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| Maximum vord repetition |
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Posted by: R. Sale - 05-10-2024, 10:43 PM - Forum: Analysis of the text
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As a segment of text that contains multiple repetitions of multiple vords, I believe the outer text band of VMs White Aries (f71r) contains the maximum concentration of examples. Certainly, this is true in the other VMs Zodiac text segments where it is difficult to find a single example of simple pairing.
If this is a property that might advance further interpretation, I don't believe there's a better segment of text.
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| New book |
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Posted by: LisaFaginDavis - 03-10-2024, 02:29 PM - Forum: News
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Does anyone know anything about this author - Robert C. Williams - and his argument that the VMS was created by Voynich? This book was just published: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
I've read the free sample on Amazon, and there are a few glaring problems with his argument right off the bat, but I'm curious to know if anyone knows about him and his work.
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| Ink/pen dynamics and the rhythms of writing |
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Posted by: pfeaster - 28-09-2024, 03:53 PM - Forum: Analysis of the text
- Replies (39)
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Some pages in the Voynich Manuscript show a lot of variation in the appearance of the ink from word to word or glyph to glyph. I'm wondering what conclusions, if any, it's safe to draw from these variations. I know there's been some speculation about text written at one time having been "retouched" at a later time, but that's not (primarily) what I'm interested in here. Rather, I'm wondering whether variations in the ink can reliably tell us anything about what went on during the initial writing sessions.
On pages where we can see a lot of variation in ink quality, the color of the ink varies from darker to paler, and at points where an excess of ink has pooled onto the writing surface, the ink tends to be relatively dark. Here are a couple hastily-chosen examples:
So I infer that a darker color probably represents a greater flow or quantity of ink, while a paler color generally represents a lesser flow or quantity of ink (but I'd welcome a correction from anyone who knows better). I suppose the variations in color could be measured quantitatively based on RGB values if anyone wanted to do it.
What seems potentially interesting here is that, unless I'm mistaken, certain glyphs (or parts of glyphs) seem to turn up written "darkly" more often than others. For example:
- The [c] at the beginning of [ch], [Sh], etc.
- [d]
- The loop at the top of the second leg of EVA [k] or similar
- [r] or [l] after [o], [a], or "i", even if the [o], [a], or "i" is relatively light (note: putting "i" in square brackets was causing formatting weirdness, and I'm still getting some unintended asterisks....)
[*]For illustrative examples, see f27r, f35v, f38v, f41r, or f47v. I don't mean that all tokens of these glyphs are written "darkly," but that the glyphs that stand out visually as especially "dark" tend to fall into these categories (and maybe a handful of others). These patterns appear to transcend different "hands" and "languages."
I don't have much personal experience writing with a quill, so I'm not sure what factors might lead ink to flow more or less freely from the pen onto the page (if that's what's responsible for the differences in the first place), but I can think of two possibilities. On one hand, ink flow might be greater right after the pen has been refilled and lesser as it's running out. On the other hand, ink flow might be greater when the quill tip is being pressed more firmly against the page and lesser when it's being pressed less firmly.
Either way, it seems to me that the variations in ink quality could reveal something useful (?) about the original rhythms of writing. For example, [r] or [l] might typically have been written after [o], [a], or "i" after a pause to refill the pen, or [d] might typically have been the first glyph written after the pen was refilled. Or these glyphs might typically have been written more "emphatically," so to speak, with more pressure on the quill tip. I'm not yet sure where this might lead -- just throwing it out as a possibility (well aware that the response might be that it was thoroughly discussed back in 1997!).
I also wonder what factors would have led many other pages to display comparatively consistent ink darkness, and whether greater or lesser consistency in this detail coincides at all with other categorizations. Did it have something to do with the pen, or with the way it was being used, or with the ink composition, or with the vellum?
A few other related observations:
Some pages contain text that was (I suspect) written using a pen with a frayed tip that caused a conspicuous parallel "doubling" of certain strokes -- e.g., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and f44r. In both of those same cases, the accompanying plant images also seem to have been drawn using a pen with a similarly frayed tip -- or at least they contain similar-looking doubled lines, whatever specific defect in the pen was causing them. Compare the following details from f6v:
And the following details from f44r:
To me, this suggests that the text and drawings on each of these pages were likely created during the same session, with the same faulty pen. I haven't tried to study this type of correspondence methodically, but a quick perusal seems to support a hypothesis that the pictures and text on any given page tend to share the same overall pen-and-ink profile (including "mixed" profiles, as on f73v). I wonder if there are any really obvious exceptions.
Another page with noticeable line-doubling in both the Voynichese text and the drawing is f17r. Notably, the marginalia at the top also features line-doubling, most obviously in the top of the [a] in [malhor].
[*]With apologies in advance for any reinvented wheels.
