24-02-2026, 06:20 PM
(This post was last modified: 24-02-2026, 06:30 PM by JoJo_Jost.
Edit Reason: PS added
)
At first glance, this seems like a valid argument.
However, much can also be deduced from the context. In medieval recipe texts, the sentences are extremely formulaic. And this is exactly what can be inferred from the repetitions in the VMS.
‘Nym X von dem Y’, ‘leg das an die stat’, ‘seud das in einem wasser’, ‘trink das mit wein’ — the combinations of verb + noun almost inevitably determine the preposition. Anyone familiar with the text genre can reconstruct the correct preposition in most cases.
It becomes more difficult, I admit, when it is no longer a matter of standard recipes — for example, in the astronomical or cosmological sections of the VMS.
But! The author probably did not write this cipher for an anonymous recipient who was supposed to decipher the text cold.
If it was a personal notebook — and much in the VMS suggests this — then the author only had to understand himself. And he knew what was meant.
It would then be more of a personal shorthand, stenography, which is why we have problems deciphering it, especially when it is still written phonetically in Bavarian.
PS And, as I wrote above, I have come to suspect that it simply wasn't a good chiffre.
However, much can also be deduced from the context. In medieval recipe texts, the sentences are extremely formulaic. And this is exactly what can be inferred from the repetitions in the VMS.
‘Nym X von dem Y’, ‘leg das an die stat’, ‘seud das in einem wasser’, ‘trink das mit wein’ — the combinations of verb + noun almost inevitably determine the preposition. Anyone familiar with the text genre can reconstruct the correct preposition in most cases.
It becomes more difficult, I admit, when it is no longer a matter of standard recipes — for example, in the astronomical or cosmological sections of the VMS.
But! The author probably did not write this cipher for an anonymous recipient who was supposed to decipher the text cold.
If it was a personal notebook — and much in the VMS suggests this — then the author only had to understand himself. And he knew what was meant.
It would then be more of a personal shorthand, stenography, which is why we have problems deciphering it, especially when it is still written phonetically in Bavarian.
PS And, as I wrote above, I have come to suspect that it simply wasn't a good chiffre.