No text, but a visual code

[Jorge_Stolfi]

I am convinced that any educated person in Europe would know how to interpret the images in the Voynich manuscript. They would not need to read any text.

But Baresch was educated, and could [EDIT] not read them.  And the doctors he showed them to could not read them either.

There were more or less standard "graphical languages" for the various fields.  Alchemy had its own conventions: sun = gold, moon = silver, eagles, corpse in grave, etc.  Religion had its own: crosses, halos for saints, blessing hands, lamb, etc.  Astrology had the signs etc.  Astronomy and cosmology had the spheres.  Even herbals had the snakes for snakebite remedies, faces in roots, etc.  History has castles for towns, crowns to mark kings, etc.

But it seems that the VMS artist did not use (or know) any of those "languages"...

All the best, --stolfi