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List of "weird" vords
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Month names collection / ...
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I've deciphered the Voyni...
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Planetary Root Assignment...
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Switch System
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Which plaintext languages...
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Should we have a thread t...
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Critique wanted
Forum: Voynich Talk
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Pisces (Folio 70v) and th...
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The Canary islands
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| Planning for Voynich Manuscript Day 2024 |
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Posted by: merrimacga - 05-11-2023, 08:51 PM - Forum: Voynich Talk
- Replies (51)
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In October 2023, a thread was started for members of this site to select a Voynich Manuscript annual observance day. The date selected was 4 August, which is a play on the Beinecke VM manuscript number (408 = 4th day of the 8th month). 2024 is the first observance. This thread is for planning discussions for the 2024 observance. Any and all suggestions are welcome. Fun themed ideas for online participation here, local events (hosted or meetups), external virtual events (BYOW: bring your own webinar details), panel topics, calls for papers, guest speakers, artwork, year in review...any and all ideas will be considered. This can be as structured or as casual (or both!) as this site's members would like. If/when we have a 2024 agenda and/or program schedule for structured activities, they will be posted in a separate thread closer to time and added as known to the 2024 event in the calendar.
Click here for the 2024 event in the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Click here for the event placeholder for 2025: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Nominations thread for the date selection process: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Remember: This is by all of you for all of you so I hope everyone will participate in both these discussions and in Voynich Manuscript Day on 4 August 2024. Thank you in advance!
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| Thema Mundi |
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Posted by: R. Sale - 03-11-2023, 06:49 PM - Forum: Astronomy
- Replies (3)
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The idea of the Thema Mundi was part of medieval astrology. It can be seen in the chart and is said to represent the sun, moon and five visible planets at the time of creation in relation to the signs of the Zodiac. The Moon is in Cancer, the Sun is in Leo, and the planets are arranged down the solar side, though they also have potential astrological connections in order down the lunar side.
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Placing the Moon and Sun together is a clear indication of an astrological sequence: Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, etc.
As opposed to the medieval astronomical sequence: Moon, Mercury Venus, Sun, etc.
The significance of the sequence pattern and the astrological connections was introduced as part of the investigation of VMs f67r2.
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From the Thema Mundi, to get to the 4-1-1-1 pattern takes only two simple changes, Mars is switched to its primary sign, which is Aries, and Saturn is changed to its alternate, which is Aquarius. So, it is a 'valid' pattern in an astrological sense, and it is fairly simple, considering other possible alternatives.
The earliest historical match for the use of the 4-1-1-1 pattern is the 1494 Leipzig edition of Johannis Sacrobosco. Since this cosmic diagram differs radically from a recently previous image by the same printer with no astrological references, there is a question of the pattern's origins, which may be tied to a certain Wenzel Faber, but where might he have gotten it? And how is it that the VMs appears to use the same pattern of planet to zodiac connections?
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| Voynichese text-image layout in other plant manuscripts |
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Posted by: Koen G - 30-10-2023, 01:28 PM - Forum: Voynich Talk
- Replies (14)
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Back in 2018 I had a brief obsession with the way Voynichese text seemingly effortlessly flows around the images.
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Looking for similar behavior in other plant manuscripts, I came across a few categories that are close in behavior, but still different.
1) Extreme economy of space. In these manuscript, like the Trinity Herbal regularly mentioned here on the forum, they try to fit as many images and their text as possible onto the page. The difference with the VM large-plant section is that its main concern does not appear to be saving space. Its defining characteristic is one large plant drawing per folio.
2) Text blocks around the plant. Some herbals do write all around the plant, but prefer to do so in somewhat justified and ruled text blocks.
3) "Soil text". A surprisingly large number of manuscripts prefer to fit the text around the root of the plant drawings. I called this "soil text", because it almost looks as if the text forms the soil in which the plant is growing. The VM herbal section does the exact opposite, avoiding text around the roots.
This left me with two manuscripts behaving just like the VM: the 6th century Juliana Anicia Codex (JAC) and the 14th century Padova, Biblioteca del Seminario, 194. The latter is a copy of the former.
