[Movie] Is the Voynich Manuscript an Elaborate Medieval Hoax?

[Koen G]

Actually Sledge is referring to a concrete method and he argues that this method would reproduce the statistical key properties of the Voynich manuscript. Therefore it is possible to check if this method is able to explain the properties of the Voynich text. See You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..

We are mixing two different arguments here. One is "is this exact method attested in the Middle Ages?" and the other is "can this be done?"

Sledge argues that the type of cipher that would produce the VM text is beyond the horizon of the Middle Ages (I assume it would need entropy-reducing features like verbose elements, strategically introducing spaces, positional variations and so on). It is unattested. This is true. But the alternative method proposed is also unattested in the Middle Ages. The fact that it can be done in modern times is made somewhat less relevant by Sledge's argumentation, since he pays attention to what we could and could not expect in the Middle Ages.

The other question is, can it be done. This would ideally be tested by having a few participants unaware of the VM text study the method for a while, let them practice a bit, and then have them use it to produce a text. It is important that the volunteers are not very familiar with the VM or haven't read an EVA transcription, because otherwise they'd know what they're aiming for. This should be done using pen and paper, without the aid of computers. I know this is practically almost impossible - any test that requires volunteers is hard to get done - but it would be an interesting test to see how the human mind interacts with these rules, and how quickly text is generated.