The Voynich Ninja

Everyone has their own "pet theory" on what the VMS is, or what the illustrations/imagery represent. In this thread I offer mine. It is based on reading almost 3000 pages of Wappenbuch (15th century coat of arms compendia), almost 25 different Bellifortis and many other related illustrated books and manuscripts from the 1400s.

Studying the VMS is indeed an incredible time sink, and at this point I feel I've wasted enough time in my life on this, so I'll offer my "pet theory" and probably give this whole subject a break for a while.

So in a nutshell, my proposition is this: the plant section in the VMS is not about plants at all. Rather, the plants are artistic renditions of existing coat of arms, heraldry and other material inspired from contemporary books. I'll offer some conjectures on "why", at the end of this post.

It all started with an observation about folio f90v1. It occurred to me that the structure of this "plant" ressembles the classic "lion with a crown" heraldry:

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Thinking that perhaps this is not simply a coincidence, I continued checking some contemporary heraldry manuscripts, Wappenbuchs. And indeed, it seemed to me that such coincidences occur many times. Take the root of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. for instance:

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Or the root of f46v:

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Some leaves also remind one of classical heraldic elements. How about some peacock feathers:

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Then we have the many "croziers", i.e., bishop's staffs, which are abundant in medieval heraldry. Why do they appear so much in the VMS plants?

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Or how about the Wolkenstein family coat of arms:

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Or this:

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We also have a spear:

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The quadruple wheel is a well-known heraldic element, too.

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Let's move on to Bellifortis. This classic war book has a lot of small details that remind on of the VMS. Here are a few below. Since each copy is different, I find it likely that there exists one copy (maybe lost) that resembles the VMS even more. Anyway, take a look at this.

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How about this?

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And this walking man "root":

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Is this a COVID cell, or rather a classic detonating device from Bellifortis?

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Is this an unknown flower the world has never seen, or is it a fountain?

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Is this a flower, or a shield?

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Some conclusions and conjectures

In the course of my "study", I found a large amount of coincidences like those presented above, which I will omit here for lack of space. It seems to me that almost every page of the VMS plant section can be corresponded with a heraldic element or some other item from Bellifortis. So now I ask: why?

Conjecture 1. The plants in the VMS "plants" section are not plants.

To me, it is pointless to try and identify these plants, because they are simply NOT plants. But do they have some connection to the text?

Conjecture 2. The plants in the VMS "plants" section encode some meaning related to the text on the same page.

By this I mean, that if you can unambiguously identify that a plant of a specific folio is the coat of arms of, say, Sigismund I, or Pope Martin V, then somehow on that page you should have the word "Sigismund" or "Papst Martinus" or something within the text. So instead of looking for plants, like "Hellebore" or "Lily", we should be looking for people's names.

Conjecture 3. The VMS is a forgery, and the author(s) copied elements from 15th century popular books to make it look authentic.

The fact that there are so many references to visual elements from diiverse books might mean that the forger(s) used these as inspiration for their forgery.

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There are my two cents, and now I'll give this whole thing a break. I hope you enjoyed my "pet theory".

Quote:So in a nutshell, my proposition is this: the plant section in the VMS is not about plants at all.

I wouldn't go so far. If you draw some unrealistic, not existing plants with parts inspired by other stuff, they are still plants.

(15-03-2026, 02:12 PM)Rafal Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I wouldn't go so far. If you draw some unrealistic, not existing plants with parts inspired by other stuff, they are still plants.

I would argue that the "plants" are hiding a message that's related to the text. As I conjectured, this message might be related to people. Thus, the plants might be representations of people.

This might be a bit far fetched, but... since we know that the VMS was likely penned at the same time as the council of Constance, it might be a diplomatic cypher that details the attendees of the council, and their allegiances with other members. Recall that the council of Contance was the largest congregation of the time, that spanned multiple years, and whose main goal was to resolve the issues about the two popes. Members from Europe's every major power were there, including Sigismund, the Holy Roman Emperor.

Contance is also situated just north of the region where an abundance of castles with ghibelline (swallowtail) merlons were built at that exact time. It is also home to the Tyrolian/South German dialect that some have linked to the VMS marginalia.

