28-08-2022, 07:02 AM
bi3mw wrote:
" What is striking about the VMS is the fact that there is not a single reference to a key in plain text ( like Fontana in Cod.icon. 242 ). This would indicate, if it really is a cipher, that the entire document should be seriously protected from access by others (non-initiates?). I know of no other manuscript from this period that would be comparable in this respect."
This is true of the extant manuscript, but there are pages missing. It is possible there was a plaintext key and it's been removed. It is exactly the sort of page that might have been removed, a page of significance rather than any other page. We have no way of knowing, of course, but the absence of a key (and thus a motive to seriously conceal) isn't entirely for certain given that we have lost what are possibly crucial pages.
If it's a cipher I'd be surprised if there wasn't a key, but there's no key now. I don't detect anything in the illustrations and diagrams that might require serious concealment, but who knows?
" What is striking about the VMS is the fact that there is not a single reference to a key in plain text ( like Fontana in Cod.icon. 242 ). This would indicate, if it really is a cipher, that the entire document should be seriously protected from access by others (non-initiates?). I know of no other manuscript from this period that would be comparable in this respect."
This is true of the extant manuscript, but there are pages missing. It is possible there was a plaintext key and it's been removed. It is exactly the sort of page that might have been removed, a page of significance rather than any other page. We have no way of knowing, of course, but the absence of a key (and thus a motive to seriously conceal) isn't entirely for certain given that we have lost what are possibly crucial pages.
If it's a cipher I'd be surprised if there wasn't a key, but there's no key now. I don't detect anything in the illustrations and diagrams that might require serious concealment, but who knows?