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| Two factor verification |
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Posted by: R. Sale - 06-08-2020, 08:57 PM - Forum: Voynich Talk
- Replies (12)
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Two factor verification is a recent security innovation.
Two factor verification is used in the VMs in the examples of several illustrations constructed of combined images: the VMs cosmos and the VMs critter (f80v). The combined images are a fusion of two separate sources. The VMs cosmos is a combination of Oresme and Shirakatsi. The critter is a combination of the Golden Fleece and the 1313 Agnus Dei with a thick covering of the Callisto myth to get the reader to see it function in the opposite direction.
The key to two factor verification is to have two independent factors with a maximized amount of separation. In a medieval situation, that would be to make it unlikely that both elements in the combined illustration would be known by the same person, unless that person possessed the same familiarity with these traditional and cultural elements as the person who created these representations. The simple fact is that both parts are essential in order to fully understand the combination. The VMs cosmos is the prime example.
The VMs cosmos is a combination of cosmos from BNF Fr. 565 fol. 23 (aka Oresme) and the Shirakatsi diagram of the Eight Phases of the Moon. The Oresme cosmos provides the structure for the central part of the VMs cosmos and Shirakatsi provides the eight curved spokes and outer wheel. While the structural comparison of the VMs and Oresme illustrations shows a strong similarity, visual comparison reveals obvious differences.
Structural similarities include use of the uncommon, three-part construction consisting of a central, inverted T-O Earth, stars scattered around the earth, and a cosmic boundary composed of a cloud-based pattern containing 43 undulations.
The distinction that shows that the VMs is not a copy of Oresme is immediately apparent in the representation of Earth. The Oresme illustration is a pictorial representation. The VMs marks the three sections by the (apparent) use of written language. The structure is still the same - and at the same time, there is no chance that visual similarity exists. This is the change from one method of communication to another. This is called a code shift. This change is intentional. Anyone copying a pictorial image is going to reproduce a pictorial image.
Methods of altering visual appearance without changing structure are used in the midsection of stars. Asterisk stars surround the Earth in the Oresme illustration. Polygonal stars encircle the Earth in the VMs. It contrasts the play on word / alternate appearance situation is synonymous Latin words. Meanwhile the apparent visual difference in the appearance of the VMs cosmic boundary is deconflicted through etymology and heraldic tradition, not to mention the 43 undulations.
Likewise the Shirakatsi portion has been visually altered. The curved spokes of the VMs are drawn so they go in the opposite direction. If the 'wheel and curved spokes' were an actual object, then these apparent differences are not different object, but merely different side if the same wheel. Visual alterations, apparently disqualifying differences of appearance can be resolved by seeing things from the other side. While in Shirakatsi, the bands making up the "wheel and spokes' are blank, in the VMs they are filled with written text. Yet another distinctive visual and inconsequential structural difference. The VMs structures are now equivalent to text banners used to provide information in some medieval illustrations where they function like conversation balloons in comic strips, and they are seem as ephemeral.
Not only is two factor verification needed to fully understand these combined VMs illustrations, it is also clear that an uncommon, matching structure makes a strong connection, while visual alterations have been used to maximize the differences of appearance. IMO, the use of visual alteration is intentional obfuscation which serves to disguise the reality of hidden information derived from history and tradition. This clearly implies that the VMs consists of a visual level of disguised appearance (at least in some parts) and a hidden level of structural and traditional reality, which the recovery of relevant tradition has started to reveal.
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| F66r question |
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Posted by: davidjackson - 04-08-2020, 10:06 PM - Forum: Marginalia
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Let us assume the text next to the body reads der mus del, a German medieval phrase which has been much discussed elsewhere.
What is the symbol above it?
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| Peter Bakker on the VMS |
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Posted by: bi3mw - 03-08-2020, 02:30 PM - Forum: News
- Replies (91)
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Here is an article by Peter Bakker, a linguist at Aarhus University. Even though his conclusion is a bit "self explaining" ( "The mere fact that it has not been decoded, means that it is not decodable"), I think the article is worth reading as a summary.
