The Voynich Ninja

The Voynich Garden application is back online after serurity updates.

I've  just completed the largest single expansion of the site's historical research coverage since it launched.

What's new:

• Historical proposals reconciled and expanded, bringing the current total to 542 plant identification proposals, cross-checked across multiple independent historical research sources
  
• New reference photos attached to over 320 proposals that never had one before — so instead of just a name, you can now actually see the plant being proposed for a given folio, side by side with the manuscript
  
• A new historical researcher joins the roster: J.K. Petersen, an independent Voynich researcher active primarily in the 2010s and later, who examined and proposed identifications for individual botanical drawings
  
• A pass through every external reference link on the site to catch and repair broken citations, so the sourcing behind each proposal stays trustworthy over time
  
• Meet the historical researchers. Every proposal on the site is credited to one of these voices — sometimes decades apart, using totally different methods, all trying to answer the same question: what plant is this?
  

Historical Researchers:

• Arthur O. Tucker / Rexford Talbert -- Modern researchers who, primarily in the 2010s, proposed identifications of numerous Voynich plants as species native to Mexico and the Americas.
  
• Dana Scott -- Voynich researcher active in online research communities from at least the late 1990s–2000s, who proposed numerous identifications for the manuscript's botanical illustrations.
  
• Edith Sherwood -- Modern Voynich researcher, active especially from the late 2000s onward, who — with her daughter Erica — attempted to identify nearly all of the manuscript's large plant drawings as Old World species.
  
• Ethel Voynich -- Widow of Wilfrid Voynich and custodian of the manuscript, active in Voynich research during the mid-20th century, who compiled tentative plant identifications drawing partly on Petersen and other early researchers.
  
• Theodor Holm -- Danish botanist involved in the earliest systematic attempts to identify Voynich plants, principally during the first half of the 20th century.
  
• Hugh O'Neill -- Botanist and early Voynich researcher whose plant identifications date mainly to the 1940s, including his published 1944 botanical study of the manuscript.
  
• J.K. Petersen -- Modern independent Voynich researcher, active primarily in the 2010s and later, who has examined and proposed identifications for individual botanical drawings.
  
• Stephen Bax -- Linguist and Voynich researcher active in this area particularly during the 2010s, who used proposed plant identifications as evidence in attempts to identify readings of Voynich words.
  
• Theodore C. Petersen -- Early Voynich researcher active principally in the mid-20th century, whose extensive handwritten transcription and notes recorded numerous tentative plant identifications.
  
• Ellie Velinska -- Modern independent Voynich researcher active mainly in the 2010s, who has proposed numerous botanical identifications based on visual and geographic comparisons.
  
• Anonymous (Finland) -- An unidentified Finnish biologist active through Stephen Bax's online Voynich discussions in the 2010s, who proposed identifications for a number of manuscript plants.
  

As always, if you spot something interesting — or want to add your own proposal — we'd love to have you weigh in.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(20-07-2026, 04:40 AM)asteckley Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Great resource!

One nit: on my browser, the scrolling index at the top of the page ends around page f94-c, where it gets overlapped by the first pages from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. on.

All the best,

I have logged in as "Vessy" and provided suggestion for f2r. 
But I do not see any result in the table as my suggestion. What did I make wrong?

(21-07-2026, 03:33 AM)BessAgritianin Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I have logged in as "Vessy" and provided suggestion for f2r. 
But I do not see any result in the table as my suggestion. What did I make wrong?

Thanks for letting me know.
I will look into this shortly. It is certainly possible that i broke something during my recent additions made while adding the new proposal data.

(20-07-2026, 04:40 AM)asteckley Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

• [..]
• Anonymous (Finland) -- An unidentified Finnish biologist active through Stephen Bax's online Voynich discussions in the 2010s, who proposed identifications for a number of manuscript plants.
  

And are the identifications of this Finnish biologist somehow marked seperately?
Or just as „anonymous“?

I found several „anonymous“ entries (and produced one more accidently some time ago), but would be curious for the results of this expert, if I could find them.

(21-07-2026, 06:14 PM)Stefan Wirtz_2 Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(20-07-2026, 04:40 AM)asteckley Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

• [..]
  
• Anonymous (Finland) -- An unidentified Finnish biologist active through Stephen Bax's online Voynich discussions in the 2010s, who proposed identifications for a number of manuscript plants.
  

And are the identifications of this Finnish biologist somehow marked seperately?
Or just as „anonymous“?

I found several „anonymous“ entries (and produced one more accidently some time ago), but would be curious for the results of this expert, if I could find them.

All the historical researchers (including "Anonymous (Finland)" ) are indicated by a small stack of books shown beside their name, as seen in the image below.
The other "Anonymous" entries that you see are when someone enters a proposed plant identification, but chooses not to create a login account  (and therefore they have no display name, cannot add comments or vote your opinon, etc.)

If you are looking for proposals by a specific person, you can click the "Proposals" option in the top menu, and do a search. You will see a table of the proposals across all folios.
[attachment=16690]
[attachment=16689]

(21-07-2026, 03:59 AM)asteckley Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(21-07-2026, 03:33 AM)BessAgritianin Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I have logged in as "Vessy" and provided suggestion for f2r. 
But I do not see any result in the table as my suggestion. What did I make wrong?

Thanks for letting me know.
I will look into this shortly. It is certainly possible that i broke something during my recent additions made while adding the new proposal data.

There was a image size limit of 5MB, but I have updated that, and that should be in effect on the web site now.
If you try to upload an image between 5MB and 20MB, it will downscale it to 5MB.