Posted by: R. Sale - 21-07-2016, 07:28 PM - Forum: Imagery
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In reference to pearlwort as Sagina procumbens - can anyone comment as to whether it has been discussed in any relation to the VMs herbal illustrations?
Recently I devised a neat little method to encode messages using the Voynich script. See You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. for that. And if you want to have a crack at solving it without being spoiled first, then you need to STOP READING THIS POST RIGHT NOW.
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In my original post I said that I would reveal the message and the procedure 1 year from now if nobody could figure it out in the meantime. Well, I realized that I'm not that patient and there are important implications of my method that I wanted to discuss right away, so here we go:
With my method, I was able to auto-copy "words" from previous lines that I had already written while still encoding a meaningful message. How was I able to do this? Because I had many degrees of freedom with regards to the choice of each letter. Why was that? Because each letter was really not expressing 1 out of 26 different possibilities, but in my case 1 out of 3 possibilities (more on that below).
We already know that in the VMS certain letters can apparently "replace" or "stand in" for other letters. They appear interchangeable. Therefore, the smallest semantic unit that we should really be dealing with is not the letter, but the "interchangeable group" to which these letters belong.
In my encoding procedure, I divided the Voynich script into 3 groups based off of Brian Cham's "curve/line system":
*curve letters
*line letters
*all others
(Edit: by the way, "a" counts as a dual curve/line letter, as per Brian Cham's system).
I let:
*curve letters represent dots
*line letter represent dashes
*all others represent null values that can be ignored
(Edit: so, to clarify, "a", being both a curve and line letter, is a special letter that single-handedly encodes "dot-dash").
Each "word" in my message then encoded a letter in Morse Code plaintext.
Let's say, for a particular letter, that I needed to encode a Voynich "word" that would go "dot-dot-dot-dash." I had all sorts of words to choose from to accomplish that. If I desired, I could start with a root like "chedy" and simply edit it until I had the desired pattern of curves and lines. I could take something like "4olam" that I had written a line above and just tweak it slightly if I needed to represent a close relative to the preceding dot-dot-dot-dash pattern. I could add gallows and other null characters to obscure the underlying pattern. And I could adhere to certain rigid sequential aesthetic rules (such as having gallows or 4o only in certain places) and still have the freedom to encode the information that I needed. It was not difficult to hold to certain aesthetic conventions (such as 4o only at the beginnings of words) AND encode the message AND do it quickly, especially once I got a few lines down and I could just start copy-pasting and tweaking what I had written immediately above to suit my needs.
And I wasn't even that picky about adhering to ALL of the aesthetic/structural conventions of the VMS. That's why you'll notice that some of my words don't look like proper Voynichese. I basically slapped this page together in about an hour. If I had taken more time on it, I could have made it look reminiscent of Voynichese to an arbitrarily close degree while still encoding the meaning.
In effect, every part of a letter that was not a curve or a line became a "null sub-character" or "null character component." With that many nulls in the message, and with the nulls taking the peculiar form of sub-components of characters, it would become well-nigh impossible to decrypt it. Plus, there was all that freedom to re-arrange those nulls for aesthetic/structural reasons.
But you might think: with so many null components, wouldn't it become cumbersome to decrypt the script back into readable text? Not at all! By the end of composing my message, with just about an hour of practice, I could easily ignore all of the null components and read off dot-dot-dot-dash straight off the page quite fluently.
Now, if you believe that the VMS was written in the 1400s, then of course Morse Code would not have been the plaintext.
But consider that I could have just as easily done something like:
*let 4o represent 2^4
*let all complex curve letters (other than EVA "e") represent 2^3
*let all complex line letters (other than EVA "i") represent 2^2
*let all "e" represent 2^1
*let all "i" represent 1
*let all gallows and other characters be null characters
Each Voynich "word," by adding up its numerical components, would then have a numerical sum which could then be related to a sequential letter of the alphabet. That's another way I could have done it.
Now, I'm not saying that that's the specific way that the VMS was written either. I'm just saying...that's ONE MORE way. There could be tons of possible ways of encoding meaning in the Voynich script if we imagine that letters are encoding a lot less information than we assume they are, and that interchangeable letter groups are really the smallest semantic sub-component rather than individual letters themselves, which could then be varied around, copied, tweaked, etc. simply due to the whims of the author, or his interest in the ease of writing, and/or out of a desire for the appearance of certain rigid aesthetic patterns in word and line structure.
