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| Histocrypt 2023 |
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Posted by: ReneZ - 21-05-2023, 12:32 PM - Forum: News
- Replies (5)
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While it is not specifically related to the Voynich MS, the Histocrypt 2023 conference could be of interest to some.
It takes place in Munich, from 20 to 22 June. The conference web site is You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
The programme is still in draft form and not all of the information is fully up to date (I will not be a speaker, for example). I am sure that that will all be fixed very soon.
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| Presentation - Surviving 14th and 15th century ciphers in archives and documents |
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Posted by: Mark Knowles - 05-05-2023, 07:19 PM - Forum: News
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I did a presentation to academics interested in historical ciphers last Thursday the 4th of May. The title of the presentation was "Surviving 14th and 15th century ciphers in archives and documents". This will be appearing as an academic paper in the near future and will probably constitute part of a book that I am writing on cryptography in this period as will the contents of a different presentation that I did last October entitled "Rewriting the History of 15th Century Cryptography in Italian Diplomacy"
The presentation provided an overview of the location and nature of the very many different ciphers surviving from the 14th and 15th century that I am familiar with.
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| Why is the Voynich Manuscript Still Undeciphered ? |
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Posted by: bi3mw - 04-05-2023, 08:23 PM - Forum: Voynich Talk
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In an article I found a short list to answer this question. Instead of asking how the VMS could be deciphered, you ask the question the other way around.
Quote:There are several reasons why it remains undeciphered:
1. Lack of context: Without knowing the context, background, or purpose of the manuscript, it is difficult to develop a framework for deciphering its language.
2. Unique script: The manuscript’s script is unlike any known writing system, with no clear predecessor or parallel to aid in deciphering.
3. Possible coded or invented language: If the manuscript is written in a code or deliberately invented language, decoding it becomes significantly more challenging.
4. Limited sample size: With only one known example of the Voynich Manuscript, researchers cannot compare it to other texts written in the same language or script to look for patterns or clues.
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| Can we make isoglosses? |
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Posted by: Koen G - 03-05-2023, 10:29 AM - Forum: Marginalia
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"An You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. [...] is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel..."
In the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. marginalia, we have at least three proposed "marking" dialectical features:
* box -> pox
* geis -> gas
* milch -> mich
I don't know if all of these words are actually in the marginalia and if their interpretation as dialectical forms is correct. But if this is the case, then they point to a certain region. Now the interesting thing for us is that not every feature will correspond to the exact same region. One village may say "pox" and "gas", while another may say "box" and "gas" and yet another "box" and "geis". So the idea is that by finding out in which areas these three proposed features occur, we might end up with a very specific region, much more specific than "it's Alemannic" or "Switzerland".
Alternatively, we may found out that we cannot demonstrate any geographical proximity between these features, which would also be of relevance for our assessment of the marginalia.
Now the question is if we will be able to gather enough data to make this work. One strategy might be to start with the rarest feature, which may be writing "mich" for "milch" (?) and see if we can find out where its attestations were written. Since I don't have much experience with this kind of research yet, I wonder if it is feasable to begin with.
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