The Voynich Ninja

Did you know that the scribe made a funny mistake at the page f37v?

The text is obviously skewed but only on one side of the sheet. On the other side it seems slightly skewed (we can argue about that) but not so badly.

The sheet itself isn't a rectangle but rather a trapezoid (that's how they call it in maths You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ) with one side skewed. It looks like the scribe wrongly aligned the text to the skewed side 

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What does it mean to us?

I would say it supports the view that Voynich Manuscript was a low quality product and it was accepted by its creators:

- the sheet which wasn't a rectangle wasn't trashed but used
- the scribe was unexperienced as he aligned the text wrongly
- after the mistake they still didn't trash it but decided to keep it.

Would you agree?

(10-02-2026, 03:22 PM)Rafal Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.It looks like the scribe wrongly aligned the text to the skewed side

That edge looks straight to me.  But why is the book tilted at an angle?

All the best, --stolfi 

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(10-02-2026, 03:22 PM)Rafal Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.- the scribe was unexperienced as he aligned the text wrongly

"Aligned?  Is that a word? What does it mean?"

All the best, --stolfi

(10-02-2026, 03:22 PM)Rafal Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.- the sheet which wasn't a rectangle wasn't trashed but used
- the scribe was unexperienced as he aligned the text wrongly
- after the mistake they still didn't trash it but decided to keep it.

Would you agree?

Interestingly, folio 38 has an even larger triangle missing, but verso text is at the bottom of the page, so the text is level.

I agree that this is consistent with a scenario where creators of the manuscript couldn't freely choose which parchment to use and had to make it work with whatever they had on hand.

I'm not sure about the experience, maybe aligning it to the edge of the page was by choice and not a mistake or oversight. After all, if you want the text to look neat on a non-rectangular page, you can try different approaches. But the result looks weird, I agree. Though it's not the only weird thing and not the weirdest one in the MS, I think.