Greek Influences in the VMS glyphs?

[Mark Knowles]

So you are saying that the VM could be a jest, a stunt, a piece of medieval performance art?

This is actually a possibility I often consider, though I prefer "intellectual exercise". Both in the script and the images, we see touching points with the dominant culture of the time, but they have been employed in a disorienting way. This is done very consistently over many pages.

We know that at least five people worked on this thing, so there was also some group component involved, whatever the relationship between these people was. Assuming none of the scribes died, there was an audience of at least four.

I don't know if this is the case, but it's one of the things I keep in mind. The driving force may have been the concept itself rather than secrecy.

Koen, this hypothesis that you present is one that I like and similar to what I have suggested some time ago.

It is often discussed what the purpose of the Voynich was: to keep important secrets hidden or as a hoax to be sold for a lot of money or... Why was it necessary to encipher that book when almost all contemporary manuscripts are not enciphered?

My answered has been primarily, because the author(s) could. Because the author(s) had a fondness for ciphers. He/she/they wrote the manuscript out of personal interest to entertain themselves. It could have been an intellectual exercise. I am not saying that the contents are not meaningful, important and interesting, but that people don't necessarily always do things for clear functional reasons.

Why are many people researching the Voynich? Entertainment and personal interest are big reasons. So why would people of that period be so different?

Think of the Codex Seraphinianus. Why was that written?