28-12-2025, 01:45 PM
In my view of the script, the shape of the glyphs has crucial importance. This is something that is overlooked in script analyses. It is assumed that we are dealing with an unknown alphabet and that the glyphs are arbitrary, that they could be different. I maintain that the design of the glyphs is fundamental. It's an assumption, just like the other one, but mine has the advantage of not straying from the materiality of the script, from what we see.
The shape of the glyphs and their importance in the structure of the script was highlighted by Brian Cham in his well-known curve-line system. His approach, however, doesn't deviate from the conventional view. The script either hides a language or is nonsense. It cannot be otherwise because to get out of this dead end a comprehensive view of the entire codex is needed, including its imagery and the message it conveys.
I believe that the glyphs are the way they are because they represent celestial objects or positions on the ecliptic. For example, the glyph [o] and the other two that Stolfi calls circles in his grammar are, for me, the representation of the fixed stars in different positions. That symbol [o] can be seen in the center of many of the stars drawn in the Voynich Manuscript. It's what Ellie Velinska called dotted stars. On her blog she gave many medieval examples of those dotted stars.
My interpretation, consistent with that way of drawing the stars, which we also see in the Voynich Manuscript, is that this [o] is also part of the script. In fact, it is the most frequent symbol.
The shape of the glyphs and their importance in the structure of the script was highlighted by Brian Cham in his well-known curve-line system. His approach, however, doesn't deviate from the conventional view. The script either hides a language or is nonsense. It cannot be otherwise because to get out of this dead end a comprehensive view of the entire codex is needed, including its imagery and the message it conveys.
I believe that the glyphs are the way they are because they represent celestial objects or positions on the ecliptic. For example, the glyph [o] and the other two that Stolfi calls circles in his grammar are, for me, the representation of the fixed stars in different positions. That symbol [o] can be seen in the center of many of the stars drawn in the Voynich Manuscript. It's what Ellie Velinska called dotted stars. On her blog she gave many medieval examples of those dotted stars.
My interpretation, consistent with that way of drawing the stars, which we also see in the Voynich Manuscript, is that this [o] is also part of the script. In fact, it is the most frequent symbol.