Structured Decipherment Approach – Alchemical Shorthand Framework

[fran9262]

If it is a shorthand then what language is it a shorthand of? Can we read the original words?

Shorhand is a way of fast writing of some real language.

Or is your "alchemical shorthand" something different?

Good question — let me clarify.

When I use the phrase “alchemical shorthand,” I don’t mean stenography in the modern sense (like Tironian notes or Gregg shorthand). What I’m referring to is the kind of compressed symbolic notation used in medieval alchemical and medical manuscripts. These systems:

Used clusters or marks to stand in for entire words (e.g., materia, aqua, ignis).

Were usually tied to Latin root terms, since Latin was the working language of alchemy and medicine.

Functioned more as compressed jargon and secrecy codes, not phonetic languages.

So in my framework, for example:

-ody = materia / base matter.

she- = ignis / calcination or fire process.

chedy = herba / plant unit.

This isn’t a free invention — these kinds of symbols and abbreviations exist in other alchemical texts of the same period.

To your second point: yes, we can “read out” the underlying words, but what we get are Latin expansions (materia, ignis, aqua, radix, vas, etc.). The Voynich is not written in plain Latin but in an encoded shorthand system compressing those terms.

Finally, to avoid confusion: the final colophon on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (the added scrawl at the back) is in a different language altogether — generally considered medieval German with some Latin mix. That is not part of my key and plays no role in the shorthand system I’m describing.