As part of the Oresme challenge, here is the question. Can we put Oresme's cosmos back together again, using VMs parts?
We need to understand the details. How well do we know the relevant details?
Can we describe or represent:
1) the structure of Oresme's cosmos and the pattern of the cloud band?
2) the pattern on the armorial insignia of the pope who started the tradition of the cardinals' red galero?
3) the traditional patterns of the heraldic furs?
Do we understand heraldic canting?
These are things that might be seen as much more familiar to a time long passed. These are things that, under certain historical conditions, may have been taken as potentially common knowledge in certain groups. There is nothing particular unusual about this information. And only the first question might be somewhat restricted, though there are a number of years of historical separation.
The VMs answers these questions. The VMs author knows the answers in illustrated detail. The line encompassing the cosmos (f68v) is a nebuly line. It matches the Oresme illustration in basic structure. The VMs corresponds with the historical examples in numerous details, but we have lost much knowledge of relevant detail from the time of VMs creation.
I promised to do this already a few days ago, but couldn't find time for it. Sorry!
So here is a list of all line-initial words in the VMS. It's taken from the Takahashi transcription (I haven't checked the accuracy of anything, so there are probably some errors), excluding single-word "lines", most of which are actually labels.
From left to right, the columns are:
- the word type
- number of line-initial occurrences
- number of all occurrences
- proportion of occurrences which are line-initial
There are in total 1958 word types, including:
- 1000 unique ones
- 114 others that occur only line-initially
- 844 that are not exclusively line-initial
I think that on page f102v2 there is a cryptozoological animal called Tatzelvurm. Snake in the right upper corner.
Clearly visible are the eyes drawn in ink. Similarly, the eyes are drawn on other drawings MV.[font=Arial, sans-serif]
ТАТЦЕЛЬВУРМ.jpg (Size: 93.26 KB / Downloads: 65)
[/font]
The subject of “flat-top roots” was previously discussed in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
The point is that there are cases in which the roots are represented with a “flat top”, as if they had been horizontally cut, with the stem or stems of the plant rigidly ticking out of this flat surface.
This can be seen, for instance, in f36r You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. posted an extensive list of roots of this kind (links to the scans added by myself):
(27-01-2016, 04:06 AM)Oocephalus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.... in many plants, the stem is separated from the root by a horizontal line. This occurs in "grafted" plants, where the stem is placed on a much thicker root that appears to have been cut off (but not in all of them), but also in ones where the stem and the root have the same thickness. With one exception, this only appears in plants where the text is Currier A.
The following pages have "grafted" plants with such lines: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (?), You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. pointed out the online link to some illustrations from Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Ashb. 731, XV Century.
The illustration from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is particularly relevant. It represent Master Aloysius from Palermo standing next to a flowering plant with a “flat top root”.
As far as I remember, this is the closer parallel I have seen to some of the peculiar roots in the VMS.
These are my tentative transcription and translation of the Latin inscription in the Florence ms:
“Magister aloisius erbolarius et medicus depalermo
Ista erba vocatu[r] jusclamor quod dicitur panem malu[m] ter[r]e et valet co[n]tra adolore[m] capitis et g[?] esplena”
Master Aloysius herbalist and physician from Palermo
This plant is called “jusclamor” also said “bad earth bread” and is helpful against headaches and [...]”
While I am very uncertain about the end of the second sentence, it seems clear that the illustrated plant is cyclamen (jusclamor) which was commonly known as You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
For comparison, I attach on the right the illustration of Cyclamen fromYou are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (XI Century).
I hope that others will suggest other illustrations featuring similar roots.
I just read for the first time that there is a parallel between You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and a small-plant drawing, as mentioned by Rene here:
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This could be interesting for a whole range of reasons, so I wondered if any IDs have been proposed for the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. plant. Or does anyone have any other ideas?
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. - You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. helenium (Enula, Helenium, elecampane etc.)
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This post attempts to collate distinct discussions of observed tendencies within Voynichese which could be called spelling and grammar.
I include links to the different threads where each phenomenon is discussed. Please do not discuss the phenomenon here but in their respective threads - use the reply feature exclusively to alert me to phenomenon I have missed, or where I have made a mistake. Replies will be deleted once they have been dealt with in order to keep things tidy. I am linking to discussions that have appeared on this forum, not to third party websites.
Disclaimer: I use the word "rules" lightly here. We are discussing patterns in the text, not proposing any definitive rules.
I'm sure I'm missing quite a few so let me know what to add - this is my first draft.
