller concepts. In a way, I also believe gallows are a category, since for me they represent the sun.

Let's imagine for a moment that the Voynich only had the astronomical and cosmological pages. It would still be a book with an uncertain message, given that some of its images are rarely seen in other medieval codices on similar topics. The script for that reduced VM would be the same indecipherable script that we see.

  If I were to say that the glyphs in that script are astronomical symbols, I'm sure my theory would be more credible since it would be consistent with the imagery. It would seem logical that astronomical and cosmological illustrations would be accompanied by those symbols.

 The strange combinations of glyphs we see in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. would make sense then; we see single glyphs in one circle, only groups in another, and in another circle, single and groups mixed together. All of this leads one to think of astronomical symbols and their combinations on a cosmological page. The star-filled folios f68r1/r2 would also make sense. It would be easier to see the labels as groups of symbols marking the star's position rather than names.

Seeing that script accompanying the dozens of herbs in the Voynich makes one think of a text from a language, but in the medieval mindset that permeates this book, the stars are what create the herbs, and so it makes sense that they share the same symbols.

It may sound a bit presumptuous, but after so many years, I think the Voynich has lost its mystery for me. In fact, I see more mystery in my dog's eyes than in this medieval codex.

After all, this is a book that conveys in a very original way the culture and mentality of a humanity for whom magical thinking was commonplace, a way of seeing the world that is very far from our own.

In relation to the magical thinking alluded to in my previous post, I believe that there is not enough reflection on an obvious fact: the Voynich is an astrological herbal. Defining what it is represents an important step in unraveling the nature of the codex. When you pick up a book from a shelf, you immediately know whether it's a book on mathematics, history, or natural sciences. In the case of the Voynich, its most accurate definition is this: an astrological herbal.

  It may seem like something unimportant, but it is important because it forces us to think differently, to connect with a mindset that is no longer part of our world. To put it another way: you have to think outside the box.

(06-09-2025, 08:39 PM)Antonio García Jiménez Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.[...] an obvious fact: the Voynich is an astrological herbal.

A famous Educative Joke goes like this:

A group of scientists are on the train from London to Edimburgh, on the way to the annual meeting of the Royal Society.  At some point the Astrophysicist point out of the window to a solitary cow:
--- Look, guys, here in Scotland all the cows are black!
The Physicist immediately corrects him,
--- Just because you see one black cow? That is a good theory, but you will need a few more observations to be sure.
The Statistician joins in:
--- Indeed!  With that observation you can only say that it is likely that all cows in Scotland are black! If your prior...
--- Not at all! --- says the Mathematician. --- That example only shows that in Scotland there exists a cow that is black, nothing more!
--- If I may correct my dear colleague, --- says the Logician --- the example only shows that in Scotland there exists a cow that is black on one side!

So, playing the Logician here:

The Herbal section is almost certainly a herbal.  The drawings are mostly made up or mangled in the copying beyond recogition, and the text may be legit herbal text, or made up too, or random gibberish; but that section was meant to look like a herbal.

The Zodiac section almost certainly represents the Zodiac, and each set of nymph+star+label almost certainly corresponds to one degree of arc of the Ecliptic. WIth the same caveats as above, that is what it was meant to look like.

However, AFAIK there is no evidence that the Zodiac section is atrological, that is, concerned with horoscopes, auspices, predictions, celestial influences on health, harvest, etc.  It may well be just astronomical.

And AFAIK there is nothing connecting the Herbal and Zodiac sections, apart from them being in the same script/code/language/hand and having been bound in the same book - together with the other sections and the nine-rosette diagram. The two sections are not even in the same quires.  Thus I don't think we can say that  the VMS is "obviosuly an astrological herbal". 

(I personally do not think there is a connection between Herbal and Zodiac. My bet is that the Author copied each section from a different book. But it is just a hunch; I have no evidence for it.) 

All the best, --jorge

PS. On the way back from the conference, the Logician found himself seated next to the Astrophysicist. 
--- By the way --- he says to the colleague --- I must apologize for my earlier criticism of your claim about the cows of Scotland.  I though a bit more about that issue, and now I think that it is almost certainly true that they are all black.  On this trip alone I have already seen hundreds of examples that confirm that claim.  Like those out there now.
The Astrophysicist looks out of the window, puzzled.
--- Where? I see only some sheep and a horse...
--- Yes, but they are white sheep, and the horse is brown.  You see, the claim "in Scotland, every cow is black" is logically equivalent to the claim "in Scotland, everything that is not black is not a cow".  If either claim is true, the other is true; if either is false, the other is false.  Therefore, each non-white thing that you see that is not a cow --- like that green tree, that gray boulder, that yellow house --- being an example that confirms the second claim, is also an example that confirms your claim!

Jorge, I can see you're good with jokes. More than the Scottish cow joke, I found it funny that you think the herbal and the cosmological and zodiac sections are stuck together in the Voynich by chance. That someone put them together when binding the codex, even though they have nothing to do with each other. I'm actually surprised that so many people might think this, when there don't seem to be any conventional herbals linked in the same codex to cosmological and zodiacal pages.

  I maintain that the Voynich is a perfect unity that was conceived as a unity of message. I have said on occasion that the script is something incidental that might not exist, that any educated person of that time would know how to interpret the codex's imagery as a manifestation of the power of the stars over the herbs.

In Voynich research, there is a lot of anachronism, such as separating astronomy and astrology when in the Middle Ages they were practically synonymous.

(07-09-2025, 12:26 PM)Antonio García Jiménez Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I maintain that the Voynich is a perfect unity that was conceived as a unity of message.

Well, that is not my feeling at all.  Can we agree that, so far, there is no real evidence for either claim?  

Quote:In Voynich research, there is a lot of anachronism, such as separating astronomy and astrology when in the Middle Ages they were practically synonymous.

I agree that such was the case in the typical Medieval mind. But it was not necessarily the case for every medieval text.  I bet that there are many texts from the 1400s that describe purely "factual" astronomical concepts -- such as star catalogs or explanations of the Ptolemaic model for planet motions -- without much discussion of the supposed influence of stars and planets on Earthly affairs.  

The text in the VMS Zodiac pages seems to be too short for any significant discussion of the latter.  At best, the circular text on each page may say some generalities like "People born in this sign have good handwriting and make the best kings. It is the ideal month to harvest kiwifruit and invade a neighboring country to the North.  Beware of gift-bringing Greeks and of tricky math quiz questions.  Expect light drizzles and a comet or two."  I would think that an astrological treatise would say a lot more about casting horoscopes fortunes conjunctions quintiles satellitiums whatever etc.

All the best, --jorge

Of course, there were strictly astronomical books in the Middle Ages. Sacrobosco's Treatise on the Sphere, perhaps the most widely used university textbook, is a good example.

  We could interpret some pages of the Voynich as astronomical or cosmological, but what we see in them is, in addition to the sun and the moon, stars, many stars. The astrological character of the codex is fundamentally given to it by the zodiacal section, but it has nothing to do with human astrology.

  It was a great expert in iconography like Panofsky who related this section of the Voynich with the astromagic books of King Alfonso X. I think he was thinking above all about the lapidary, which is an astrological lapidary. The Voynich may well be its equivalent in magical herbs, an astrological herbal.

(07-09-2025, 09:48 PM)Antonio García Jiménez Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Sacrobosco's Treatise on the Sphere

Ah, yes, good old You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..