The Rosettes Page - March 2024

[Mark Knowles]

Again though, I'd like to learn more about which sources you base your views on.

Who is this question directed to?

At pjburkshire. 

The unfortunate thing about threads like these is that we can compare opinions all day long, but it won't really get us anywhere. If I say "I think the rosettes foldout represents a medieval fruit market" and another guy says "no, my opinion is that it represents a calendar of the year 1433", where do we go from there? No matter what the other guy says, he won't convince me that it isn't a fruit market. And no matter what I say, he will keep thinking it is a calendar. Do we keep telling each other about our opinions until one gives in and the other wins? How does this bring us any closer to the truth?

As I see it, the goal here with exploring the options for the meaning of the illustrations is not to definitively define the meaning of the entire manuscript but to try to give the people working on deciphering the text ideas to narrow down language options to explore. The people working on deciphering the text will decide which paths they want to explore.

I have to say, I was very shocked by the number of diverse ideas that people have for just the Rosettes page. I don't know how long this message board/forum has been in operation but I am astounded that there is so little consensus on the meaning of even this one page.

All these years of discussion and not even anything close to a consensus on the meaning of this one page. Maybe it really was created by homesick crashed extraterrestrials. Maybe that is why the meaning is so obscure to humans.

I keep thinking of the parable of the blind men and an elephant.

I think we need more complete theories of the page to compare. If someone thinks the page represents the cosmos, then it will help if they construct a complete theory, so for example, then which rosette represents which planet and why? They need to systematically go over the page giving a hypothesis as to what each drawing represents and so building a theory of the page. This tends not, in most cases, to have been done. Producing documents that resemble the page in some ways to support a theory is important.

There is a lack of consensus on so many aspects of the Voynich manuscript. I am not sure if there is anything where there is a general consensus.