Spelling rules
Vord rules
y appears either mainly as a suffix (in more than one third of the corpus) and occasionally as a prefix; rarely as in the middle of vords.
q is a prefix followed by o in about 90% of all appearences. It is often followed by a gallows character, or if not, by d or l. It sometimes appears prefixed by another o (oqotar f10r, shoqoky f49r, etc). It can rarely appear by itself in the middle of vords. qo appears as an unique vord 29 times. However, almost all vords prefixed by q appear elsewhere in the corpus without that prefix. No label uses that prefix.
Glyph i is followed by another i or n in 90% of all occurrences, and almost all n will be preceded by i. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
q almost always appears at the beginning of a vord before o . It is also common after a vord ending in y. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
Paragraph rules
f and p appear predominantly in the first lines of paragraphs (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). Furthermore, Currier Prescott (1976) notes that neither glyph are ever followed by c.
m appears predominately at the end of lines but not paragraphs – and when it appears in the middle of lines, it has a tendency to cluster groups of words ending in m (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).
Character classes
Certain bigrams can be substituted within vords to create (almost always) a new valid vord. (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). These are grouped into character classes:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
[ch] [sh]
[t][k]
[L][R]
[y][o]
[o][a]
[l][m]
For a fuller list and percentages of valid words returned, click here
Grammar rules
Asymmetric vord pairs. For example, the word or occurs 366 times and the word aiin occurs 470 times. But the phrase or aiin is much more common than aiin or. (Taken from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) Word order is important for several other "phrases" - the list is omitted for brevity here but can be found You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. Editor's note: Care should be taken to distinguish between genuine vord pairs and single vords that have been mis-transcribed with a space.
Line initial words. There are no popular words used to start lines. In the entire corpus (excluding one word lines) ychor starts 16 lines, followed by dcheo which starts 6 lines. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.| You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. | You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Bigrams. It has been suggested that parts of the corpus can be broken down into 26 bigrams. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
Repetition. The same vord can be repeated in sequence for no apparent reason (this may simply be dittography caused by scribal eyeskip). The same word is repeated three times in 35 different phrases (T. Timm).
Currier languages. There are statistical differences in the appearance of vords between quires. These differences have been collated into two "languages" by Currier. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
Glyph rules
A table showing how glyphs are constructed is You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
This post attempts to collate distinct discussions of observed tendencies within Voynichese which could be called spelling and grammar.
I include links to the different threads where each phenomenon is discussed. Please do not discuss the phenomenon here but in their respective threads - use the reply feature exclusively to alert me to phenomenon I have missed, or where I have made a mistake. Replies will be deleted once they have been dealt with in order to keep things tidy. I am linking to discussions that have appeared on this forum, not to third party websites.
Disclaimer: I use the word "rules" lightly here. We are discussing patterns in the text, not proposing any definitive rules.
I'm sure I'm missing quite a few so let me know what to add - this is my first draft.
Spelling rules
Vord rules
y appears either mainly as a suffix (in more than one third of the corpus) and occasionally as a prefix; rarely as in the middle of vords.
q is a prefix followed by o in about 90% of all appearences. It is often followed by a gallows character, or if not, by d or l. It sometimes appears prefixed by another o (oqotar f10r, shoqoky f49r, etc). It can rarely appear by itself in the middle of vords. qo appears as an unique vord 29 times. However, almost all vords prefixed by q appear elsewhere in the corpus without that prefix. No label uses that prefix.
Glyph i is followed by another i or n in 90% of all occurrences, and almost all n will be preceded by i. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
q almost always appears at the beginning of a vord before o . It is also common after a vord ending in y. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
Paragraph rules
f and p appear predominantly in the first lines of paragraphs (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). Furthermore, Currier Prescott (1976) notes that neither glyph are ever followed by c.
m appears predominately at the end of lines but not paragraphs – and when it appears in the middle of lines, it has a tendency to cluster groups of words ending in m (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).
Character classes
Certain bigrams can be substituted within vords to create (almost always) a new valid vord. (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). These are grouped into character classes:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
[ch] [sh]
[t][k]
[L][R]
[y][o]
[o][a]
[l][m]
For a fuller list and percentages of valid words returned, click here
Grammar rules
Asymmetric vord pairs. For example, the word or occurs 366 times and the word aiin occurs 470 times. But the phrase or aiin is much more common than aiin or. (Taken from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) Word order is important for several other "phrases" - the list is omitted for brevity here but can be found You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. Editor's note: Care should be taken to distinguish between genuine vord pairs and single vords that have been mis-transcribed with a space.
Line initial words. There are no popular words used to start lines. In the entire corpus (excluding one word lines) ychor starts 16 lines, followed by dcheo which starts 6 lines. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.| You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. | You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Bigrams. It has been suggested that parts of the corpus can be broken down into 26 bigrams. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
Repetition. The same vord can be repeated in sequence for no apparent reason (this may simply be dittography caused by scribal eyeskip). The same word is repeated three times in 35 different phrases (T. Timm).