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| Authorship of f116v squiggle, candidates |
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Posted by: oshfdk - 24-09-2024, 09:02 AM - Forum: Provenance & history
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[Edit: Originally this was a post about Benedictus Aretius, but I managed to find examples of his ex libris rather quickly. I think it doesn't make sense to create many threads trying to look for people who could possibly have left their signature on the last page of MS, so I renamed the thread, and I will post information about other figures of interest here.]
I was trying to identify the possible authorship of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and would like to see if anyone has some more information about You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., Swiss theologian, natural philosopher and, among other things, a botanist. I wonder if it's possible to find out what his ex libris looked like. [Edit: found it, see posts below]
Some background for my question: If we take the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. squiggle as a signature, to me the first letter looks like an A, so I tried looking for all possible persons with names starting with A and trying to find examples of their signature and ex libris. I started at You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and followed various links and search requests and then stumbled upon a name new to me in this article: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
It describes in some detail the collaboration of Leonhard Rauwolf and Caspar Bauhin on various herbaria, and then goes:
Quote:Bauhin also had his own herbarium, which he had presented to Conrad Gessner (see Gessner to Benedictus Aretius, 24 November 1565, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).
One possible way of writing "Are" could be similar to the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. squiggle, so I looked up Benedictus Aretius (as far as I understand, he is primarily known as a Protestant reformer, but he was also a practicing botanist, judging by his works) and tried to find examples of his writing. Unfortunately, there is not much. There are images of three letters written by him on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.:
The signature has no much resemblance to the f116v squiggle. It's interesting though that Aretius seemed to abbreviate the first name in favor of his (invented) last name. As far as I understand, he was born Matri, but swapped the Latin root for Greek becoming Aretius and used it as his name (kind of a personal brand, in modern terms). So it seems possible that he could use just "Aretius" in his ex libris. Also the signature differs substantially in all three letters, so it's possible that there was a separate version for marks of ownership.
Summing up, there was a person interested in botany and herbaria, contemporary to Leonhard Rauwolf (one of tentative past owners of VMS) and with a potential link to him via Conrad Gessner and Caspar Bauhin, with some known history of exchange of herbaria from Bauhin to Gessner. This is a very weak link, which makes the possibility of VMS somehow traveling from Aterius to Rauwolf not very likely, as far as I see it, but it would be nice to have a look at Aretius' ex libris or more writing, just to be sure.
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| Historical persons in VMs |
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Posted by: R. Sale - 23-09-2024, 10:30 PM - Forum: Imagery
- Replies (19)
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Historical persons have been found in the VMs illustration You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. - White Aries. Two persons can be identified, who were popes in the mid and latter parts of the 13th century. They were Innocent IV and Adrian V. Two popes from Genoa, Sinibaldo Fieschi and his nephew, Ottobuono Fieschi. They are identified by their heraldry.
Heraldry was widely used as a method of communication and the heraldic elements here are clearly seen, but somewhat more difficult to interpret because of historical obscurity and the artist's intentional obfuscation.
The two primary heraldic elements are the pattern of alternating blue stripes on the dexter diagonal (paired), and the hat on the inner ring nymph with the combination of blue stripes and a red galero. While neither heraldic element is highly specific on its own, the combination of the two elements leads to these particular historical facts.
As Pope Innocent IV, Sinibaldo Fieschi did 1) initiate the tradition of the cardinal's red galero, 2) make his nephew, Ottobuono, a cardinal (1251), 3) approve the original foundation of the Poor Clares. The cardinal's red galero served as a designation of rank in the church hierarchy. The armorial blazon, 'Bendy, argent et azure" describes the Fieschi insignia. The combination of these two heraldic elements constitutes a unique historical marker and identifies the individuals involved.
The matter of the artist's intentional obfuscation becomes clear when the existence of dualistic construction becomes evident - specifically regarding the orientation of the blue stripes when viewed from a more dominant, radial perspective or a less evident, isolated perspective, when it is the more hidden perspective that corresponds with historical events and various other aspects of confirmation built into the structure of the White Aries illustration.
Considering that these facts were historical at the time of the VMs C-14 dates, reveals that the artist was aware of some fairly exclusive information in relation to Catholic church history and tradition and that s/he chose to disguise it.
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| f116v squiggle from the multispectral images |
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Posted by: oshfdk - 20-09-2024, 10:54 AM - Forum: Marginalia
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I think I'll post some images and new information I have about the potential new feature on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. here in one thread, because it's hard to track it in the MSI thread.
Quick background: I was playing with various ways to enhance the multispectral images provided by Lisa Fagin Davis and discovered that when you combine the individual TIFFs using specific weights a certain "squiggle" appears in the bottom right corner of f116v. You can read the other thread starting from this post for more information: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Here's what the feature looks like and its size (there is a ruler next to the manuscript in the original TIFFs, so I used it to overlay a cm/mm grid on the images, it's much easier to see the grid in the full resolution photo: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ).
