28-08-2025, 06:14 PM
(This post was last modified: 28-08-2025, 06:16 PM by Jorge_Stolfi.)
My own best guess for the marginal texts (f116v and F17r) is that they were added by the Author himself some time after the Scribe(s) finished their job.
Why can't dozens of paleographers even identify the letters, much less the words, language, and meaning, even though it is clearly plaintext in some European language and Latin letters?
I propose that it is because the Author needed to write them in a specific European language, but had at best a very rudimentary knowledge of it and of the Latin alphabet. So he either did the best he could with that limited knowledge, or asked someone how to write the intended message in that language and transcribed it, possibly without even identifying the letters. If I had to write a message in cursive Armenian, in similar conditions, I bet that all the Armenian scholars in the world would be unable to decipher my scribbles.
By the way, this theory also might explain why we can't identify the language of the month names, and why there is not one line of plain European language and script in the body of the manuscript.
And I believe that lines 2 and 3 of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (those with all the crosses) were meant to be a Christian charm: a precaution in case some Christian fanatic happened to glance at the book and concluded that it was Satanic, Muslim, Pagan, or Heretic stuff. Like John Dee, 200 years later, felt it necessary to preface his records of conversations with "Angels" with profuse statements of faith and invocations of protection by Mary etc.
All the best, --jorge
Why can't dozens of paleographers even identify the letters, much less the words, language, and meaning, even though it is clearly plaintext in some European language and Latin letters?
I propose that it is because the Author needed to write them in a specific European language, but had at best a very rudimentary knowledge of it and of the Latin alphabet. So he either did the best he could with that limited knowledge, or asked someone how to write the intended message in that language and transcribed it, possibly without even identifying the letters. If I had to write a message in cursive Armenian, in similar conditions, I bet that all the Armenian scholars in the world would be unable to decipher my scribbles.
By the way, this theory also might explain why we can't identify the language of the month names, and why there is not one line of plain European language and script in the body of the manuscript.
And I believe that lines 2 and 3 of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (those with all the crosses) were meant to be a Christian charm: a precaution in case some Christian fanatic happened to glance at the book and concluded that it was Satanic, Muslim, Pagan, or Heretic stuff. Like John Dee, 200 years later, felt it necessary to preface his records of conversations with "Angels" with profuse statements of faith and invocations of protection by Mary etc.
All the best, --jorge