I remember theories that interpreted plants as schematics, as allegories or as mnemonics, but plants as people sounds new to me.

(15-03-2026, 04:08 PM)oshfdk Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I remember theories that interpreted plants as schematics, as allegories or as mnemonics, but plants as people sounds new to me.

Indeed. I think (in my humble uninformed non-historian opinion), that personal information about prominent noble families would be worth encyphering. And what does encypherment often accompany? Obfuscation.

Dear JustAnotherTheory,

To your intention: "and probably give this whole subject a break for a while" I will tell you the following: 

The Voynich Manuscript is "The Hotel California" of the scripts- you can never leave. You can think you are finished, but some day you scroll on line, or you are in a bookstore, or you see some root in the garden and you are trapped again. This happens to me several times. There is a spell on this manuscript and we are all under it.

Concerning your investigation:

Conjecture 1. The plants in the VMS "plants" section are not plants.

According my readings  the text  reveals the medicinal use of the plant.  Not all plants have names. And I have readings from two or three of them, since I do not understand everything.

  I know my readings are yet not widely accepted , but  nobody's proven me wrong yet.
Take plant f2r. While the root system looks like a tangle of snakes, the text indicates that there are two types of thistle- with spiny and and smooth stems. Then it reveals the specific parts and their therapeuphtic uses.
  And here comes your very interesting point about the form of the roots. They are not explained. Obviously the iconographic interpretation of the roots' form is not explained explicitely. The reader must find the key (or know it from somewhere) in order to finish the whole.

Conjecture 2. The plants in the VMS "plants" section encode some meaning related to the text on the same page.- Yes I do agree, that the roots' form represents additional coded information. They do like to some animals or human organs or whatever, but the text does not reveal information why they are drawn so.

Conjecture 3. The VMS is a forgery, and the author(s) copied elements from 15th century popular books to make it look authentic.

No I do not think so. The Manuscript has the hallmarks of a working document, not a decorative fake. The effort-to-profit ratio makes no sense for a forgery. Cosider the labour of 240 pages with complex illustrations and expensive pigments, a consistent script across hundreds of pages and unique diagrams...

I find the theory interesting, at least. Interesting enough to give it some thought.
The similarities are certainly not far-fetched.

However, it could of course be exactly the other way round, that the coats of arms of noble families used floral elements drawn in the stylisations typical of the time. We have very few books on plants from that period, and particularly the older ones show plant parts stylised in a similar way...

Conversely, it is also quite common to see roots depicted in the form of animals, simply to attribute a certain ‘magical’ or actual power (snakes and poison) to them.

In that respect, the similarities could quite simply be based on the general visual language of the time...

Just an idea...

Your view on f90v1 isn't a million miles from something I wondered, though rather than crown I wondered if it was the lion + fleur-de-lis (iris)
It would be along the same road of symbolism, though I'm not sure how much it stretch's or how identifiable people would find many of the others
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(11 hours ago)Bluetoes101 Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Your view on f90v1 isn't a million miles from something I wondered, though rather than crown I wondered if it was the lion + fleur-de-lis (iris)
It would be along the same road of symbolism, though I'm not sure how much it stretch's or how identifiable people would find many of the others

Wow interesting find!

(11 hours ago)Bluetoes101 Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Your view on f90v1 isn't a million miles from something I wondered, though rather than crown I wondered if it was the lion + fleur-de-lis (iris)
It would be along the same road of symbolism, though I'm not sure how much it stretch's or how identifiable people would find many of the others

It's one of those things that would be quite obvious to the right person, with the right context. The plant would represent a coat of arms, and then the people follow. For this theory to make sense, the recipient of the book, or the reader would have to either have access to coats of arms, or know which one refers to which (perhaps a colloquial name, or another aspect related to the subject would work too). 

I had some fun and made one, I think if you know its meant to represent something (a state, a coat of arms, a flag) it's pretty clear what's being referred to on this fake page i think. I could have also gone with some kind of eagle and stars symbolism, or something else instead of a literal copy of the flag. 

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