The Voynich Ninja

(23-01-2020, 12:01 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(22-01-2020, 04:37 PM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
You will find that same position in the lunar circle in the top also reads chio

Okay, I understand better where you are coming from. In the other circle, the text becomes weird at the same angle. Maybe the scribe did not find it necessary to rotate the page for this (possible to reach with right hand writing) and therefore produced slanted / deformed glyphs. 

..

There are many examples on the zodiac folders that the scribes did not like rotating the folio any more than necessary, and the glyphs become increasingly slanted. You can see the progression and also where they turned it and the letters straighten out again. I noticed it over and over when I was creating the transcript.

It made me wonder what they were using as a writing surface. It seems like either they were concentrating so hard that turning the folio was a distraction OR it was on some surface with things impeding the rotation (a cramped space).

I was thinking if they write on bifolios, some orientations may be impractical because a large part of the sheet may hang off the table.

After noticing that they didn't seem to like rotating the folio until absolutely necessary, I spent some time looking into writing surfaces. Many of them had nothing more than a little board/shelf attached to the side or arm of a chair. Tables were apparently not commonly used for writing.

Some had lectern-style surfaces (these are often depicted in miniatures), but those were probably luxury items that were more common in scriptoria than other places. But even a lectern-style base would be awkward for creating a map or anything else where you have to rotate the folio. 

I'm posting this for interest's sake, not as an explanation, but there were certain styles of script where the long-ess was written by going over the stem a second time to emphasize it and to add a little tick mark on the left. This is usually only done well by professional scribes because the stem can get messy if the aim and pressure are not perfect. The top of the long-ess could be rounded or straight (some scribes penned it both ways). Here is an example from a 14th-century manuscript:

[attachment=3926]

Maybe the VM can be deciphered by awkwardly copying it at an angle...

(23-01-2020, 09:33 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Maybe the VM can be deciphered by awkwardly copying it at an angle...

I wonder whether these circles are a way in to the construction of the glyphs though, because of the forced errors.

It could possibly be "a fond". This is french for bottom of a container or lake, dont know if that helps

I really don't think that's a d. They didn't write "d" like that. It wasn't that small, it wasn't that shape. It's shaped like double-story  "a".

I don't know if it is "a", but we should at least try to compare it to the way letters were written at the time.

(22-01-2020, 10:34 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Then it says "spna". Spma? Fpna? Latin spuma is foam.

Just thought I'd add a note here that "spuma lunae" is an alchemical term, referenced in Michael Maier's 16th C Arcana Arcanissima (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).
It is also found in several 18th century dictionaries either as an alternate name for lapis specularis (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. wikipedia page about that stone, unfortunately no English version available) but also, confusingly, for a white mineral which was apparently similar to plaster or talcum.
So far, however, I haven't found any notes about medieval uses of "spuma lunae" in the context of mineralogy or alchemy.

It's selenite, you get a lot of it around here. The romans mined it for Windows. The white mineral is probably alabaster. They are both types of gypsum - selenite is a semi transparent crystal, alabaster is a white compacted version which uses to be used for sculptures.