If you want to obtain the original image of this feature yourself, you can download the TIFFs from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (the link provided by LisaFaginDavis) and get the following Python script to merge them: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
The whole feature appears to be about 3x3 cm. It also can be barely seen on individual TIFFs from the MSI set:
It looks a bit like a signature or a short inscription, but, as ReneZ noticed, the strokes are too wide for a pen. One possible explanation that I have: if the scribble was initially written on a wet page, it would make the ink in certain parts of it spread. If this is what happened, then probably the whole thing was immediately washed/rubbed off, leaving no visible traces. Since it would take time for the page to dry out, this could explain why the inscription was forgotten and never repeated.
Is this an actual inscription/stamp/offset of some distinct shape or just some random artifact of the page material, photography or processing?
Arguments for it being an actual inscription/stamp/offset:
1) The model was only trained on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. right margin and appears to detect non-visible or faint ink quite well both on the right margin of f1r and at the top of f116v, suppressing random noise. The darkness of features on the processed image directly corresponds to the probability of text ink according to the model. The model paints parts of the squiggle black, which signifies very high probability of the shape being made with ink.
2) The model only works on pixel values, without any spacial awareness. Each pixel of the result image is completely determined by the corresponding pixel on each of the TIFFs. It's highly unlikely that this model would produce a distinctive shape where no such shapes are present in the original TIFFs (and it's possible to discern them in the original TIFFs).
3) Both sides of the vellum in this particular spot show no visible folds, tears or other physical defects that could produce the squiggle shape.
4) It's quite natural a spot for a stamp or a signature. There is little empty space on the first page (especially if Tepenez's signature was already there), the top of the last page has some writing on it (assuming it was already there too), so the bottom part of the last page is where one can leave some ownership mark or something similar.
5) To me it seems unlikely that this is some artifact of photography (e.g., a reflection of something off camera; matrix or lens defect), since these images are made in a highly professional setting.
Arguments for it being some random artifact:
1) Frankly, it's hard for me to come up with a process that would produce this feature without this shape actually being drawn or imprinted on the manuscript. Could this be a random ink spill combined with some directional rubbing?
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| Roman numerals to Voynicheesy |
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Posted by: RobGea - 14-09-2024, 12:04 AM - Forum: Voynich Talk
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Roman numerals to Voynicheesy.
1. Convert plaintext to numbers using number values of the letters[1] then summing them (some words will have the same number)
2. Express the sum of the letters in a word, in Roman numerals e.g DCCLVII, in the non-subtractive form i.e VIIII not IX
3. Using multiple rules; including spaces, substitute groups of Roman numeral letters for groups of EVA-letters e.g ('IIII' --> 'in')
Example.
Some of the substitution rules:
'_CC' --> '_qo'
'CC' --> 'ch'
'C' --> 'k'
'XX' --> 'e'
'I_' --> 'm_'
Some letter values:
t = 116
h = 104
e = 101
c = 99
a = 97
PLAINTEXT = "the cat sat on the mat"
the :: 321 :: [100, 100, 100, 10, 10, 1] 321 ['C', 'C', 'C', 'X', 'X', 'I']
cat :: 312 :: [100, 100, 100, 10, 1, 1] 312 ['C', 'C', 'C', 'X', 'I', 'I']
... etc ...
INTERMEDIATE = "CCCXXI CCCXII CCCXXVIII CCXXI CCCXXI CCCXXII"
CIPHERTEXT = "chkem qoshol qokeriin qoem qokem qokeol"
[1] Alphabetic numeral system : You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Numbers can be also be assigned arbitrarily or methodically e.g using a Polybius square.
For this post, i used the the number representing the unicode code of a specified character.
==============================================================================================
This is a non-deterministic cipher, some words have the same number.
Also, i don't know (idk) if you can reverse the substitution rules for the letter-groups.
There is no way to derive the EVA-letters,
if this method was used, why, for example, substitute 'XX' for 'e', is it a stylistic choice ?
is there some underlying relation between vms glyphs, that can be seen as latin abbreviations, and the roman numerals they substitute for ?
With more work the rules could be changed, expanded upon, to render the ciphertext more like voynichese, but idk how close you could get.
Is it possible that with some small rule changes the voynichese dialects could be recreated ?
Is it possible that the substitution rules could be performed by a volvelle ?
I have not persued the idea further than this because, well, its kinda interesting but idk.
Voynichese checklist:
Entropy - check
Pseudo-repetition - check
Binomially distributed word lengths - hmm, with English plaintext its close, but using the same rules with italian plaintext , not so much.
Other - ?
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![[Image: GXzNSPHWMAA9zmr?format=jpg&name=small]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXzNSPHWMAA9zmr?format=jpg&name=small)