(28-01-2026, 07:07 AM)Jorge_Stolfi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(28-01-2026, 06:54 AM)JoJo_Jost Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The problem is the regional differences in spelling, which leads directly to a deep exegesis in every attempt at deciphering if you apply Voynich as a simple cipher in Bavarian.

I am not surprised.  It is a more specific version of the same fundamental mistake every expert makes when attacking the VMS.  "The drawings look {European|Bavarian}, so the language must be {European|Bavarian}.  But since a simple alphabet change does not work, it must be some sophisticated cipher."

All the best, --stolfi

(28-01-2026, 10:40 AM)JoJo_Jost Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.And I'm afraid that's a damning verdict on the possibility of deciphering it. Because there are so many possible interpretations of a cipher that has encrypted the language phonetically, if you don't know the dialect exactly. It's like a jigsaw puzzle with about 12,000 pieces, many of which are just blank....

(27-01-2026, 09:15 PM)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I have a theory that the VMS was once in the possession of Hartmann Schedel, a 15th century humanist (and avid book collector), who is famous today because he wrote the Nuremberg Chronicle.

The reason I think this is because of a specific manuscript that he possessed in his collection, a Biblia Pauperum (also called Armenbibel, a so-called "poor man's Bible"), housed today in the Bavarian State Library under the denomination You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. Before going any further I'd like to note that such "Bibla Pauperum"s were widely circulated at the time (14th, 15th centuries), and their purpose was to tell the chapters of the Bible with many small illustrations within the text. There exist hundreds of Biblia Pauperum, each one is copied from a previous source. What is different about the specific copy in Hartmann Schedel's collection, i.e., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., is the style of the illustrations, which appear to be drawn by a very similar set of hands as those of the VMS.

There are several examples of this, perhaps the most striking are the drawings of women. Here is a drawing of a naked woman:



In general, the faces of the woman (and men) in the manuscript are a close match to the VMS's illustrator's style:



Notice the red cheeks and red lips, that are characteristic of the faces in the VMS. Note also that no other Biblia Pauperum draws human faces like this.

Here's an enlarged example from another folio:



Again, red facial features. Here's an example of soldier's chainmail that has the same motifs as the VMS "architecture":



And then there's more depictions of women:



And more:



Notice the hairstyles, that are a good match for the hairstyles in the VMS, along with the identical red cheeks and red mouth. But wait, there's more. What about these Voynich-y animals?



Note the hooves, and the horns, which are similar to the VMS zodiac animals' details. There are many other fantastical animals in the manuscript, some donkeys and snakes, it's well worth a look if you're interested.

Now on to the theory at hand: if Hartmann Schedel got this book from somewhere, and assuming this illustrator is somehow related ot the VMS, that it stands to reason that Schedel might have possessed the VMS at some point in its early history. An interesting sidenote to make is that a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. by computing experts who implemetd a graph theoretical algorithm to search for possible early possessors of the VMS concluded that the most likely candidate to have it in their collection is... Hartmann Schedel.

I will end this discussion with a bit of a cheeky easter egg, if you can call it that: