05-05-2021, 04:15 PM
Another necessary clarification and refinement of my hypothesis:
I have been convinced that it is unlikely that such a high-ranking aristocrat as Edward, 2nd Duke of York, himself could or would have done the actual physical writing of the text of the Voynich MS.
Still, the Duke of York would have had no small number of scribes and clerks to perform all of his writing tasks for him, and I imagine that the kind of aristocrat who could have spent a substantial portion of 7 years (1406-1413) translating The Master of Game from French into English, as well as adding his own new English chapters at the end of the work, would have had a great interest in written communication in multiple languages, at a minimum English, French (both Anglo-Norman and standard French), and Latin.
I see no reason why the Duke of York could not have had some of his scribes or clerks write the text of the Voynich MS at his behest. Maintaining confidentiality, privacy, and secrecy would have been simply assumed to be the sacredly sworn responsibility of a clerk in the retinue of the Duke of York! It is another question whether the clerks would have known the cipher rules and thus the meaning of the Voynich script text they were writing, or whether the Duke of York performed the cipher encryption himself and only directed his scribes or clerks to write the characters they had been trained to write, without understanding the actual meaning of the words they were writing. I suspect that at least one or some of the actual scribes or clerks must have had at least some understanding of the actual meaning of the text that they were writing at the Duke of York's behest.
In this regard, it is interesting to me that some scholars who have studied the palaeography of the script of the Voynich MS believe it is possible that the handwriting could be from Spain just as well as it could be from Italy or Bohemia! Now Spain actually has a much more plausible connection to an English aristocrat in this time period than Bohemia or other places in Central Europe do. And the possible connection is especially plausible for Edward, 2nd Duke of York, in particular: He was appointed as the Lieutenant of the Duchy of Aquitaine from July 1401 until May 1403. He would have been stationed in Bordeaux during this time period, and in fact he would have effectively been the de facto ruler of this territory on an everyday basis, although technically he was Henry IV's Lieutenant ruling the territory on Henry's behalf.
See the historical political map of southwest Europe in the year 1400 You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (Euratlas). (It appears that Euratlas's You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. do not grant to myself or others the right to post the map itself as an attachment, so I have not done so.) You will see that England controlled not only the area of Aquitaine in the immediate vicinity of Bordeaux, but also an additional small area farther south, bordering Navarre and Aragon and seemingly practically touching a tip of the territory of Castile at a small point north of Navarre.
I propose that it would not have been at all unlikely for the Lieutenant of the Duchy of Aquitaine in 1401-1403 to have among his retinue some number of Spanish-trained scribes or clerks. They could have developed a script such as that of the Voynich MS at the Lieutenant's behest, if he so desired. When he (Edward, 2nd Duke of York) returned to England in 1403, he could have retained some of these scribes or clerks, especially if he had a special interest in this unique style of script that only they had developed and been trained to write. They could have remained in the Duke of York's retinue in England after 1403 and during the time period of the composition of the Voynich MS.
It still remains to explain the German marginalia in the Voynich MS. I suggest that perhaps only those were actually written by the Duke of York himself! Perhaps this also explains their poor quality and makes them difficult to interpret and understand their actual meaning. Again, the motivation would have been to have nothing in the MS that appeared to be of English or French origin, for security purposes in case it fell into the wrong hands of Henry IV or an official in his court. This would have created plausible deniability for the Duke of York, so that he could believably say that it wasn't his personal document or of his creation but rather just an exotic manuscript that he had acquired from elsewhere and that he had no idea what the script was or what the text meant. For this purpose indeed it was probably safer to use German as the language of the marginalia even rather than Spanish or Occitan or any language of that region. German would have appeared to be the least potentially "political" of the possible languages that could have been chosen for this purpose. Again, the Duke of York could still have claimed that he acquired the MS during his visit to Heidelberg in the late 1390s, if he ever needed an "alibi" to explain the document's origin.
Some may claim that some parts of this hypothesis now seem far-fetched to them. I respond, is not everything about the Voynich MS itself far-fetched? Do we really expect that the actual explanation of the origin of the Voynich MS will seem "normal" or "ordinary"? I suggest not. It is a bizarre document. There will be some aspects of the correct solution of its origin that will appear to be bizarre.
