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| VMS Day 2024: Converting the Voynich MS text to music |
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Posted by: ReneZ - 03-08-2024, 11:14 AM - Forum: Fiction, Comics, Films & Videos, Games & other Media
- Replies (3)
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VMS Day 2024: Converting the Voynich MS text to music
(If there is going to be a dedicated group for this event, this thread may of course be moved there).
Writing on the eve of VMS Day 2024...
As announced, I developed a method to convert the Voynich MS text to music.
This method takes into account numerous known properties of the MS text in order to produce a result that can be listened to without too much discomfort.
I have used this to create one piece of music per page of the MS, for a representative group of pages, and the links to the music will be available from 4 August onward, via this link:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
From 13:30 to 14:00 CEST I will give a short presentation how this music has been generated.
For those who cannot attend, or wish to know more in advance, there is also a paper about this. This does not include some of the basic music theory that will be part of the on-line presentation, and goes into some other details.
It can be found at my academia page, but also simply via You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
This may appear in your browser, but in order for the hypertext links to work, one has to download the pdf file first, and read that copy.
The above link to the music files will be activated at the start of the event.
I will add a short note here at that time.
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| How Different is Each Topic Each Other - Term Frequency Across Topic |
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Posted by: A.Wilmarth - 30-07-2024, 03:45 AM - Forum: Analysis of the text
- Replies (6)
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I haven't seen much on this forum discussing term frequency across topics. Some examples I did find were the "interesting Vwords" series by -JKP-, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., and obviously Topic Modeling in the Voynich Manuscript by Sterneck et al.
This could very well be because the results are already common knowledge or because the data is functionally meaningless, but either way at the very least I hope posting this will save someone the potentially wasted effort of doing it themselves.
While the VMS has intrigued me for some time my background is in GIS/cartography, so while data science may be familiar to me, applying them to text and language is not. My amateurish-ness will be very apparent. I apologize in advance. If you have a moment to spare some criticism for my process or for misusing a term, it would be appreciated. While I am naturally inclined to just play with my data and not to post anything, making mistakes and being called out on them the fastest way I know to learn.
My goal was to quantify how difference each topic is from each other, and to build profiles for each 'vord' which could shed light on its potential meanings. For example if a term is used at a much higher frequency in herbal than astrological, we could presume the vord's meaning is more relevant to herbal than astrological. Terms which appears at similar frequency in 2 topics but not in the other 3 might indicate a different meaning than if that vord was equal across all topics, or only highly frequent in one, and so on.
Process
I tried to follow some the same initially methodology as Sterneck et al. I also used the Takahashi EVA transcription as corrected by Zandbergen and Stolti, and sectioned the VMS into 5 topics: 1. herbal, 2. astrological, 3 balneological, 4 pharmaceutical, and 5. starred. Each topic was then considered a separate document.
Where I differed was I assumed full text pages go with the closest illustrations and didn't analyze anything by hand or scribe. These are places where I could improve if this has any value. Additionally, as I was not looking to measure importance, I used a simple term frequency percent. Code: tf = raw count/ total terms in document * 100
Each term's frequency was calculated for per topic and then each topic's frequency was subtracted from each other to get the absolute difference. Afterwards, for visualization purposes, the results were z score normalized; frequency across topic, and differences across all differences within that topics. Differences were then totaled in order to give an overall idea of how "different" each topic is. This process was repeated with a 2 frequency cut-off just to see what impact of unique terms had on the metrics, if any.
RESULTS
Topic Totals
Topic profiles top 40 terms.
Spreadsheet of all terms included as attachment.
TOPIC_FREQUENCY.xlsx (Size: 1.25 MB / Downloads: 22)
Observations
Differences
Assuming contents were indeed related to the illustrations, I had gone into this process expecting herbal to be least like astrological and most like pharmaceutical. While pharmaceutical does to have less difference when compared to herbal I wouldn't say there is strong evidence this is because the content is similar, as herbal seems to be fairly to be similar to nearly all the other topics. This included astrological which surprised me.
I was also not expecting balneological to be so different from everything else, excepting the starred topics. These two were quite similar. Like herbal the starred 'recipes' were similar to all the other topics, but curiously not pharmaceutical. I wonder if there is any evidence here that the starred section originally followed balneological.
