No text, but a visual code

[HermesRevived]

Naturally, like anyone who has a theory, I believe I am right. But I know well that my script solution is difficult to accept, since there is no known precedent. For this reason, I have always thought that the solution to the Voynich mystery must begin with its imagery, which is something that with study and dedication can be solved.

I have said on many occasions that I share the ideas of Panofsky, a great historian of iconology. Only exact knowledge of the iconology of the VM can put an end to its mystery. Within the imagery of the codex, perhaps the most attractive and difficult to resolve are the multitude of female figures in pipes. I would say that the interpretation of this is the key to the mystery.

For me it is the personification of the astral influences that Panofsky spoke of. They are a representation of the zodiacal stars, as the same figures on the zodiacal pages corroborate. They are represented leaving their place and descending to Earth through these pipes. They are the ones that create those strange herbs that we see.

If one day this interpretation gains a certain consensus, it will be clearer what the script is.

I agree that the best approach is to view the work as a Mutus Liber, in the first instance. It is abundant in illustrations. It can be read textless. This provides some internal context, at least. It helps us to understand the purpose for which the text has been crafted. (I assume text and illustrations go together and the text serves the illustrations by some relationship.) 

You and I largely agree, Antonio, on the nature of the work, as evident from the illustrations. It is an astrological herbal - or a work of astrological botany - fashioned on the model of medieval lapidaries and a stellar astrology of 360 fixed stars. (It is not at all clear from the illustrations, by the way, that it is a medical work.) We can be confident that the text (or notation or script, call it what you will) has been designed for this purpose. 

Turning to the text, it becomes clear that it is not linguistic, despite first appearances. It is, rather, some eccentric development of astrological notation from the period before such notation was standardized by printed books (and the reception of the Hermetica in the Renaissance.) 

This conclusion is not at all outlandish and shouldn't be hard to accept, but many researchers have a strong investment in linguistic or cryptological solutions. To some degree I feel this is technology driven and a product of our times. Many people in this game are not really interested in the VM - their interest (not unreasonable in itself) is in a knotty problem to which they can apply their favorite software. Since there are lots of resources for linguistic and cryptological computer analysis, it predisposes research along those lines. Such studies do reveal patterns and properties in the notation, but ultimately are fruitless because the problem is neither linguistic nor cryptological. It's a (very deep) cul de sac. 

We can no doubt apply computer power to the astrological notation solution, but we need to do a lot of footwork before we are in that position, I think. 

On my reading of the illustrations, I make a distinction between the celestial and terrestrial (mountain) nymphs, and I take it that the tubes and what not - in context - depict subterranean rivers and waters in a mountainous (alpine) landscape, not conduits through which the nymphs move from sky to earth as you are suggesting. I think the illustrations rest upon traditional cosmological parallels between the celestial and subterranean waters.