No text, but a visual code

[Jorge_Stolfi]

I see that you make a large number of assumptions, the first being that the Voynich is not a single work.

I don't make that assumption.  I am pointing out that it is a real possibility.  Just as it is a real possibility that most details of the imagery are just decoration, or made up.

The fact that you think this way is because you don't give any importance to the imagery in the codex, which for you is mere decoration that does not convey ideas.  I suppose you don't value the Voynich imagery because it clearly and unequivocally points to a Western European work, which makes your Chinese theory of the supposed text less credible.

I guess you can put it that way.  But I would say instead that by assuming that the European-looking details of the drawings are a significant part of the contents you are excluding, right from the start, the possibility that the contents may be non-European.  Not just "Chinese", but anything outside Northern Italy and Central Europe.  Without proof.

To suggest that a medieval image is merely filler and conveys nothing is absurd in my opinion, especially given the large number of images we see in the Voynich.

But, in fact, in most Medieval manuscripts the images are clearly superfluous, derivative, and merely decorative.  The theme of the image came from the text, and the details were provided by the artists, not by the book's author.   And Medieval European artists generally drew Medieval European people, dresses, weapons, castles, etc, even when the illustration was supposed to show Egyptians, Babylonians, Aztecs, ...

In most medieval manuscripts, images may have had a pedagogical function, namely making it easier for the reader to understand the contents.  But they are not the primary container of that contents.

Turning your claim around, it is absurd to propose that the text of the VMS is just irrelevant filler or decoy. It is obviously an essential part of the contents -- at least as important as the images, if not more.  Even in the Cosmo and Zodiac sections, the labels and text were obviously meant to be there.  And the Starred Parags section is ~25 pages of solid text, no figures: would that be just filler, too?

All the best, --stolfi

(PS. I vaguely remember someone criticizing a book by saying that the only merit of the contents was to prevent the covers from collapsing onto each other.  Too bad I don't remember the author...)