05-09-2016, 10:05 AM
Okay, so, my own favorite idea for the Voynich at this point is that some/most of the writing is nulls or other junk writing just put in to confuse things. I'm inclining to think that there was some kind of grille or lattice that one put over the page to obscure the unimportant writing, and that this device was at some time lost or destroyed, leaving us with the mystery we now have.
Reason for this is, I notice a particular diagonal line formed by the text on the left side of almost every page, like letters have been forced to fit into the space in a certain way, and I also see evidence of more such lines on nearly every page. I see also a strong tendency for certain shapes to repeat within some of these diagonal gatherings. Sometimes the diagonal lines might be partially left blank but the page regions that have writing still make the diagonal shapes.
The only idea I have for how to test this, would be to line up printouts of the pages over a light table, and compare the text placements on top of each other -- I would expect there to always be diagonal lines in all the same places if this were correct. The trouble is I cannot actually test it like that, because the MS was not flat-scanned -- the pictures we have are just photos of the open book, so the pages don't lay flat, and as a result they cannot be accurately compared due to arching, bending, camera angles and other distortions. (I mean, I can't even get the front and back edges of the same folio to line up accurately most of the time because of the way it was photographed -- and I know from having tried it, that if you can't get it to line up accurately it's hopeless to guess where the text truly does or doesn't overlap.)
Transcripts are useless for this because the actual number of letters wouldn't stay the same, just the page-placement (and it might even be that only parts and pieces of the individual letters are important.)
I've been trying various simple methods like looking at pages through cheese graters and laying sticks or strips of paper over them, but there are hundreds or maybe even thousands of possible combinations there (and of course I don't even know what language I'm looking for underneath.) I don't think the idea's been disproven yet, it's just I don't have a proper way to check it.
So, I am asking -- does anyone have any idea how I could perhaps check this, with available resources? Some way to see what parts of the pages are favored for writing?
If you can't understand what I'm talking about, feel free to ask more questions. I've been ridiculed elsewhere for asking for help with this, by people who can't seem to understand what I'm getting at.
Reason for this is, I notice a particular diagonal line formed by the text on the left side of almost every page, like letters have been forced to fit into the space in a certain way, and I also see evidence of more such lines on nearly every page. I see also a strong tendency for certain shapes to repeat within some of these diagonal gatherings. Sometimes the diagonal lines might be partially left blank but the page regions that have writing still make the diagonal shapes.
The only idea I have for how to test this, would be to line up printouts of the pages over a light table, and compare the text placements on top of each other -- I would expect there to always be diagonal lines in all the same places if this were correct. The trouble is I cannot actually test it like that, because the MS was not flat-scanned -- the pictures we have are just photos of the open book, so the pages don't lay flat, and as a result they cannot be accurately compared due to arching, bending, camera angles and other distortions. (I mean, I can't even get the front and back edges of the same folio to line up accurately most of the time because of the way it was photographed -- and I know from having tried it, that if you can't get it to line up accurately it's hopeless to guess where the text truly does or doesn't overlap.)
Transcripts are useless for this because the actual number of letters wouldn't stay the same, just the page-placement (and it might even be that only parts and pieces of the individual letters are important.)
I've been trying various simple methods like looking at pages through cheese graters and laying sticks or strips of paper over them, but there are hundreds or maybe even thousands of possible combinations there (and of course I don't even know what language I'm looking for underneath.) I don't think the idea's been disproven yet, it's just I don't have a proper way to check it.
So, I am asking -- does anyone have any idea how I could perhaps check this, with available resources? Some way to see what parts of the pages are favored for writing?
If you can't understand what I'm talking about, feel free to ask more questions. I've been ridiculed elsewhere for asking for help with this, by people who can't seem to understand what I'm getting at.
