12-04-2021, 03:44 PM
The method to read the Voynich ms text would be repeatable in the strict sense that you mean if it were a precisely rule-based cipher based on a known standard written language, such as Latin. (Actually, it's hard to think of any other written language in early 15th century Europe with such a well-established standard form that it could be the basis of a recoverable repeatable strictly rule-based cipher. Any other written language before the invention of the printing press would have had too much and too broad variation in its underlying written forms to begin with. Maybe Italian would also have qualified, I'm not sure.)
For example, the recently deciphered final Zodiac cipher was an example of such a recoverable, repeatable process. That's because the underlying text was more or less standard English.
But is the Voynich ms text even based on an underlying known standard form of an existing written language, which was then encrypted by some method? If this was not the case, then no strictly repeatable method can be expected to decipher it.
Brief comment on a cryptographic aspect of the question: Typically, cryptographic encryption techniques increase the apparent entropy (randomness) of the resulting cipher text, as compared with the underlying plain text message before encryption. But if the Voynich ms text was indeed the result of a strictly repeatable encryption process applied to a text in an underlying known standard language, why then did this process apparently decrease the entropy of the resulting cipher text rather than increase it?
For example, the recently deciphered final Zodiac cipher was an example of such a recoverable, repeatable process. That's because the underlying text was more or less standard English.
But is the Voynich ms text even based on an underlying known standard form of an existing written language, which was then encrypted by some method? If this was not the case, then no strictly repeatable method can be expected to decipher it.
Brief comment on a cryptographic aspect of the question: Typically, cryptographic encryption techniques increase the apparent entropy (randomness) of the resulting cipher text, as compared with the underlying plain text message before encryption. But if the Voynich ms text was indeed the result of a strictly repeatable encryption process applied to a text in an underlying known standard language, why then did this process apparently decrease the entropy of the resulting cipher text rather than increase it?