[Panel Session] Voynich Paleography lecture

[LisaFaginDavis]

[color=#1d2129][size=small][font=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]OK, folks, here's my recent lecture from the annual meeting of the Bibliographical Society of America in New York City. This is only one part of my research, though - the full extent of my work will be published in the coming months in the journal Manuscript Studies: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

[Koen G]

Thank you so much for sharing, Lisa! I will watch it right away.

[Koen G]

I really enjoyed the video. The amount of different scribes is a question I am very much interested in, but do not have the skills to study myself. It is valuable to know your opinion as a specialist that there are five. I am looking forward to your publication.

You confidently speak about different scribes, but I know some people might say that this is one scribe in different stages of his life. Do you think this is possible at all, or is this a form of single-author wishful thinking?

[Aga Tentakulus]

@ Lisa
I was just looking at it too, and thanks from me. I did not understand everything, my english is not the best.

Interestingly, you had already marked a sign on your laptop during the show Terra x. So I assumed you wanted to talk about the difference in height of the symbol.

I noticed that in the VM the same character appears in 3 different ways.
I wonder if this is a writing difference of the hand, or a difference between writing A and B.

Cryptologically seen it would have to align the character 1, to character 2 (character 3). So that for the eye the deception is preserved.
This would be a good question to the specialists. Writing difference or possible deception.
   

[LisaFaginDavis]

I really enjoyed the video. The amount of different scribes is a question I am very much interested in, but do not have the skills to study myself. It is valuable to know your opinion as a specialist that there are five. I am looking forward to your publication.

You confidently speak about different scribes, but I know some people might say that this is one scribe in different stages of his life. Do you think this is possible at all, or is this a form of single-author wishful thinking?

\\

No, I don't think these could be one scribe in different stages. The features I am focusing on are the type of features that tend to be consistent across a scribe's career.

[MarcoP]

Thank you, Lisa! Knowing that it was a joint project certainly has deep implications about the nature of the ms. I am now even more eager to read your paper.

Also, it's great to know that you are collaborating with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.! I believe that scholars with different backgrounds working together are our best hope to see more progress in this field.

[Helmut Winkler]

This is another red herring and a lot of people will waste time and resources on it.

What LFD and others don't see is that Beinecke 408 is a Sammelhandschrift, in this case works or notes by a single person on various topics that were bound together at some time. There is a time line. From this, the variations in the writing can be explained without difficulty.

Not that I think it plays a big role, this is just for the record what I think about this matter.

The only thing I want to comment on  is  the 'unknown glyph set', anyone who knows a little about Latin paleography should know what it is.

[Koen G]

Apart from the fact that there are five hands, I also find it interesting that one is in Currier A and the others in Currier B. That is, to the extent that Currier A and B are clearly separated entities. Is it possible that some of the "B" hands also correspond to their own sub-dialect?

[davidjackson]

Looking to see whether distinct hands worked on the same leafs would be a good indication of whether it is a collaborative or individual effort - does one single sheet have two scribes on it?

On a different note, I remember mucking around with DigiPal ages ago with the vague intention of putting it onto the forum for exactly this sort of paleographical effort. Never did, mainly due to the lack of user permissions making unsuitable for public accesible websites IIRC. Should do it on a password protected site at some point.....

[nablator]

Looking to see whether distinct hands worked on the same leafs would be a good indication of whether it is a collaborative or individual effort - does one single sheet have two scribes on it?

Yes, I think so. I don't know if anyone else noticed it.