Davidjackson,
"So - why did the Voynich scribe decide upon a fluid script for his book?"
This is not a nonsensical question to me, but an important one, and thank you for raising it.
The chosen characters are not only more practical than those cipher alphabets, but also much more inconspicuous.
The text would appear rather unremarkable to someone who was just glancing at it. This is the deceptively simple impression that many have described about the script: at first glance it looks like you could read it, until you realize you can't.
Aside from the possibilities that you and Koen Gh have raised here, a cipher that doesn't look like one could be a cunning camouflage to minimize scrutiny. "Nothing secret/controversial here, just an herbal in a foreign language".
Side note regarding the Aethicus text referenced by ReneZ. I have yet to look into this further, but the Wikipedia entries point towards some very interesting features of his writing, outside of the use of a secret alphabet.
From the German wiki article (Google translated):
"In places, the author shows quirky humor, such as... apparently caricaturing use of alliteration."
More on that from the English wiki:
"...etymological 'jokes' (e.g. using the verb 'monstrare' followed by the noun 'monstrum', then the verb 'demonstrare') and other ludic elements are found throughout."
I find this interesting in regard to the clusters of words with only slight variations we find in the Voynich.
"So - why did the Voynich scribe decide upon a fluid script for his book?"
This is not a nonsensical question to me, but an important one, and thank you for raising it.
The chosen characters are not only more practical than those cipher alphabets, but also much more inconspicuous.
The text would appear rather unremarkable to someone who was just glancing at it. This is the deceptively simple impression that many have described about the script: at first glance it looks like you could read it, until you realize you can't.
Aside from the possibilities that you and Koen Gh have raised here, a cipher that doesn't look like one could be a cunning camouflage to minimize scrutiny. "Nothing secret/controversial here, just an herbal in a foreign language".
Side note regarding the Aethicus text referenced by ReneZ. I have yet to look into this further, but the Wikipedia entries point towards some very interesting features of his writing, outside of the use of a secret alphabet.
From the German wiki article (Google translated):
"In places, the author shows quirky humor, such as... apparently caricaturing use of alliteration."
More on that from the English wiki:
"...etymological 'jokes' (e.g. using the verb 'monstrare' followed by the noun 'monstrum', then the verb 'demonstrare') and other ludic elements are found throughout."
I find this interesting in regard to the clusters of words with only slight variations we find in the Voynich.