The Voynich Ninja

There's a big red stain in the upper corner of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. that looks like it was caused when some sort of red substance spilled onto the page.  It seems that this must have occurred while the manuscript was already in its present order, or at least while this particular folio was the same position with respect to its adjacent folios, because there's a smaller "sub-stain" in the same area of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. - not merely a paint contact transfer, but a small circular stain apparently caused by the same red substance when it was still fully liquid.  Look at it and you'll see what I'm talking about.

What's interesting about this is that the text in the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. stain has obviously been retouched.  So if the stain followed the binding of the manuscript into its present order, and the retouching followed the stain, then the retouching - at least in this instance - must have occurred after the manuscript acquired its present order.

Since there's apparently quite a bit of retouching to other areas of the manuscript as well, it seems likely that most of this retouching also took place after the manuscript was in its present order, although it is of course possible that the manuscript has been retouched multiple times.


So it seems that the retouching, or at least some of it, was therefore not done by the original scribe, but was done by someone who presumably did not know enough about the VMS to put the pages in the correct order, yet still took the time to carefully retrace some of the text and do a decent job (to my eye) of reproducing the VMS letters.

I wondered if it was caused by the Marci letter, that may have been preserved between the pages, in which case this could a stain from the wax seal.
An other suggestion I heard was that it could be wax of a candle that dripped off during an evening reading session.
There are a few more in the MS but not many.

Okay, so that material is wax. I wasn't sure about that.

It would be interesting if the stain could be shown to be of Jesuit-era origin because that would imply that the retouching, or at least some of it, is from that time as well. I had always imagined that the retouching occurred relatively early on.

Sam, candle-wax tends to be either of tallow or of beeswax, and sealing wax simply has hardeners added to it. I'm not sure that sealing wax can be dated before the modern era, but it's a very interesting question. If you like, I'll look into it.

(04-03-2016, 10:29 AM)Diane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Sam, candle-wax tends to be either of tallow or of beeswax, and sealing wax simply has hardeners added to it. I'm not sure that sealing wax can be dated before the modern era, but it's a very interesting question. If you like, I'll look into it.

I'm going by memory, so I would have to check to make sure I remember correctly, but I'm pretty sure wax seal artifacts go back as far as Mesopotamia.

I don't have time to check on it right now, but the Mesopotamians had quite sophisticated seals that they used on ceramic objects, so there's a chance they may have impressed them into wax, as well (but I don't know for certain).

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

(04-03-2016, 10:29 AM)Diane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Sam, candle-wax tends to be either of tallow or of beeswax, and sealing wax simply has hardeners added to it. I'm not sure that sealing wax can be dated before the modern era, but it's a very interesting question. If you like, I'll look into it.

If you want.  It's not terribly important, but determining approximately when that stain was formed would shed some light on the history of the manuscript.

Same stain on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., the opposite(?) page to f103r.

The green blotch at the top seems to come from the green paint of the plant, which is indeed smeared in the same place.

(01-03-2016, 02:42 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I wondered if it was caused by the Marci letter, that may have been preserved between the pages, in which case this could a stain from the wax seal.
An other suggestion I heard was that it could be wax of a candle that dripped off during an evening reading session.
There are a few more in the MS but not many.

Colored candles were very rare before the 1870s , so if it were colored candle wax it would have to be late 19th or 20th century.

To me this looks like something has been spilt onto this place. Note that this something was able to dissolve (or wash away) the ink. Oil?

I won't describe the colour as red. It looks like rust.

The stains itself deserve a closer look. Past 2am here in Moscow, will look tomorrow.