Historic cipher mapping

[Mark Knowles]

I don't want to dismiss the ideas of others as to alternative origins of the Voynich cipher, if it is a cipher. It is possible that an old/ancient cipher was rediscovered or a completely new kind of cipher was invented. I briefly investigated the ideas of Ramon llull and his possible influence on Giovanni Fontana and Leon Battista Alberti. I don't think the fact that a cipher wasn't used later does not mean it can't have been used then only for the Voynich. Alberti's cipher made very little impact on general cipher usage at the time. There of course remains the question as to whether the inventor has any background in ciphers of that time. I am inclined to think that if the author(s) of the Voynich had no knowledge of ciphers of the time, assuming it is enciphered, then they must have been real genius(es) to come up with a cipher that hasn't been broken in 600 years. If the author had a background in diplomatic ciphers whether the Voynich manuscript cipher has anything in common with known diplomatic ciphers of the time or not then I would think they would likely be better placed to invent a new cipher. Given that the time from which the Voynich was created was a very dynamic and innovative period in the development of diplomatic ciphers and that sadly so little survives from that time we cannot be certain as to precisely what the complexity and nature of diplomatic ciphers was in that period. I have formed a very large collection of early 15th diplomatic ciphers and yet there are significant gaps in my knowledge due to an absence of ciphers from certain city states and at certain periods, maybe in the future I will be able to fill some of these gaps.