Voynich Authorship

[Mark Knowles]

- a top cipher developer would know very well that it is a very bad idea to encrypt a very long text with a single method/key

Why would it be a very bad idea?

(Also it is possible that the Voynich uses more than one key, hence the appearance of different languages/dialects)

- a brother of a top cipher developer would not necessarily have access to such secrets. (If my brother had access to state secrets, I would most definitely NOT know them).

I have over time been warming to the possibility that the Voynich manuscript may have been the project of brothers. This has been influenced in part by the idea suggested by specialists that the Voynich was written by multiple authors, but also due to my reading indicating the brothers Abbot Antonio Barbavara, Ducal Secretary Francesco Barbavara, Ambassador Marcolino Barbavara, Bishop Giovanni Barbavara, Apostolic Protonotary Pietro Barbavara and Mayor Nicolino Barbavara were very close. My Rosettes analysis points towards Abbot Antonio and also his biography fits with the subject matter of the Voynich and my Cipher analysis ties neatly with Francesco Barbavara and Marcolino Barbavara. The attendance at the Council of Basel in Basel, Switzerland fits with many of these brothers for political or religious reasons.

It is worth noting that Antonio played a diplomatic role in some respects as is stated in a book about the Abbey where he was Abbot. This is not unusual as religious figures were often involved in politics then. Before entering the church Antonio had trained as a young man to become the mayor in Alessandria, but had clearly then chosen a different career path.

So it is true the question remains how the cryptographic knowledge was transferred from Francesco(or Marcolino) to Antonio. At the moment I am inclined to the view that Francesco Barbavara was the one who designed the cipher as he was head of the Ducal chancellery, but it could have been Marcolino.