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Month names collection / ...
Forum: Marginalia
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It is not Chinese
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Favorite Plant Tournament...
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Favorite Plant Tournament...
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Favorite Plant Tournament...
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Upcoming Voynich program ...
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[split] Color annotations...
Forum: Voynich Talk
Last Post: Jorge_Stolfi
13-06-2025, 09:38 PM
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Wherefore art thou, aberi...
Forum: Imagery
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Visual dictionary of the ...
Forum: Analysis of the text
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An attempt at extracting ...
Forum: Analysis of the text
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| Voynich Manuscript Day short slots and deadline extension |
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Posted by: Koen G - 06-06-2025, 06:40 PM - Forum: News
- Replies (6)
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The deadline for submitting presentations for Voynich Manuscript Day, to be held on 3 August, has passed. However, we still have room for 2 ca. 30-minute presentations, so the deadline is extended to july 31st. Don't hesitate to contact me with proposals or questions!
Additionally, we are trying something new this year. I will hereby post six 10-minute time slots (all in CEST). Claim one in this thread and it's yours, to do or present anything Voynich-related you like.
- 13:00
- 13:10
- 13:20
- 14:00
- 14:10
- 14:20
Tell us about your favorite folio, some ongoing research, something that's bothering you about the MS or its study, read an ode to your favorite Voynich forum moderator...  It can be as serious or as silly as you like.
First come, first served, so claim a slot and it's yours.
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| Can scribal hands be correlated to imagery? Let's look at faces! |
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Posted by: Bernd - 05-06-2025, 02:01 AM - Forum: Imagery
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After Koen's marvelous work on Alpha vs. Beta plants I wondered if we can correlate scribal hands as identified by Lisa Fagin Davis to other imagery throughout the manuscript. The first obvious choice is nymphs andd faces in general which are abundantly drawn by scribal hand #2 ('balneological section') and #4 (Zodiac / Astronomy). But there are also a few figures on one page doubtfully attributed to hand #1 ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ) and two marginalia-associated drawings on pages attributed to scribal hand #3 ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ) and hand #5 ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ).
Scribal hand #1 - Roundel
Not much from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. which is not even definitely attributed to scribal hand #1 . There are four figures, two of which are shown from behind. There is only one other instance of a figure drawn from behind on f86v4 which Lisa attributes to scribal hand 2. The figures are large but rather crudely drawn. Eyes are slightly downward-curved lines.
Scribal hand #1 - Pharma
In the root section we find a few faces.
A number of small ones with few features on f89r1 . They show strong resemblance to the small astro faces associated with scribal hand #4
And a single one in f101v2 . It looks quite unique, round with pointy nose and best resembles the male zodiac figures associated with scribal hand #4
Scribal hand #2 - Plants
One plant, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. shofs large faces in roots. These have somewhat c-shaped but more complex eyes and an unique '<' -shaped mouth but overall I think the best match are the astro-faces of scribal hand #4.
Scribal hand #2 - Balneological
Arguably some of the best drawn figures though quality varies somewhat. Notably crisp dark lines. The eyes are mostly but not always c-shaped , the open end pointing inward. Sometimes loops. This appears to be a key feature of figures associated with scribal hand #2.The nymphs are also fairly large.
Scribal hand #2 - Rosette backside
The 4 persons on f85r2 and f86v4 show a very strong resemblance and are obviously drawn in the same style. Puffy cheeks. One figure is shown from the side, one from the back. Only one has c-shaped eyes.
f68v3 has two figures. One has clear c-shaped eyes, the other an odd unique polygonal face and nose
Scribal hand #4 - Rosette
The rosette foldout shows two strongly fades suns in the corner that appear similar in style to the other large astro faces by scribal hand #4. The lower sun has darker c-shaped eyes that could be amended.
Scribal hand #4 - Astro
We see a number of faces on celestial bodies that have an unique style. The large ones have more complex eyes, the mouth is sometimes represented by two parallel lines. Noses are often broad and round in large faces, rectangular in the small ones of celestial bodies.
Scribal hand #4 - Zodiac
This is where things get interesting! We have two zodiac pages in Q10: f70v2 and f70v1
The drawings are some of the best Nymphs in the manuscript. They are lifelike, in different poses and expressions standing in their fancy barrels. Eyes take different form. c-shapes are rare but look natural and not like amendments
Q11 Zodiac signs show a noticeable decline. The figures become much more static, also faded. The naked nymphs appear in the same poses as the ones from the balneological sections but are overall poorly drawn. Unambiguously c-shaped eyes are absent. Eyes are mostly dots or lines. The style is more or less consistent while quality varies. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. still shows some well- drawn figures and a lot of males in red with caps.
