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+--- Thread: Maps showing the Frequency of Voynich related features (/thread-5737.html)
Maps showing the Frequency of Voynich related features - Mark Knowles - 14-05-2026
Koen has produced a map where people can mark locations associated with swallow-tail merlons.
As is well known, I have studied and collected ciphers from around the time at which the Voynich is carbon dated to. I had a thought about what a map would look like where each cipher is marked at a location that it is associated with. I suspect that broadly speaking it would not look so different from the swallow-tail merlons map in terms of the clustering of points in the same parts of Italy as on that map. Of course, they would not be identical. There are some geographical areas which have ciphers associated with them like the Kingdom of Aragon which have no swallow-tail merlons and some geographical areas which have swallow-tail merlons which have no known ciphers associated with them. However, overall I suspect the maps to be quite similar.
Obviously, there are other similar geographical distribution maps that could be produced.
One could produce a map of locations associated with alchemical herbal manuscripts or more generally herbal manuscripts from this period of history.
One could produce a map of locations associated with zodiac diagrams from this period of history where the distribution would be more skewed to South Germany/Northern Switzerland.
I am not sure how useful any of these maps might be. Though in theory they might be combined to produce some probability frequency distribution for the place of origin of the Voynich.
I myself have a theory as to precisely where the two sets of swallow-tail merlons on the Rosettes folio correspond to(Milan and Bellinzona) which is in part why I may not have been too focused on identifying all the locations with swallow-tail merlons on Koen's map.
RE: Maps showing the Frequency of Voynich related features - Grove - 14-05-2026
It would be interesting to see that with types of ciphers as well. Simple substitutions would likely be most common everywhere, but perhaps other methods clustered in certain areas?
RE: Maps showing the Frequency of Voynich related features - Mark Knowles - 15-05-2026
(14-05-2026, 06:10 PM)Grove Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.It would be interesting to see that with types of ciphers as well. Simple substitutions would likely be most common everywhere, but perhaps other methods clustered in certain areas?Broadly speaking ciphers used outside of politics/diplomacy tend to be simple substitution. Ciphers used by the Italian City States and their representatives tend to be much more complex, although normally still based on substitution. The most complex tend to be ciphers produced by the government of the Duchy of Milan. However, so little survives of the ciphers produced by the government of the Republic of Venice that we can't really say how complex their ciphers were in the early 15th century. The same could be said of the Papacy where so few examples of their ciphers from the early 15th century are known, although when I go to the Vatican Apostolic Archives maybe I will find a few examples. Even for Milan the picture is quite incomplete, although I am doing my best to form a more complete picture.