Classifying False Voynich Decipherment "Solutions"

[ReneZ]

The proper approach is to first determine the historical context of VM production. I don't see that anyone has yet done that.

I wouldn't say that. Instead there are plenty more or less elaborate proposed contexts.

The clearest example is perhaps in the work of Arthur Tucker and Jules Janick who have filled two Springer volumes with an elaboration how the historical context of the Voynich MS is Mesoamerica.

Diane O'Donovan has spent years, and filled several blogs (now all hidden or deleted) creating several non-European contexts based on the illustrations. These included East Asia, a Black Sea culture and also North Africa.

Even the work of Gerard Cheshire, while it concentrates mainly on the text, comes with a historical context centred around the island of Ischia.

A retired American, who does not communicate on the internet, places the creation of the MS in a German group of lesbian nuns, and sees a magical content. No translation at all.

With a bit of effort, several additional examples can be found and listed.

And then there is the general, almost mainstream, idea that this is the work of one or several people in central Europe (which includes modern N.Italy), at the start of the 15th Century. It proposes that the creator(s) must have been quite familiar with medicinal, astrological and cosmological works of his time.

This means that proposing a historical context will initially be adding one more to the list.

Until it has been published, it cannot be checked how much more convincing it is than the existing ones.