For the most part, filtering unique words did not change the overall patterning, just exaggerated it. The one exception is removing the unique words makes astrological appear more similar to pharmaceutical. To me this speaks to the text actually reflecting differing topics rather than gibberish as I would have expected removing unique words would universally make the text more similar.
Observations - Term Patterns
While it might be interesting to look at individual vords, I think in order to save this being a huge block of text I will illustrate some of the potential uses.
As an example here is 3 comparisons. The first two are similar in structure, but by looking at their raw frequencies/histograms alone we might not be able to tell much from them. However by creating a topic frequency profiles we may be able to learn a bit more from these. For instance both cheol and sheol as well as cheey and sheey have a fairly similar profile, where as comparing daiin and ol, these two vord have much different profiles. Could this indicate that that C and S are prefixes which alter the meaning but not significantly? As an analogy, consider the purpose vs re-purpose; both words have similar structure, a related meaning, but one would still be used more often in certain discussions. Of course I don't know, but it may be a different way to look at terms.
"Reading" the VMS
With some effort it may be possible to possible to "read" passages of the VMS by looking at term topic profiles. What I present here is more a proof of concept than anything else. If any of this has any value this process could be improved by better understanding and better parsing of the profiles, as well as potentially by classifying differences from std into high median and low categories.
<f106r.7,+P0> olched.qoiin.ychedy.qokam.sheol.qokor.cheees<$>
This becomes:
vord weighted towards balneological | vord unique to starred | vord weighted towards astrological and away from pharmaceutical | vord weighted away from pharmaceutical | vord weighted towards pharmaceutical and away from herbal | vord weighted against astrological | unique starred word
It might be then possible to assign potential words to these weights based on building profiles for known works that cover similar topics (assuming the contents are even related to the illustrations). So that a program could pick words based on a similarly matching topic difference/frequency profiles. For instance the above could become:
water. stirred. night. running. inside. dirt. abracadabra.
Obviously, I'm pulling these words from thin air to illustrate the concept and I doubt word tables could be built for balenological or starred sections, but maybe for herbal, pharmaceutical, and astrological. It's a stretch for sure.
Improvements?
Assuming any of this has value, I have written some questions I have been asking myself.
Is it important to differentiate by hand or scribe? Should all-text pages be separated into their own category or removed entirely?
Should I build and test a control?
Can I use this to build similar profiles for character n-grams to shed light on if spaces are legit. For example if ok and aiin have the same profile, it might indicate they are part of the same term (okaiin), but if they differ greatly it might indicate they are separate words.
Can I use to word bi-grams and tri-grams to shed more light on their meanings? For example how often does daiin ol show up in herbal vs balneological?
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| [split] Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, Cod. gr. 3632 |
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Posted by: ReneZ - 23-07-2024, 03:05 AM - Forum: Imagery
- Replies (15)
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While looking for parallels to the Voynich MS, we must be aware that it is entirely likely that any relevant manuscripts may now be lost. Fortunately, there are also manuscripts that are not lost, but are just not very well known, either in general or to the amateur community interested in the Voynich MS.
Just speaking for myself, and to give an example, I had not heard of Bologna MS Gr. 3632 before.
I just checked Minta Collins, where it is mentioned twice, the first entry giving some interesting details.
She calls it mid-15th century, and online I saw an estimated origin of 1440. This is a bit on the late side, but still roughly contemporary with the Voynich MS. It is mainly an example of an interesting comparison, and evidence that there are still other manuscripts that have not come down to us.
It seems to have interesting parallels to Vat.Chigi F.VII 159 which set the theme of this thread, and Paris BN Grec 2108. It is, however, a compilation from many sources. There don't seem to be many illustrations online, but the few that one can find are quite interesting.Below, some herbs apparently from Dioscorides, with - I find - very interesting roots.
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| Voynich Manuscript Day 2024 Schedule |
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Posted by: Koen G - 22-07-2024, 11:34 AM - Forum: News
- Replies (30)
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Here is the final and definitive schedule for #VMD24!
All times are in CEST. I will be hosting a continuous zoom meeting which can be joined freely. I will upload the whole thing to YouTube afterwards, but of course it would be great if you are able to be part of the live audience. This will also give you the opportunity to ask questions to presenters.