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| Sphere of Life and Death Cipher? |
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Posted by: Barbrey - 03-08-2020, 01:09 AM - Forum: Analysis of the text
- Replies (11)
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I have been looking at the Voynich for a month or so now and it has drawn me into reading about a lot of esoteric subjects. I've become particularly swayed by the idea that it incorporates not just medieval astrological material but also medieval magical material in the form of magic circles and incantantations to accompany its medicines or cures. Which was incredibly common so it's not new but was new to me. For instance, 57v is very like magic spheres of the time, which drew on the powers ofholy and planetary names to summon spirits or demons. Moreover the sign of the cross was often used to separate holy names, as we see on the last page. I have observed many other similarities but it poses background rather than the topic of this post.
In the course of the above reading, I came across a sort of magic eightball sphere called the sphere of life and death that physicians would use to divine through onomancy whether a patient would live or die. The usual practice was to take numbers associated with the patient's name, the moon on which he or she got sick, and the weekday number on which he or she got sick. Add up and divide by 30 and if thd remainder number fell below a centre line in the table given, the patient would die, if above, the patient would live.
This sphere was so ubiquitous in medical manuscripts of the time it left me wondering why the VMS, if it was a pharmaceutical/medical manual, which I believe it was, didn't have one.
So then I actually looked at the number and letter matches on the sphere for determining the number for a person's name. And the VM began to make a vague sort of sense if it were written in numerical cipher, often with two characters representing one number and translating back to one letter of the Latin alphabet.
There are problems with this method because the sphere numerical systems can differ slightly from one publisned sphere to another. We also can't at this point be positive what VM character/s represent what number though working backward should work with time and patience. And lastly, not all numbers are represented on the sphere, and moreover one number might stand for more than one letter.
But it was this last problem that got me somewhat excited because it helps make sense of some anomalies I noticed in the Voynich patterns. For instance, the letter that looks like a was often folliwed by what JK calls minims. They did not seem to work properly as numbers. But in the sphere of life, where a is represented by iii or 3, the number 3 also represents 3 other letters - most commonly b, f and z (or v\u).
So was the VM character a the number 3 and therefore also an a, and the minims were possibly subsets of 3 to indicate another variable of 3 - a was a, ai was b, aii was f and aiii was z?
There were two other groupings like this. The number 15 stood for e, i, n and sometimes k. And the number 6 stood for h, y and one or two more I can't remember - don't have it in front of me.
I had already been looking at the vM c groups as possibly numbers, particularly c as 2 or 5. If 5, then the c-c with a colophon on top could be 15, representing e, a different colophon i and a different one n. Something like that anyway!
As for the 6 group, I wondered if this was where the ligatured characters came in.
That's about as far as I've gotten! But the sphere was a standard, often ubiquitous, feature in many of these manuscripts - it wouldn't be totally fanciful if it was being used as a cipher key with some adjustments.
Before I go any further working on this, has anyone you guys know of already looked at this? And do you think it a waste of time or impossible? You can look up the sphere and info about it just by googling The Sphere of Life and Death.
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| Solve the Voynich to save the world |
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Posted by: Koen G - 02-08-2020, 10:17 AM - Forum: Voynich Talk
- Replies (33)
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A hypothetical scenario:
The president (you know, the president) had a dream that the Voynich manuscript must be solved within a year, or the world will be destroyed. He learns that you are, like, the world's greatest expert on this subject, so he gives you a call: you get unlimited resources and complete authority. Everybody has to do what you say, as long as it is with the purpose of discovering the truth about the manuscript. The only limitation is that you cannot perform destructive tests on the MS itself.
What do you do?
Who do you contact? What kind of people do you look for and which assignments do you give them?
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| Colettine Poor Clares |
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Posted by: R. Sale - 29-07-2020, 08:21 PM - Forum: Imagery
- Replies (5)
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Investigations of certain VMs illustrations have produced connections with particular historical sources such as artistic images and records of actual events, along with other documents. In several individual lines of investigation, the connections are grounded to sources with good historical provenance. Taken in summation, the details of historical provenance, from Melusine to the Golden Fleece, either imply or strongly suggest a connection to the historical Duchy of Burgundy in a period after 1430.