Currier languages. There are statistical differences in the appearance of vords between quires. These differences have been collated into two "languages" by Currier. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
Glyph rules
A table showing how glyphs are constructed is You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Statement There is evidence that corrections to the text have been carried out.
Explanation It has been asserted in the past that the text was written fluidly in one pass and that there is no evidence of amendments to the text.
This is incorrect, as demonstrated in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. We can safely say that the text appears to have been corrected, possibly in an attempt to proof-read.
Quote:f and p appear predominantly in the first lines of paragraphs
I define a paragraph as a purely visual item - when in right justified text one line ends before its predecessor. Therefore, I count apart those occurrences when the word appears as a label or in a circular band of text, as paragraphs by definition cannot exist there.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. finds f appearing 499 times. I list below the occurrences :
where fdoes not appear in the first line of a paragraph/ total number of occurrences. Entries marked * are either circular bands of text, entries marked ** are labels and only the total count is included for those pages:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
f1r: 3/5
f8r: 1/4
f10r 1/1
f17r 1/1
f24r 1/1
f26v 2/2
f31r 1/3
f32v 1/2
f34r 1/3
f46v 1/2
f47r 1/2
f57r 1 /3
f57v 0/12 *
f58v 4/7
f66r omitted from study as it appears to be a list of sentences
f66v 2/6
f67r2 0/8 *
f67v2 0/5 **
f68r1 0/1 **
f68r2 0/1 **
f70r1 0/2 *
f70r2 0/1 *
f71v 0/1 **
f72r1 0/3 **
f72r2 0/1 **
f72r3 0/5 **
f72v1 0/5 **
f72v2 0/2 **
f72v3 0/3 **
f73r 0/1 **
f73v 0/3 **
f77r 1/1
f77v 2/3
f78r 1/3
f78v 2/5
f79r 2/2
f81v 1/2
f84v 1/4
f85r1 2/9
f85r2 0/4 *
f86v4 0/3 *
f86v6 4/8
f87r 1/1
f87v 1/1
f88r 1/4
f89v2 1/5
f90r1 1/3
f90v1 1/1
f93r 2/3
f94r 1/1
f95r2 1/4
f95v1 1/4
f95v2 1/3
f96r 1/1
f105r 2/7
f105v 3/7
f106v 1/6
f107r 2/10
f108r 1/8
f111v 2/3
f112v 1/4
f116r 1/3
Conclusions:
Out of 499 total ocurrences, glyph f does not appear in the first line of a paragraph in 63 ocurrences (12.6% of all ocurrences).
The glyph appears in circular text or labels in 61 ocurrences. Out of the reminder paragraph text (438 ocurrences) then the glyph does not appear in the first line 14.4 % of the time. In summary, when glyph f is present in a paragraph block, it will appear in the first line 85.6% of the time.
-----------------------------------
Voynichese.com finds p appearing 1620 times. This is too many to count by hand so I took a sample of Currier A and Currier B pages (listed below) and extrapolated for each.
I list below the occurrences:
where pdoes not appear in the first line of a paragraph/ total number of occurrences.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
f1r 6/12
f1v 1/3
f2r 2/3
f14r 0/2
f22r 0/8
f26v 4/10
f28v 0/3
f30v 2/3
f37v 0/3
f41v 0/4
f45r 0/6
f58r 5/17
f77r 4/9
f80r 3/13
f86v4 0/14 (circular text)
f89r2 0/5
f99v 0/2
f101r1 0/7
f106v 0/27
f116r 5/18
Out of 169 occurrences, p is not initial-line present in 32 occurrences (18.9% of the time). Although circular text and labels may skew this result, a visual examination of the Voynichese.com You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.suggests that p is not heavily present on those folios and therefore no further weighting was carried out. Conclusion: p is line-initial 81% of the time.
![[Image: image.jpg?q=f48v-435-1301-671-569]](https://voynich.ninja/extractor/image.jpg?q=f48v-435-1301-671-569)
![[Image: image.jpg?q=f48v-842-262-241-253]](https://voynich.ninja/extractor/image.jpg?q=f48v-842-262-241-253)
![[Image: elecampane-inula-helenium-and-gentian-sp...hhm90k.jpg]](http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/179f970692c944fb82f40794e5c98da2/elecampane-inula-helenium-and-gentian-species-handcoloured-woodblock-hhm90k.jpg)
![[Image: Elecampane%20(Inula%20helenium).jpg]](https://cumuseum-archive.colorado.edu/Research/Botany/Pemberton/images/artwork/full/Elecampane%20(Inula%20helenium).jpg)
