I received an email from someone asking how they could contribute to Voynich research. I thought for a bit, but didn't find it easy to come up with an answer. Sure, I'd like someone to find better matches for the month names handwriting, but that's an extremely specialized and tricky task that we kind of crashed on ourselves. In other words, whenever I think "someone should do this", it's because the research requires expertise that I don't have.
But maybe some of you guys have more inspiration? If someone wants to contribute to the research, what are things they can do? More generally, what are research topics that you can think of that you'd like to see anyone explore?
(Disclaimer: all suggestions made in this thread should be "up for grabs", so don't share research ideas that you want to keep for yourself).
Wouldn‘t it be useful to give us a bit of direction in what field of research „they“ are active and skilled, and what roughly their ressources are?
Would be useless to request „more A“ when they are doing only B…
Well yes, but if we come up with a "to do list", then people with various backgrounds and interests could benefit.
First, of all from my point of view, knowing where they live would be of interest. If they live in Northern or Central Italy that would be of interest.
I can think of lots of things in the area of early 15th century cryptographic research that someone could do whether they be in Italy or not.
For example, if someone could go through the cipher ledgers for the time and by reading the handwriting identify all the correspondents and research who they were then one could reconstruct the diplomatic networks of the time which could help in suggesting where to look for more ciphers. I haven't found the time myself to do that yet. I would happily share the photoreproductions of those cipher ledgers to someone wishing to do this. Lydia Cerioni did this for the Tranchedino Cipher ledger in her two books, which I can share scans of. If someone does this I could certainly recommend them to Jessika Nowak's cipher research group to do a presentation on the subject. You could even turn this research into a thesis for a Masters or Doctorate if you did this thorougly for all the surviving early 15th century cipher ledgers.
In terms of archival research in Italy I can also provide more suggestions.
Well, some weeks ago I made a browser tool comparing different illustrated versions of De Balneis Puteolanis.
I believe that I miss two manuscripts not available online, one is physically in a library in Parma and the other in a library in Naples.
If anybody by accident is going to be in Parma or Naples soon, you could make some photos of these stuff
Okay, these things are good, we should keep track of this. Mark and Rafal, if you could phrase these in concrete tasks (which manuscripts specifically, etc), I will add them to a thread I'll make in the curated subforum.
Basically, any task anyone can think of, no matter how specific, broad or context-dependent, should be added there, so we have a better idea of things that might be helpful.
I have on my OneDrive photoreproductions of the following Cipher Ledgers:
The Cipher Ledger of Paolo Guinigi, who was Lord of Lucca in the early 15th century it is from the Archivio di Stato di Lucca
The Cipher Ledger of Francesco Gonzaga, who was the Marquis of Mantova in early 15th century it is from the Archivio di Stato di Mantova
The Albertoni Cipher Ledger in the Biblioteca Statale di Cremona it dates from 1444 onwards
The Codex Urbinate which was the cipher ledger of the Count(later Duke) of Urbino, who was also a famous condottieri/mercenary army for hire, in the Vatican Library dates from 1444 onwards
(There is also a Venetian Cipher ledger from 1444 to 1452 that has recently been discovered.) [1444 again, I don't know why]
There are also a number of loose cipher keys and enciphered letters whose background could be researched.
At the top of every cipher key there is normally the name of the correspondent. And at the front of the cipher ledger there is normally also a contents listing of the correspondents. By reading the 15th cursive handwriting one can determine the name of each correspondent, sometimes reading the handwriting can be difficult. When one knows the name of the correspondent one can research online who that person was and so find out what their job title was and who they worked for. Sometimes a cipher key will have the year it was created written at the top otherwise one can try to date a cipher key by studying the references in the key as I have discussed elsewhere in the forum.
I have done this kind of task before, so if someone wants direction on this they can contact me.
I have scanned Lydia Cerioni's 2 volume work in Italian, "La diplomazia..." and it is on my OneDrive. Lydia Cerioni studied the Tranchedino Cipher ledger and ciphers in the Milan State Archives and did what I am describing for those documents. So, I can share that with someone so that they can see what she did.
If you have any questions or need more details then please ask me.
Ultimately, if you think that the Voynich Manuscript might be written in cipher then there is good reason for you to be interested in cryptography from the time of the Voynich.
I myself would find the results of this research very interesting and quite useful. I also think the historical cryptography research community would find them interesting and useful. And this research could be done from your desk without the need to visit archives as I have photos of all the documents. I haven't done this research myself as it is not top priority in my research and I have many other avenues to research.
(21-07-2026, 02:32 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.[..] but if we come up with a "to do list", [..]
Openly, this needs a start from zero.
There is nothing like a consensus even about the VMS character set, the number of scribes is doubted, and how „safe“ is an exact time range of 1404-1438? Could it be, regarding the used C14 method, as well be 1399-1443, or even 1384-1458…?
Until then, I thought that all the necessary research had already been conducted...
In fact, there are some interesting models here, such as the Vowel Bridge Model. New members could help us, the great craftsmen, complete our great projects
This will be more fruitful than any You are not allowed to view links.
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This is for those who volunteered to help us with VMS. They have many ways to help us...
Start from the beginning but use all the information that is already known. Use that knowledge to identify those places where investigation is most promising. If there is a possibility of reading the text, then it must come from within the VMs. There are two essential parts for a working interpretation.
The first is methodology - the 'how to' part of interpretation. The 4 x 17 symbol sequence of You are not allowed to view links.
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The comparative symbols are similar. That is subjective. The placement / spacing is correct in the designated system. That is objective. The three systems are superimposed on each other. That's no accident. The historical correspondence and complexity indicate intentional construction.
The second essential part is the specific text segment. Interpreting the VMs language involves using the right methodology on the right text segment. No simple technique disguises text more effectively than hiding different parts on separate pages. Patterned markers designate different segments of circular text, starting with VMs White Aries.
Further understanding of the VMs means interpreting the information from the text according to the relevant knowledge of the era (1400-1450).