Geoffrey
"We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct." - Niels Bohr
I have been convinced that it is unlikely that such a high-ranking aristocrat as Edward, 2nd Duke of York, himself could or would have done the actual physical writing of the text of the Voynich MS.
Still, the Duke of York would have had no small number of scribes and clerks to perform all of his writing tasks for him, and I imagine that the kind of aristocrat who could have spent a substantial portion of 7 years (1406-1413) translating The Master of Game from French into English, as well as adding his own new English chapters at the end of the work, would have had a great interest in written communication in multiple languages, at a minimum English, French (both Anglo-Norman and standard French), and Latin.
I see no reason why the Duke of York could not have had some of his scribes or clerks write the text of the Voynich MS at his behest. Maintaining confidentiality, privacy, and secrecy would have been simply assumed to be the sacredly sworn responsibility of a clerk in the retinue of the Duke of York! It is another question whether the clerks would have known the cipher rules and thus the meaning of the Voynich script text they were writing, or whether the Duke of York performed the cipher encryption himself and only directed his scribes or clerks to write the characters they had been trained to write, without understanding the actual meaning of the words they were writing. I suspect that at least one or some of the actual scribes or clerks must have had at least some understanding of the actual meaning of the text that they were writing at the Duke of York's behest.
In this regard, it is interesting to me that some scholars who have studied the palaeography of the script of the Voynich MS believe it is possible that the handwriting could be from Spain just as well as it could be from Italy or Bohemia! Now Spain actually has a much more plausible connection to an English aristocrat in this time period than Bohemia or other places in Central Europe do. And the possible connection is especially plausible for Edward, 2nd Duke of York, in particular: He was appointed as the Lieutenant of the Duchy of Aquitaine from July 1401 until May 1403. He would have been stationed in Bordeaux during this time period, and in fact he would have effectively been the de facto ruler of this territory on an everyday basis, although technically he was Henry IV's Lieutenant ruling the territory on Henry's behalf.
See the historical political map of southwest Europe in the year 1400 You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (Euratlas). (It appears that Euratlas's You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. do not grant to myself or others the right to post the map itself as an attachment, so I have not done so.) You will see that England controlled not only the area of Aquitaine in the immediate vicinity of Bordeaux, but also an additional small area farther south, bordering Navarre and Aragon and seemingly practically touching a tip of the territory of Castile at a small point north of Navarre.
I propose that it would not have been at all unlikely for the Lieutenant of the Duchy of Aquitaine in 1401-1403 to have among his retinue some number of Spanish-trained scribes or clerks. They could have developed a script such as that of the Voynich MS at the Lieutenant's behest, if he so desired. When he (Edward, 2nd Duke of York) returned to England in 1403, he could have retained some of these scribes or clerks, especially if he had a special interest in this unique style of script that only they had developed and been trained to write. They could have remained in the Duke of York's retinue in England after 1403 and during the time period of the composition of the Voynich MS.
It still remains to explain the German marginalia in the Voynich MS. I suggest that perhaps only those were actually written by the Duke of York himself! Perhaps this also explains their poor quality and makes them difficult to interpret and understand their actual meaning. Again, the motivation would have been to have nothing in the MS that appeared to be of English or French origin, for security purposes in case it fell into the wrong hands of Henry IV or an official in his court. This would have created plausible deniability for the Duke of York, so that he could believably say that it wasn't his personal document or of his creation but rather just an exotic manuscript that he had acquired from elsewhere and that he had no idea what the script was or what the text meant. For this purpose indeed it was probably safer to use German as the language of the marginalia even rather than Spanish or Occitan or any language of that region. German would have appeared to be the least potentially "political" of the possible languages that could have been chosen for this purpose. Again, the Duke of York could still have claimed that he acquired the MS during his visit to Heidelberg in the late 1390s, if he ever needed an "alibi" to explain the document's origin.
Some may claim that some parts of this hypothesis now seem far-fetched to them. I respond, is not everything about the Voynich MS itself far-fetched? Do we really expect that the actual explanation of the origin of the Voynich MS will seem "normal" or "ordinary"? I suggest not. It is a bizarre document. There will be some aspects of the correct solution of its origin that will appear to be bizarre.
Geoffrey
"We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct." - Niels Bohr