And yes, I'm sure the historians will jump in and say that such ciphers were not known in 1400s Europe. Well, they should know that I also happen to be a fan of Rich SantaColoma's modern forgery hypothesis, and I am by no means wedded to the idea that the Voynich cipher (if it is indeed enciphered) has to be an old cipher.
Most of all, I wish more people would engage with Torsten Timm's mindblowing paper, while at the same time keeping their minds open that the VMS could still have encoded meaning even with all of the evidence that attests to auto-copying, letter interchangeability, weird entropy, weird "word" and line structure, etc. I have shown that it is possible.
Edit: One more thing that I anticipate will be brought up is the labels in the VMS. If each Voynich "word" is only encoding something smaller like a syllable or a letter, then how to the standalone labels make any sense? I don't know. Maybe the intention was to label things not with names, but with numerical values. Maybe it's all misdirection. How do we KNOW that the labels are intended to function as what we would consider to be ordinary name-labels?
I know I've seen the "ma+" bit that shows up on the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. marginalia a few times. Here's an example I just came across:
The manuscript I got this from is You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., fol. 119v. The record says Southern German, mid 15th century. It can be found here (and it has more examples of the "ma+"):
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It really seems like this aspect of the VMS marginalia ought to be a known thing. Can anyone look at this manuscript and determine what it means?
This is my first post here, although I have followed online Voynich research for some time.
I come to you all not with a theory...but with yet another puzzle (as if the original VMS wasn't enough of one!)
Recently at my blog I put upYou are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. that I made using the Voynich script. As you will see, with this encipherment, I was able to recreate some interesting features of the VMS, especially its repetitiveness, while also conveying my information using a relatively simple procedure for unambiguously constructing and deconstructing the message.
Now, I'm not claiming that I just happened to stumble upon the method that was actually used in the VMS. The actual method used in the VMS, whatever it is, is most likely quite different. But I thought some posters on here might have fun trying to crack a code for a change where they have some assurance that there actually is light (a meaningful message) at the end of the tunnel.
So, check it out! If nobody figures out the correct decipherment in a year, I will post the solution and the procedure on July 18, 2017. Have fun!
There's a certain similarity between the design found around the central roundel on f70v2 (Pisces/March) and a border design commonly found on classical Greek pottery. Here's a comparison:
It's not an exact match of course, but in both cases we see small segments with a "four way" division separated by segments of 2-3 times their width containing "zigzag" patterns. It's also not hard to imagine that the simpler zigzag patterns we see in the VMS could have arisen from the "stepped meander" patterns of the Greek design via several generations of imprecise copying.
Of course, the resemblance could be completely coincidental, so what I'd like to know is if anyone knows of other patterns similar to the one found in the VMS, especially if there are any in the medieval Latin manuscript tradition.
The outer ring of tubs on VMs Pisces not only contains a series of patterns that correspond to standard heraldic designs, but a few of them have potential historical connections. Papelonny - the butterfly's wing- and gurges - the whirlpool - are two examples.
Now something interesting has turned up in regard to the semy of roundels. In the VMs Pisces illustration, the example is seen as careless and colorless. There is no indication of tincture for either the shield or the roundels. So it seemed there was no way to a solution. Or to put it another way, just look - and whatever you find - that's it. And even though that suggestion was meant to be sarcastic, it might also be good advice.
There are only two criteria. Match the heraldic definition and try to stay historically prior to the VMs parchment dates - as much as possible.
I have found only one candidate with the correct heraldic pattern, and it also matches with good chronology, quite surprising actually. The blazon is 'gules, a semy of roundels, or'. Gold circles on a red background generally found in staggered rows - like the old French insignia that was a semy of fleur-de-lis.
It turns out that this insignia, bezanty on red, is that of Alan la Zouche (1205-1270). He was a Norman Englishman and was a loyalist in England's historical Barons Revolt.
And who was the papal legate to England at the resolution of those difficulties??? Indeed it was Ottobuono Fieschi!!
And this is nothing more and nothing less than another separate and independent connection to the history of the Genoese popes based on heraldry in the VMs. Can it really be another coincidence??
Given the general nature of the VMs illustration, other potential interpretations are certainly possible. If there are, let's see them.
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For your consideration, here are some matches I see between the imagery on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and the Caspian and Aral Seas.
1. The general shape of the Caspian Sea area matches quite well. Not necessarily the water line, but the larger area made up by the surrounding Alborz mountains to the south. See the grey line above approximating this area on the satellite map. The 1730 map shows that the top part of the extra girth did look this way up to the first curve after the bend at that time. Consider what it would look like if it were flooded further.