Investigation of the VMs rainbows in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is discussion of long standing. Rainbows can be connected to anything from T. Rex to a '57 Cadillac, not to overlook Noah's arc, though the best suggestion was the medieval artistic use of a double rainbow as a divine throne. However, the VMs throne is empty. Is the missing occupant Christian of Classical? The evidence is insufficient.
Now, limit the investigation to Burgundy in the time after 1430 and what can be found? Nothing - should be the expected result, but history provides information about La sainte Hostie de Dijon. Quite a significant historical event at the time, The throne is a rainbow.
Every VMs investigator has wondered about the 'nymphs'. Are they personifications of this or that? Are historical or mythical characters hidden among them? Is that Lady Bertilak? What if the prior conditions [Burgundy post 1430) are taken into account?
Well, you read the title, here they are.
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And here is Colette of Corbie.
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They clearly were in the Duchy of Burgundy at the time selected. Colette died in 1447. They were supported by Philip the Good and his wife, Isabella. In the KBR library of Philip the Good, there are two books titled, Vie de soeur Colette, authored by Pierre De Vaux, produced about 1460 in Flanders. [ms. 6048 and ms. 10988; the second has a couple illustrations.]
This is not to say that there was a connection, real or imaginary, between these religious women and the VMs nymphs. However, this is intended to open a window to historical facts and events which were occurring at that time.
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| A Florentine grain dealer's ledger |
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Posted by: RenegadeHealer - 29-07-2020, 07:41 PM - Forum: Codicology and Paleography
- Replies (2)
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Citation: Florentine Grain Dealer Account Book, 1466-1524. (SPC) MSS BH 005 COCH
Inspired by Helmut's comment about You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., I decided to do a deep dive into Google Images looking for medieval ledgers and trade books. I'm sure if I understood Italian that would be a big help, but somehow I still imagine I wouldn't be able to reliably transcribe this page into normal Roman letters and Arabic numerals. Especially the last line. Is this just my modern eye not used to a very different but commonly readable type of medieval script, or is this the intentional use of obfuscation to keep sensitive information private?
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| On purpose |
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Posted by: Mark Knowles - 29-07-2020, 05:12 PM - Forum: Voynich Talk
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I read people often write about what the purpose of the Voynich manuscript was. Why did the author write it? What function did it serve?
I seems to be a singular document, so to some people there must have been a singular purpose.
It is natural to view things in very functional terms. However in our own lives all the things we do are not governed by quite so functional goals.
Lots of people do things for rather nebulous reasons. If we ask why someone is researching the Voynich then they might answer, because they enjoy it. Of course, enjoyment could be said to be some kind of functional goal, neurologically speaking.
I suppose I wonder if the author(s) wrote the manuscript in whole or in part out of enjoyment, as a puzzle, a challenge or just an entertaining pastime.
Of course there likely was more than one motive for writing it, but I don't see why we should not consider pure pleasure as a significant motivating factor.
So many of the things we do are done out of pleasure.
Why are you eating pasta for dinner? Because I like it.
Why are you going to the theatre? Because I enjoy it.
Why are you reading that detective novel? Because it entertains me.
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| Masterpiece? |
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Posted by: Koen G - 27-07-2020, 11:05 PM - Forum: Voynich Talk
- Replies (24)
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I was browsing around and came across this quote on Claus Schmeh's site You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. :
Quote:[Rene] could also imagine that the manuscript is someone’s masterpiece, to be used to enter one of the secret societies that existed at the time.
It's the first time I remember hearing of this practice. Was this done in the early 15th century? What kind of societies would we be talking about? Or is this purely hypothetical since they would have been secret?
I find this idea intriguing but know very little about it.
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![[Image: pcacomp-1024x622.jpg]](http://www.vallisresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/pcacomp-1024x622.jpg)