The Book Switch Theory

[eggyk]

Thank you, eggyk: Yes that seems to be an original negative film strip, which I am not sure was online in 2013 or not. If so, I missed it! No matter, it is great, and possibly the source of the "pre-treatment photograph" positive which I photographed in 2013. But also, if you look at the positive I photographed, the tape is in a different place:

You're welcome! There are two seperate versions at the link. I believe 6r is an uncropped version of the one at your blogpost? Theres also 6v, which is the back of that scan which has a note "To be kept - ???? without ???? - Before it was chemically treated". I can't read the second line.. "Photograph without Autograph"? 

   

Anyway, I disagree that the name would not be obvious. This is unprocessed, by me, and taken directly from the link you provided:

...

I have not altered the brightness, contrast, nor sharpness of that reversal. And I can clearly read the name... although perhaps I might leave off the "z", and write it as, "Tepenec". I think, close enough to see who was being referred to... and, not an "unknown person" to those of the era of discovery of the Voynich.

I agree that on these scans/photos that the signature is faintly visible, if you are looking for it. But again, you may not need to increase contrast or brightness to see the signature within these images, but when the images were taken the page was extremely well lit (a flash from a camera, an overhead projector above the page while the photo was taken, or other contrast enhancing methods like @oshfdk mentioned)

It was almost certainly was less visible in person than these scans suggest, especially in candle-lit or dim lighting conditions. Surely this is a significant factor? 

Of course voynich had a magnifying glass, but if you were unaware of the signature in the first place I don't think an empty part of the page would generate enough curiosity to investigate with one. I would imagine that even if you printed out a copy of these well lit images, and then viewed them in a candle-lit room at true scale, you may struggle to honestly make out the signature. 

Perhaps it would be interesting to have people try it, like family members or a partner who have no pre-bias or knowledge of the signature. If one asks 10 people to describe the page under such conditions, how many of the 10 would notice the signature and mention it? How many would ignore it and focus on the mystical text above? It could be an enlightening experiment.