07-07-2017, 05:18 PM
This is, of course, the modern forgery hypothesis, much investigated and promoted by H. R. Santa-Coloma on the vms-list.
Here is the problem I see with that scenario. Wilfrid Voynich tried to connect the manuscript to Roger Bacon, but couldn't make it stick. However, in the VMs on f71r, there is an interesting historical connection. If the pair of blue-striped tub patterns are interpreted as heraldic insignia, and along with the red galero, various hierarchical and heraldic positionings, and the papelonny pun are considered as identification for the origins of the cardinal's red galero in Roman Catholic church tradition, then there is a problem. History records that there was a personal connection between Ottobuono Fieschi, the younger of the Genoese popes, and Roger Bacon.
If the VMs is a modern forgery (say early 1900s), then some modern forger needed to either copy or create the illustration found on f71r. And yet Wilfrid Voynich, to my knowledge at least, made no use of the very information that would provide support to his Bacon hypothesis or ever suggested that heraldry might be a topic for further investigation. It seems strange to suggest that Voynich might have created the forgery and yet be ignorant of its contents.
Here is the problem I see with that scenario. Wilfrid Voynich tried to connect the manuscript to Roger Bacon, but couldn't make it stick. However, in the VMs on f71r, there is an interesting historical connection. If the pair of blue-striped tub patterns are interpreted as heraldic insignia, and along with the red galero, various hierarchical and heraldic positionings, and the papelonny pun are considered as identification for the origins of the cardinal's red galero in Roman Catholic church tradition, then there is a problem. History records that there was a personal connection between Ottobuono Fieschi, the younger of the Genoese popes, and Roger Bacon.
If the VMs is a modern forgery (say early 1900s), then some modern forger needed to either copy or create the illustration found on f71r. And yet Wilfrid Voynich, to my knowledge at least, made no use of the very information that would provide support to his Bacon hypothesis or ever suggested that heraldry might be a topic for further investigation. It seems strange to suggest that Voynich might have created the forgery and yet be ignorant of its contents.