Then I went down a rabbit hole to find out how these manuscripts obtained their current layout. It was a long search, but after reading all the articles I could find and contacting specialists, I was able to reconstruct the whole picture:
* The JAC was made in the early 6th century. Its original text is in Greek uncial and behaves mostly like "soil text".
* A monk named Neophytos copied the JAC in the 14th century. At this stage, people cannot read Greek uncial well anymore, so he transcribes it to Greek cursive. This is the first time (that I know of) we get true, consistent Voynich-style layout in a plant manuscript: Neophytos copying the JAC drawings very faithfully, then transcribing the text and adding this to the drawings. This MS is now in Padua.
* Another monk, Chortasmenos, restored the JAC in 1406. Since the Greek uncial was no longer preferred, he added a transcription in contemporary Greek cursive. This new, 15th century text added to the 6th century codex is often in Voynich-style layout.
Now I thought it was a good idea to revisit this topic, since there was discussion in another thread about the Leiden Herbarium BPL 3103. A glance at You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. reveals what might be an important detail, which I already suspected upon seeing the script:
"This herbal was written in South Germany [c.1460]. Originally the manuscript only contained paintings of the plants and their names. The extensive commentary in German, Latin, and Czech was added later, in the seventeenth century."
So in these three cases, the Voynich-layout style text is:
* Padua MS: transcribed from continuous Greek uncial, added to faithfully copied images.
* JAC: added to ancient codex
* Leiden: added to 200-year old herbarium
It feels like there is some similarity between these cases: a very strong primacy of the image, i.e. the image preexists and is found very important. And a certain "distance" between the image and the application of the text.
One additional piece of information which might be of interest (or not) is that the original text of the JAC (6th century) did not contain spaces. I am not sure if they respected word breaks. Here is one page which exceptionally has the uncial at the top and the later minuscule at the stem and root:
![[Image: bolbos_78r_dioscoride_vienne.png]](https://herculeaf.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/bolbos_78r_dioscoride_vienne.png)
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| Cryptography in Theory and Practice: the German-French Context (1300-1800) |
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Posted by: merrimacga - 20-10-2023, 04:43 AM - Forum: News
- Replies (1)
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Click You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. to access this event in the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
This event is not VM specific or related but may be of interest to VM researchers.
Cryptography in Theory and Practice: the German-French Context (1300-1800)
International Conference
Heidelberg, Germany
11-12 April 2024
Organization
Camille Desenclos (Université de Picardie Jules Verne)
Sven Externbrink (Universität Heidelberg)
Eveline Szarka (Universität Heidelberg)
Jörg Ulbert (Université Bretagne Sud)
Scientific Advisory Board
Dejanirah Couto (École pratique des hautes études)
Camille Desenclos (Université de Picardie Jules Verne)
Sven Externbrink (Universität Heidelberg)
Benedek Láng (Eötvös Loránd University)
Beáta Megyesi (Uppsala Universitet)
Eveline Szarka (Universität Heidelberg)
Jörg Ulbert (Université Bretagne Sud)
A call for papers (abstracts) was issued in March 2023 with a deadline in April 2023. The scientific advisory board was then to have selected from the submissions in May 2023. No additional details have been published since then. Stay tuned for more information when known. In the meantime, those who are interested can review the existing information at the following links:
On H-German (H-Net Network on German History):
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On the CFP website for The University of Pennsylvania · Department of English:
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On The Renaissance Society of America (RSA) News and Announcements page:
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Full CFP PDF:
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The aim of the planned conference is to shed light on early modern cryptography from a German-French context for the purpose of initiating new research. Preference was to be given to papers that address the following questions:
- History of cryptography literature (authors, contexts of origin, intended audience, structure, as well as systematization, reception, development, and communication of techniques).
- Studies of the influence of cryptography literature on practice and vice versa.
- Management of cryptography and postal espionage in ministries.
- Activities of the Black Chambers (postal espionage practices).
- Development of encryption techniques.
- Case studies: quantitative and qualitative analysis of coded passages in correspondences.
