12-06-2026, 04:53 PM
Jorge has his retracer theory, but even though I played around with the multispectral images for a long time, I could not find any sign of re-tracing or underlying Voynichese source text in the marginalia. I wouldn't rule it out but frankly I find it unlikely. It does appear however that the author did change, mingle or amend some of the 'latin-alphabet' text.
What stands out is that all 3 marginalia are created after the same pattern.
They contain a small drawing, some (ordinary looking?) Voynichese words, and text that appears to be in a German or Romance language but has nonsensical words and very odd letters. As if the scribe changed his mind while writing them. I have been wondering if whoever made this was able to write Voynichese fluently, but not the Latin script. Then again, most letters appear fine and ordinary as our attempts to find similarly shaped letters in other contemporary manuscripts have shown. Not like a non-European foreigner trying to learn how to write our script. I have no idea what to make of this, but looking at the overall manuscript, I doubt the author was a genius that tried to trick us with some ingenious obfuscation.
Of special interest:
All marginalia are accompanied by at least one small drawing that matches the general style of the quire. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. has an alpha-plant flower which resembles the calyx of the plant on f24v, the same bifolio. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. has the person lying on the ground with by small objects beside him. The person resembles those on f57v, the same bifolio
An exception is You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. with the nymph, goat and whatever the thing on top is, as this quire contains no further imagery aside from stars. I would rate the nymph on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. as the most advanced in the manuscript though. It looks much more life-like and 3-dimensional than the others. Opinions vary, but this would mean that the marginalia on the last page were also added late in the VM's history, while the others were probably added shortly after the text of the page was completed. Unless we argue they were all made by different people, which brings its own problems. To me it looks like all VM imagery and the marginalia were created by the same person, over an extended time period in which the artist experienced some artistic development. Which still doesn't answer why there is Voyniches mixed into the marginalia.
What stands out is that all 3 marginalia are created after the same pattern.
They contain a small drawing, some (ordinary looking?) Voynichese words, and text that appears to be in a German or Romance language but has nonsensical words and very odd letters. As if the scribe changed his mind while writing them. I have been wondering if whoever made this was able to write Voynichese fluently, but not the Latin script. Then again, most letters appear fine and ordinary as our attempts to find similarly shaped letters in other contemporary manuscripts have shown. Not like a non-European foreigner trying to learn how to write our script. I have no idea what to make of this, but looking at the overall manuscript, I doubt the author was a genius that tried to trick us with some ingenious obfuscation.
Of special interest:
All marginalia are accompanied by at least one small drawing that matches the general style of the quire. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. has an alpha-plant flower which resembles the calyx of the plant on f24v, the same bifolio. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. has the person lying on the ground with by small objects beside him. The person resembles those on f57v, the same bifolio
An exception is You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. with the nymph, goat and whatever the thing on top is, as this quire contains no further imagery aside from stars. I would rate the nymph on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. as the most advanced in the manuscript though. It looks much more life-like and 3-dimensional than the others. Opinions vary, but this would mean that the marginalia on the last page were also added late in the VM's history, while the others were probably added shortly after the text of the page was completed. Unless we argue they were all made by different people, which brings its own problems. To me it looks like all VM imagery and the marginalia were created by the same person, over an extended time period in which the artist experienced some artistic development. Which still doesn't answer why there is Voyniches mixed into the marginalia.
![[+]](https://www.voynich.ninja/images/collapse_collapsed.png)