Voynich Manuscript Day 2024
Sunday August 4, 2024
12:00-17:00 CEST
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
12:00-12:40 - tavie
Reducing the noise: identifying constraining patterns in Voynichese
12:40-13:15 - Koen Gheuens
Too blue?
13:30-14:00 - Rene Zandbergen (music presentation)
14:00-14:30 - Patrick Feaster
The Qokeedy and Choldaiin Loops
14:30-15:00 - Koen Gheuens
State of the Voynich 2024
15:00-15:45 - Keagan Brewer
Overview of "The Voynich Manuscript, Dr Johannes Hartlieb and the Encipherment of Women’s Secrets", Social History of Medicine, Oxford Press, March 22, 2024.
16:00-16:30 - Michelle Lewis
A New Source of Comparative Illustration for the Voynich Manuscript - Church Tapestries
16:30-17:00 - Emma May Smith
Feature Patterns in the Voynich Manuscript
With a Voynich-inspired musical composition by Lissu Hänninen and Voynich art by Cary Rapaport.
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| [VM Day] approaching finalized schedule |
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Posted by: Koen G - 21-07-2024, 11:56 AM - Forum: Voynich Talk
- Replies (5)
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So far I have gotten confirmation from everyone but Patrick Feaster. Assuming he is okay with his spot, the schedule for the day will look like this. This is the final opportunity for anyone to let me know if they had any plans discussed with Merri but have been left out.
To people presenting: when it is your turn, I will allow you to share your screen. There is no need to send me any material beforehand. You are free to share any material on the forum before and/or after your presentation, as best suits your needs. I will record the whole event and post it to YouTube afterwards.
You can also still let me know if you'd like the title of your presentation changed.
Lissu and tavie: would you prefer to be mentioned by forum name or full name?
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Voynich Manuscript Day 2024
Sunday August 4, 2024
12:00-17:00 CEST
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
12:00-12:40 - tavie - Reducing the noise: identifying constraining patterns in Voynichese
12:40-13:15 - Koen Gheuens - Too blue?
13:30-14:00 - Rene Zandbergen (music presentation)
14:00-14:30 - Patrick Feaster - The Qokeedy and Choldaiin Loops
14:30-15:00 - Koen Gheuens - State of the Voynich 2024
15:00-15:45 - Keagan Brewer - Overview of "The Voynich Manuscript, Dr Johannes Hartlieb and the Encipherment of Women’s Secrets", Social History of Medicine, Oxford Press, March 22, 2024.
16:00-16:30 - Michelle Lewis - A New Source of Comparative Illustration for the Voynich Manuscript - Church Tapestries
16:30-17:00 - Emma May Smith - Feature Patterns in the Voynich Manuscript
Music by Lissu and art videos by Cary Rapaport will be played between presentations.
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If there is anyone with some layout skills who can turn this into a more attractive format, please do!
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| [VM DAY] Schedule Planning |
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Posted by: Koen G - 16-07-2024, 12:04 PM - Forum: Voynich Talk
- Replies (10)
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Most of the planning for VM Day was being done by Mary, but we have not heard from her in a while. Rene tried emailing her, but so far without an answer. First of all, I really hope she is okay, and it is just work preventing her from following up on Voynich stuff. Either way, Voynich Manuscript Day is rapidly approaching, and I am still set to host it August 4th, from CEST 12:00pm-7:00pm. Just in case we are not able to reach Mary soon, I would like to schedule the events that will certainly happen. Since I was not involved too much in planning, I will need your help.
- Please respond to this thread if you are planning to do something for VM day.
- Did you already get a time slot? And if not, what is your preferred time slot? (Please provide the time you will need to present your research/music/art etc. We can then add some extra time for Q&A and buffer).
- Do you know of any forum-external people that were committed and should be informed?
We will figure out a schedule in this thread. I will do two presentations myself (one about a research topic, one about the State of the Voynich poll), which I will fit into whatever time is left.
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![[Image: 33aa.png]](https://i.ibb.co/1b9sQnf/33aa.png)
Old French Letter ![[Image: 1.png]](https://i.ibb.co/jJTMJt3/1.png)
Voynich letter
![[Image: GuMyqNn.png]](https://i.imgur.com/GuMyqNn.png)