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| Workshop on Historical Cryptology |
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Posted by: merrimacga - 19-10-2023, 06:04 PM - Forum: News
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This event is not VM specific or related but may be of interest to VM researchers.
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Research Meeting 24023
Workshop on Historical Cryptology
Event page: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Note: This is an on-site event. No webinar provided. No registration link provided. The event details do not indicate if this workshop is open to new participants so please contact organizers if interested in participating.
Dates: Jan 08 – Jan 12, 2024
Location
Computer Science Centre
Schloss Dagstuhl
Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik
Oktavie-Allee
66687 Wadern, Germany
Organizers
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (Universität Siegen, DE)
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (Stockholm University, SE)
Contact
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (for administrative matters)
Description per the event page:
The workshop is jointly organized by Prof. Beáta Megyesi (Uppsala University), Prof. Bernhard Esslinger (University of Siegen) and Prof. Arno Wacker (Universität der Bundeswehr München) in the framework of the Swedish-German research project You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
The main topic is the application and development of artificial intelligence for the automatic analysis of handwritten texts and the cryptanalysis of historical encrypted manuscripts.
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| Uncovering Patterns in Indecipherable Books – The Voynich Manuscript |
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Posted by: merrimacga - 18-10-2023, 05:13 PM - Forum: News
- Replies (12)
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Click You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. to open this event in the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
OII Halloween Lecture, Illuminating the Illuminated:
Uncovering Patterns in Indecipherable Books – The Voynich Manuscript
with Dr. Joss Wright
Date & Time:
17:15 - 18:15 GMT
Monday 30 October, 2023
Location:
Oxford Internet Institute, Seminar Room
1 St Giles Oxford OX1 3JS United Kingdom
Free event. On-site only. No online access. Registration required.
Event page: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Registration link on eventbrite: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
From the regsistration page:
"The evenings draw in, the candles flicker, the leaves wither and fall.
Ancient fears and dark rumours gather around our darkly dreaming spires.
The anodyne veneer of modern rationality, the brittle lens of our sciences; both falter in the face of primal fears that emerge with the night.
At this time of year, when our resolve against the unknown is at its weakest, we are challenged as scientists to defend and deploy our ideals, our methods, our tools. As Halloween descends we brace ourselves against the umbral tide, and struggle to draw understanding from the darkness around us.
Folklore, legends, myth. Hauntings, strange creatures in the mist, and mysterious lights in the sky. From the earliest terrified reports to modern digital documentation, data describing arcane phenomena has grown and shifted, just as has our capacity, and our stumbling willingness, to interrogate their secrets.
To celebrate the season, you are invited to the annual OII Halloween Lecture.
This year we will delve into the mysteries recorded in the leaves of half-forgotten texts discovered in strange circumstances. The Voynich manuscript is perhaps the most famous and well-documented cryptic tome as yet undeciphered. Written in an unknown alphabet, and filled with peculiar, unearthly diagrams, this 15th century folio has baffled linguists, cryptographers, and intelligence agencies for over three centuries.
In this lecture, we will examine some of the history surrounding the Voynich, and apply statistical tools to explore some of its characterics. A hoax? Or an unfathomable repository of ancient wisdom?
The lecture will be a light-hearted presentation of around thirty minutes, liberally doused with informal discussions on any related topics of interest. Following the talk, we will reconvene at a nearby pub for those brave, or foolhardy, paranormal social scientists who dare to glimpse beyond the murky veil of horrifying reality.
Dr Joss Wright is a Senior Research Fellow, Co-Director of the Oxford EPSRC Cybersecurity Doctoral Training Centre and a Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade. His work focuses on computational approaches to social science questions, with a particular focus on technologies that exert, resist, or subvert control over information.
Joss’ main areas of research are information controls, with a focus on internet censorship and shutdowns; privacy enhancing technologies and data anonymisation; and cybercrime, with a particular focus on the online illegal wildlife trade and its implications for biodiversity and conservation.
Joss gained his PhD in Computer Science at the University of York, where his work focused on the modelling and analysis of anonymous communication systems. Following this, he spent time at the University of Siegen in Germany, researching security and privacy issues in cloud computing. He joined the OII as a postdoctoral research fellow in 2010."
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