The Voynich Ninja

As I understand it, this year's HistoCrypt (International Conference on Historical Cryptology) conference is open to submissions on the subject of the Voynich Manuscript. If they get enough on the subject, the Voynich may have it's own "track". As it is, René Zanbergen is one of the invited speakers, so there will be Voynich discussion for certain.

The conference will be held from June 23-26, 2019 in the Mundaneum, Mons, Belgium. I am not related to the event, but I do hope to go. And I wanted to mention it here, among my "Ninja friends", because I was hoping that there may be some of you also interested in submitting a proposal for a Voynich talk.

There is still time to submit a proposal for a talk, as I write this. The deadline for submissions is March 22nd. Here is the submission site, or as it is said, the "call for papers":

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And here is the official main site of the event: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Hopefully there will be varied Voynich talks at the event. If this happens, I'm sure it will be a huge success, and those of us with an interest in the Voynich will have many opportunities over the span of the conference... both officially and unofficially, as often happens, to meet and discuss "all things Voynich".

All the best, Rich.

After they have declined our abstract in 2017 on the grounds that the abstract does not allow one to see what it claims (which of course can be said of each and every abstract in the world), I decided to abstain from submitting anything to that conference, as a person valuing my own time.

But anyway, thanks for the information. Somebody may stll be interested, and I only wish interesting papers to appear there.

You make a good point Anton. And my paper was, along with all the other Voynich submissions back then, rejected. I think there were as many as 5 submitted a couple of years ago.

But "never say never", because the committee is now open to the idea of having Voynich submissions. The "Exposition Track" to which they would be destined, has standards which allow they sort of hypotheses that really all Voynich talks would entail.

And anyway, if everyone gave up the first time, there would be no Moby Dick or Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. In fact, the year I was rejected by HistoCrypt, I decided to submit the talk to the NSA Cipher History Symposium, where it was accepted. So just the exercise of submitting was a valuable experience.

But of course I understand your reluctance. I don't have a dog in the fight, except to promote any chance of allowing people to understand the mysteries of the Voynich a bit better... and it would be great to see your ideas, there, if you change your mind.

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Hi Emma: For some reason I can't read your post, but the question came through my email, asking what they may be looking for: Well I really don't know, myself, to be honest. I'm not associated with HistoCrypt nor the event. Although I am friends with people on the committee, and have met others, I have no special insight.

I suppose René will be giving an overview of the Voynich, the background and history (René, is that correct?). So as a guess, that would leave really everything else: Cipher attempts and text analysis; theories as to plant identities, area of origin, and meaning of content... all the sorts of things that are discussed on your forum here, and everywhere else.

You could contact the organizers, perhaps, for a better idea of what they may be looking for: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

I'm sorry, I am not familiar with your area of interest in the Voynich. Do you have a particular theory on some aspect of the ms.?

All relevant details for paper submission seem to be here:

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It doesn't leave a lot of time... (but one can keep an eye on the page, just in case extensions are granted - a thing that is not unusual for symposia - but don't count on it).

It is certainly possible to send a question to Klaus Schmeh, but he will hardly pre-empt any decision from the programme committee.

I am not a student but I will very probably attend.

On the paper matter, I think a scientific paper which shows a considerable relation between cryptology and the VMS text, will draw attention.

However, writing such a paper is almost the same as solving the problem, in this case.