The Voynich-Ms as a concatenation of abbreviations

[Helmut Winkler]

Although I don't think it is really relevant to the Voynich manuscript I appreciate you mentioning the Avignon papal records as I came across the following:

"The political and administrative correspondence of the Avignon popes, 1305-1378" by Patrick Zutshi

This article refers to quite a few enciphered letters in this collection. Putting my other hat on, as someone interested in 14th and 15th ciphers then these are definitely of interest as there are few ciphers surviving from the 14th century. I think they would most probably be too early to be connected to the Voynich manuscript, but still of interest otherwise.

Helmut: That is one reason why I do wonder if the documents that you are looking for are short-hand or enciphered or something else.

If you take into account the 'Geschäftsgang' 'course of business' of the chancery, you can be sure it is aa shorthand