17-07-2026, 11:16 PM
Plants part, my bad. Already adjusted that one. I had no idea it gets distinguished like that (herbal vs pharmaceutical section). Thanks for pointing it out.
On the abbreviation thing, just to be clear what I mean: I'm not saying Voynichese words are literally medieval abbreviations in the Tironian sense. What I'm getting at is closer to Friedman's take after his ~40 years on this, an invented notation system, not a natural language with abbreviations bolted on, and not a straightforward cipher either. I bring this up because I'm hoping we can eventually find a document that actually allows translating it. If this is a constructed system, somewhere there should be a key or reference that was used to keep it consistent, and that's really the part I'm interested in chasing down.
On Constance and Hus, I connected it to the Constance event since it was a major event for physicians in the region, and I thought that was an interesting reason to motivate a doctors guild to invest a large amount of money into something like this. I get there's no documented link between Hus's case specifically and anyone hiding medical material, so I'm not claiming it as proof, just a plausible motivating pressure given the timing and who was in the room. My understanding is that the style of the illustrations, clothing, hats, castle architecture and handwriting/paleography link the VMS to the Northern Italy area.
Where I'd still push back a little: the "nothing new here" comment feels aimed at the individual facts (C14 range, Currier A/B, etc.), which I agree aren't new. What I was trying to put out there wasn't any single data point but how they fit together, plus a concrete next step: archival material near Constance or in the Habsburg court records tied to guild notation systems. If that's already been looked into and ruled out, I'd genuinely want to know, since that's the part of this I actually care about being right or wrong.
On the abbreviation thing, just to be clear what I mean: I'm not saying Voynichese words are literally medieval abbreviations in the Tironian sense. What I'm getting at is closer to Friedman's take after his ~40 years on this, an invented notation system, not a natural language with abbreviations bolted on, and not a straightforward cipher either. I bring this up because I'm hoping we can eventually find a document that actually allows translating it. If this is a constructed system, somewhere there should be a key or reference that was used to keep it consistent, and that's really the part I'm interested in chasing down.
On Constance and Hus, I connected it to the Constance event since it was a major event for physicians in the region, and I thought that was an interesting reason to motivate a doctors guild to invest a large amount of money into something like this. I get there's no documented link between Hus's case specifically and anyone hiding medical material, so I'm not claiming it as proof, just a plausible motivating pressure given the timing and who was in the room. My understanding is that the style of the illustrations, clothing, hats, castle architecture and handwriting/paleography link the VMS to the Northern Italy area.
Where I'd still push back a little: the "nothing new here" comment feels aimed at the individual facts (C14 range, Currier A/B, etc.), which I agree aren't new. What I was trying to put out there wasn't any single data point but how they fit together, plus a concrete next step: archival material near Constance or in the Habsburg court records tied to guild notation systems. If that's already been looked into and ruled out, I'd genuinely want to know, since that's the part of this I actually care about being right or wrong.