Strong evidence of a structured four-phase system in the Voynich Manuscript

[Urtx13]

For the few of us who only just learned this meaning of "seed" today, could you please explain your findings in layman's terms?  What are the characteristics of each of the four phases?  Could you list a folio for each phase and explain why it falls under that category?

Of course! Let me try.

The seed is just a way to make sure that the code always starts from the same place. Without it, the code still runs correctly, but it would start each time from a different point, so that the results could vary slightly.

Imagine a runner: it’s not the same to run 1 km every day starting from a different city than to run 1 km on the same route every day. Using a seed is like always running from the same starting line — it allows us to compare results fairly and reproducibly.

What did we find?

We discovered that the botanical section of the Voynich Manuscript exhibits a consistent internal structure, dividing the folios into four repeating phases. These phases emerge when we analyze the statistical patterns of the text, things like vocabulary diversity (entropy), topic modeling, and other linguistic features. It partially aligns with lunar and agricultural cycles. That’s not proof of meaning, but it strongly suggests that the content was structured intentionally and follows a time-based logic.

This is important because the presence of a consistent internal structure suggests it was intentionally created. That means the Voynich Manuscript is not just random gibberish — it’s a system with internal logic.

The structure may reflect both the intended use of the manuscript and how its language works.
What we’ve found doesn’t decode the text yet, but it opens up an entirely new path toward understanding—and eventually translating it.

If you’re curious about which folios fall under each phase, the easiest way is to run the code — the file classification_predictions.csv includes the assigned phase for every folio, based on the model’s output.

I wish I could help you understand it better! Please, keep asking if you have doubts.