2. In another area where the water line doesn't quite work, at the top, there is a solid line drawn in the f75r diagram which creates a triangle, drawn in blue at the top of the satellite image. Perhaps this wasn't supposed to have been painted in, or was, as a means of hiding the content. Or perhaps this area was flooded too.
3. The rest of the top matches quite well, see the orange line.
4. The Volga and Ural rivers match well with the darkest blue lines in the "umbrella". The nebuly lines seem to me to indicate that the water is known to come from mountains or areas which are not known to be populated.
5. The red lines on the satellite map indicate other areas that don't quite match but could have been done that way for aesthetics or might not have been there at the time. The 1730 map does not show the peninsula to the right.
6. The Kuma river forms the top of the yellow "handle" shape shown in blue on the diagram. You can see the river in the 1730 map above just under the Volga delta, or perhaps it is the Terek, or both and more. The entire area within is also rivers, coming down from the greater Caucasus. This is what I think the imagery represents that is raining onto this line, shown in buff of the satellite map.
7. The bucket the nymph sits in on the bottom, highlighted in green on the satellite image, matches a location of Gorgan bay which is almost fully enclosed.
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8. The nymph with the hands behind her back seems to represent some features in the landscape. There is a break in the mountains corresponding to where her foot is drawn, that matches the location of the Uzboy river entance to the Caspian, now dry.
9. The other nymphs seem to be showing the depth of the Caspian. They keep getting deeper and deeper until the last nymph cannot touch bottom and is floating. The stick held by the one nymph shows the deepest area of the upper part of the sea.
10. The Gorgan river is located at the dark blue highlighted area, which matches where a river has been drawn in the diagram. Or it could be the Quarasu.
11. If the Gorgan is the river depicted, perhaps the other body of water is supposed to be the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. area (didn't know what else to call it) in a flooded state. It's about central in the larger area at the bottom of Turkmenistan, the second bump in the mountain line that makes up the lower limit of the Caspian. The greater area around the gas field mimics the size and shape of the current Aral Sea depression to the north.
12. The Uzboy river also seems similar to the one drawn but would turn in the opposite direction and would be near the bottom, not the top of the Aral Sea.
A speculation on a possible story portrayed if the gas field area is involved: In 1388 Timur created changes in the Amudarya that would send its waters to the Caspian via the Uzboy instead of into the Aral Sea, this would continue until about 1573 when the Amudarya began to flow into the Aral again, and the Uzboy dried up. Evidently the Uzboy couldn't have taken in the full extent of the Amudarya flow, and in1417 it was reported that the Aral Sea had disappeared, which would mean it didn't go there. Perhaps if some of the Amudarya flow went south into the gas field depression, it might seem as though the Aral sea had moved down to be closer to the bottom of the Caspian instead of the top. The same waters would be involved, so it is reasonable to think of it that way.
13. I'll stop with a baker's dozen. Here is f75r's second body of water, the Aral Sea in the mid 1800's and around the early 1970's, and the gas field area. Note the pointy areas to the right on all of them. The dark green line to the right of the last photo is the Amudarya river. But I believe the body of water is meant to portray the Aral Sea, and the nymphs represent the various deltas and bays that have existed. As it is now, only the deltas represented by the middle bottom nymph's foot and the large nymph's arm are flowing, being the mouths of the Amudarya and the Syrdarya respectively.
Thanks for your time taken in reading this. I'd be very interested to hear what others think of this idea. It seems to me there would have to be a large number of similarities put to coincidence if the text proved to be discussing something else.
and there are important implications of my method that I wanted to discuss right away, so here we go:
![[Image: preview.jpg?private_link=cd9b14f2c869cefbfb1c]](https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/5499278/preview/5499278/preview.jpg?private_link=cd9b14f2c869cefbfb1c)
![[Image: 10518_0.jpg]](http://www.vintage-maps.com/images/product_images/popup_images/10518_0.jpg)
![[Image: 150826159_dee5648754.jpg]](http://static.flickr.com/44/150826159_dee5648754.jpg)
![[Image: cgAr1D03_medium.jpg]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YzeIRWJvXDU/UpySDWdzq_I/AAAAAAAABpw/hDkridcCBQU/s1600/cgAr1D03_medium.jpg)
![[Image: preview.jpg?private_link=5fe2868a70313e337d93]](https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/5499290/preview/5499290/preview.jpg?private_link=5fe2868a70313e337d93)