J. Janick interpretations of the VMS...

[-JKP-]

Do they claim that it was written in the Americas or just that it contains some American things?

In the paper by Tucker and Janick, they don't say for absolute sure, what they say is, "The 55 plant species, identified with various levels of certainty, are either circumboreal or indigenous to Colonial New Spain. Most appear to have medicinal uses to improve human health. No European, Asian, or South American plants have been identified other than circumboreal species. This study is consistent with the determination that the Voynich Codex is a herbal written in Colonial New Spain in the 16th century."


To this, I can only say, there are many Old World species represented in the VMS that can be identified with about the same level of certainty as the Tucker/Janick IDs (which means no one can be absolutely certain without textual or other confirmation, but some appear to be naturalistic and identifiable). Maybe the authors are not familiar with European plants but if that's the case, they should say so.


Janick makes a stronger statement about them being New World plants on the Purdue newcrop site which I read yesterday but am having trouble finding today (I can't remember which chapter it was). If I locate it, I will upload it.


And in the interest of fairness (and accuracy), I said upthread that Janick didn't acknowledge that the zodiac labels had probably been added later (which is true in one of the chapters) but now I find he does acknowledge it in another chapter (but still doesn't appear to consider that the person who added them may have misunderstood the function of the symbols).

Also, he visually equates the alligator gar not only with the fish-like creature on the pool page, but also with the fish on the zodiac-symbols page and I can't see why. The front fin is wrong, the wiggly shape of the fish is wrong and... there are European fish and even some medieval zodiac wheel fish (see pic) that resemble the VMS Pisces with a long snout and extra fins, so one cannot say with certainty that it is specifically a New World fish or that it is alligator gar.

   



These researchers are staking their reputations on this being a New World manuscript (I'm not saying it isn't, I'm only saying that the evidence seems to lean in the Old World direction) or perhaps they are playing poker and hoping the text will never be decoded and betting that no one can refute them without textual confirmation. I am of the opinion, however, that certain claims can be refuted without decoding the text... so I guess we'll see.