02-01-2017, 12:41 PM
I can't answer the thread about the "14+3 speculations at the start of 2017" - there would be too many "don't knows" - but there are a few speculations that all derive from f116v, so I prefer to post them here.
This page has been considered by some (e.g. Newbold, Brumbaugh) as the key to the cipher, but it may be a key to the MS in quite a different way.
Often, what we find on this page are called 'marginalia', but strictly speaking this is not true. The three lines starting with 'michiton oladabas (or something similar) are inside the normal text frame. The top line ('poxleber etc') is strictly speaking in the top margin, and the drawings / doodles are in the left margin. However, the top line could also be part of the text body - it does not make a big difference for the following.
The first thing to point out is that, since the drawings are in the margin, they would have been drawn *after* the text was written. One can argue about this, but to me this is more likely. Otherwise, this page would have had these drawings also in the main text frame, like the rest of the MS.
This is, however, the opposite from what happened in the rest of the MS. There the drawings were made first and the text written afterwards (almost certainly).
So let's imagine that there is an artist/draftsman who made the drawings in the MS, and a separate author/scribe who penned the text. Now on the last page (f116v), would the author/scribe go ask the artist to add the drawings in the margin afterwards? That doesn't ring true to me. It makes more sense that these were added by the same person. Speculation as I said, but worth wondering about.
Now is the author/scribe the same who wrote all (or a large part) of the Voynichese text? The words aror sheey strongly suggest this. They look like they were written fluently by someone who is familiar with writing the script.
Furthermore, the animal and the reclining woman do not look different from the animal in Aries and the many other nymphs. We may therefore also speculate that they were drawn by the same artist who did all or most of the drawings.
Taking all this together, the creation of the MS may very well have been a one-man activity.
If one prefers to think that the handwriting throughout the MS has to be from more than one person, then it could equally well be two, where one did all the drawings and some writing, and the other the rest of the writing.
But there is more.
Independent of whether the above is true or not, on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. I believe one can say that the text and the pictures relate to each other. Goat liver, goat milk and a goat-like creature.
So if that is the case for f116v, one could argue that it should also be the case for the other pages in the MS: text and pictures should belong together. Why do it only on f116v?
This also implies that the text has meaning.
Or at least: as much meaning as f116v.....
Enough speculation from me for today.
This page has been considered by some (e.g. Newbold, Brumbaugh) as the key to the cipher, but it may be a key to the MS in quite a different way.
Often, what we find on this page are called 'marginalia', but strictly speaking this is not true. The three lines starting with 'michiton oladabas (or something similar) are inside the normal text frame. The top line ('poxleber etc') is strictly speaking in the top margin, and the drawings / doodles are in the left margin. However, the top line could also be part of the text body - it does not make a big difference for the following.
The first thing to point out is that, since the drawings are in the margin, they would have been drawn *after* the text was written. One can argue about this, but to me this is more likely. Otherwise, this page would have had these drawings also in the main text frame, like the rest of the MS.
This is, however, the opposite from what happened in the rest of the MS. There the drawings were made first and the text written afterwards (almost certainly).
So let's imagine that there is an artist/draftsman who made the drawings in the MS, and a separate author/scribe who penned the text. Now on the last page (f116v), would the author/scribe go ask the artist to add the drawings in the margin afterwards? That doesn't ring true to me. It makes more sense that these were added by the same person. Speculation as I said, but worth wondering about.
Now is the author/scribe the same who wrote all (or a large part) of the Voynichese text? The words aror sheey strongly suggest this. They look like they were written fluently by someone who is familiar with writing the script.
Furthermore, the animal and the reclining woman do not look different from the animal in Aries and the many other nymphs. We may therefore also speculate that they were drawn by the same artist who did all or most of the drawings.
Taking all this together, the creation of the MS may very well have been a one-man activity.
If one prefers to think that the handwriting throughout the MS has to be from more than one person, then it could equally well be two, where one did all the drawings and some writing, and the other the rest of the writing.
But there is more.
Independent of whether the above is true or not, on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. I believe one can say that the text and the pictures relate to each other. Goat liver, goat milk and a goat-like creature.
So if that is the case for f116v, one could argue that it should also be the case for the other pages in the MS: text and pictures should belong together. Why do it only on f116v?
This also implies that the text has meaning.
Or at least: as much meaning as f116v.....
Enough speculation from me for today.