Could there be more documents written in voynichese ?

[zachary.kaelan]

I both agree and disagree with this. Even if we were to double or triple our corpus of Voynichese text, it wouldn't bring us closer to a solution and we would still be left with the same questions we have now.

We would be able to compare various properties of another Voynichese document with those of the manuscript. Example scenarios:

1. The document shares a scribe but the text patterns are much different. Increases the probability of the text either being meaningless or of there being multiple enciphering schemes.
2. The document has an astrology image but the text patterns are a closer match to the herbal section. Increases the probability of the text and images having no connection.
3. Carbon-dating places the document 60 years before or after the manuscript and it has a new scribe, but similar text patterns. Would tell us that the system was in consistent use across multiple generations.
4. Document has either all the same scribes as the manuscript but a dating offset, or a number of new scribes and a similar dating. Would help narrow down probabilities for the answers to questions like, "is it an organization or a group of close colleagues/friends?"

Why do you think that such material should be relatively close to the place of origin of the MS?

I think it's most likely that any remaining documents - if they exist - are in the possession of private citizens or families that inherited them but never bothered to look at them or get rid of them, and don't run a personal museum. In an unlabeled box among many in a cluttered attic somewhere. If they were a travelling collector, they'd have looked at what they collected and better organized it.