The foldout You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , f72r1 , f72r2 , f72r3 has a very similar style of crisp lines but drawing quality and paint job is noticeably worse. Ink becomes faded and there are some dark lines that look like amendments.
f72v1 has broader lines and some obvious amendments on the nymphs on top (crown, eyes). But no c-shaped eyes anywhere.
f72v3 , f72v2 shows massive fading with no obvious amendments in Leo, excapt maybe breasts. In Virgo, Virgo herself has c-eyes but they also look like they were made with dark ink.
Q12 You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. stylistically match the previous pages but less faded.
These 2 pages are the only ones in the astro section where we see clear c-shaped eyes - and they have been amended in darker ink. Just like hair/headdressses on the previous page. All nymphs in faded original ink have dot or line eyes. But also amended eyes can be dots or lines.
Marginalia #1
A single drawing associated with marginalia text on a page attributed to schribal hand #5.
Not much can be discerned from the face but the style looks different from the other marginalia drawing and more like the zodiac figures.
Marginalia #2
Another single figure on the last page associated to marginalia, the quire attributed to scribal hand #3 . The naked nymph appears quite well drawn and organic and in an unique style distinct from other nymphs in the manuscript.
Now what to make of all this?
In my opinion the drawing style correlates better with topics or even quires and pages than scribal hands. Furthermore, despite the differences, the style is fairly consistent and more a continuum than distinct chunks. This matches our experience from the plants.
Conclusio - looking at all the intermediates and the overall consistency of style, I propose that scribal hands mark periods in the development of an individual rather than distinct persons. I do not find the hypothesis that at least 5 people worked together in creating those highly similar yet subtly distinct images parsimonious. Obviously all the drawings are amateurish. Not necessarily bad but not the work of professionals. And one of the hallmarks of a good artist is achieving consistency. Overall the style across scribal hands is fairly consistent - too consistent to be the work of several untrained individuals. But this is my layman's opinion. I am not a paleographer.
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| Jorge Stolfi's voynich pages back online |
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Posted by: Jorge_Stolfi - 04-06-2025, 06:31 AM - Forum: News
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Hi, it has been brought to my attention that You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. from 1999--2004 were not available, Bog knows since when. Sorry, it was just a broken symbolic link in my messy website. They should be all back again.
All the best, --jorge
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| Decoding the Voynich Manuscript |
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Posted by: amilppc@gmail.com - 04-06-2025, 01:37 AM - Forum: News
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Hi everyone,
I would like to share the results of a recent research project on the Voynich Manuscript that we have been developing for several months.
The core idea was to approach the manuscript as a **structurally encoded text** — not an artificial language, but a Latin-based text using an alchemical-ritual lexicon and grammar.
Here is what we found:
✅ The manuscript follows **Latin SVO grammar**
✅ The "unknown terms" match known **alchemical and ritual terms** from 15th century sources
✅ We constructed a **complete decoding key** and **glossary** covering \~95% of the manuscript
✅ Structural match is particularly strong with the corpus of the *Schola secreta sapientiae* (Florence, 15th c., Abraham ben Simeon school)
The full research article is now available on my website:
? Insert your URL here — e.g. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
The article includes:
✅ Detailed methodology
✅ Full transliteration table
✅ Grammatical model
✅ Glossary with sources
✅ Appendices with references
✅ Example translations from the manuscript
I hope this work can contribute to ongoing discussions and further research — and I would very much welcome feedback from the community here!
Thank you)))
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| [split] Darker ink, retracing of text and drawings |
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Posted by: Bernd - 03-06-2025, 10:11 PM - Forum: Voynich Talk
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(03-06-2025, 04:47 PM)Jorge_Stolfi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.many years later another person (the "Retracer") went through the manuscript, retracing many faded glyphs and figure details in a distinctive very dark ink. He may have been the same who retraced some lines of page f67r2 with red ink. But this Retracer also added some fancy details that apparently were not in the original (such as the crowns and multi-lobed "shower caps" on some of the Zodiac nymphs, e.g. the outer one at 05:30 on Scorpio). Is there any way to establish how much later this could have happened?
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