The Voynich Ninja

There are several small letters written in the upper corners of several pages in the "cosmological" section.  I've collected all the ones that I could find and put them along side the first three letters of the "erased key" on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. for comparison:



Several questions:

• What purpose did these letters serve?  Did it have to do with an attempt to put these pages in the correct order?
  
• Are there two different hands in this marginalia?  The letters on f68 appear quite similar to the erased key, but different from both the "a" and the "b" on f67 and f70.
  
• When and where were these letters added?  Is there anything paleographically distinctive about these letters that might point to a particular time and place?  More specifically, is it likely that these letters were added during the Prague period, or were they added before or after that time?
  

I'm not an expert on this, but to me it actually looks like 1r has been written with a different utensil than the others. I see more clearly the quill strokes in it, while the others look almost modern. I hope someone with more expertise can comment on this.

The others look as if they've been drawn in one go, while for example the b on 1r has clearly been drawn in two lines.

(22-10-2016, 10:19 AM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I'm not an expert on this, but to me it actually looks like 1r has been written with a different utensil than the others. I see more clearly the quill strokes in it, while the others look almost modern.

I've seen these referred to as being in "pencil", so you may be right, though it's not obvious to me what kind of writing implement was used.  Also, I should mention that I upped the contrast on these to make the shapes of the letters more visible, so it's probably better to look at the original scans if you want to try to determine that kind of thing.

Please also note that there are two columns of 'a, b, c' on f1r. While the right-hand one is even more difficult to see, I would venture the guess that they are not in the same hand.

The ink of one of the 'a's  on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. was tested by McCrone and found to be iron gall ink.

The a, b, c in the cosmological pages have always been described as 'pencil'.
The Jesuits in Rome made many pencil annotations on Kircher's correspondence, so my first tendency is to suspect that they may have been responsible for this too.

This is of course speculative.

There's not a lot to go on in the VMS, with such small samples, but...

from these fragments, I would venture that the hand on 1r is probably not the same as the one on folio 68r even though the letter forms are very similar (if it's two different hands, they may have learned to write at approximately the same time and place). Either that or the person was using a different writing tool that was not as familiar or comfortable to the hand.

Those on 67r and 70r are even more different and, judging by the writing tool and letter forms, might be later additions.


I'm hoping by Sunday I can upload an article that discusses the text on the first page. I began it soon after I wrote the last blog on the 1r columns, but I have an important sample somewhere on my hard drive that needs to be included and locating it among several gigabytes of files is like searching for a grain of sand on a crowded beach.

(22-10-2016, 11:33 AM)-JKP- Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.from these fragments, I would venture that the hand on 1r is probably not the same as the one on folio 68r even though the letter forms are very similar (if it's two different hands, they may have learned to write at approximately the same time and place). Either that or the person was using a different writing tool that was not as familiar or comfortable to the hand.

Those on 67r and 70r are even more different and, judging by the writing tool and letter forms, might be later additions.

This is what I'm inclined to think as well.  But it's pretty weird that two different people at completely different times would choose to write small letters in the corners of these pages since it's not clear what the purpose is.  I've wondered if perhaps someone during the Prague period wrote the ones on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and left some notes describing their function, and then much later someone else making use of these notes wrote the ones on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and f70r.

1) It is common usage to cite columns on a page in a ms as a, b, c etc, e.g. 10ra. 10rb and so on
2) 67r and 70r look very late to me, I would say they could be 20th c.

(22-10-2016, 02:34 PM)Helmut Winkler Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.1) It is common usage to cite columns on a page in a ms as a, b, c etc, e.g. 10ra. 10rb and so on

It does seem plausible that these letters could have been written to make it easier to cite these pages. Which would be interesting if true, since it would imply the existence of some external document that refers to the VMS (most likely a decipherment attempt).

Quote:2) 67r and 70r look very late to me, I would say they could be 20th c.

They look relatively modern to my untrained eye as well. How early do you think they could be? Is it at all possible that they are from the 17th century?

(23-10-2016, 04:22 AM)Sam G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.They look relatively modern to my untrained eye as well.  How early do you think they could be?  Is it at all possible that they are from the 17th century?

I am a bit reluctant to date single letters, but I don't think they an be earlier than second half of the 19th c. and my personal opinion is that they belong to the Voynich/Kraus aera.

(22-10-2016, 10:46 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The Jesuits in Rome made many pencil annotations on Kircher's correspondence, so my first tendency is to suspect that they may have been responsible for this too.

This is of course speculative.

There is equally a record of Voynich adding pencilled annotations on his manuscripts (not just the inside covers or endpapers), so Helmut's suggestion is also possible. It doesn't look like his hand, though, even though I don't have many samples of that.