Morten St. George > 04-11-2018, 03:40 AM
To keep you guys updated on decoding progress, know that I made an attempt to convert the Spanish side of the Rosetta Stone from modern Spanish to Old Spanish. If interested, please see revised essay for details. Since I am claiming that the Cathar survivors fled to the Americas, no Old World language in the VMS can postdate the middle of the 13th century.
Also, I have tagged on the following paragraphs at the end of my essay:
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VMS DECODING INFORMATION
The objective of this essay was only to present evidence that parts of the VMS were decoded in the 16th century and evidence that the marginalia provides clues on how to undertake another decoding. It is up to cryptologists, if any of them be interested in this topic, to determine whether or not that is the case.
Nonetheless, we can make a few summarizing remarks some of which might be accurate and helpful:
1. The VMS decoding alphabet comprises 17 symbols and the VMS marginalia informs us on how to convert the VMS symbols into letters of the Latin alphabet.
It is assumed that the VMS wishes to use, for example, "cuando" for "quando", otherwise it will be necessary to modify the alphabet to bring in a "q", possibly by making use of one of three variants that appears in one of the four sequences. Another possibility (seen in the literature of Old Spanish) would be the use of the letter "v" for the letter "b" as well as the letter "u".
2. On folio 57v, the VMS decoding alphabet is repeated 4 times around the second wheel, making 68 symbols in total, which is slightly larger than the total number symbols including spaces found in a typical complete line of stars text.
3. A typical complete line of stars text contains around 14 different symbols, of which around 7 symbols are found in the VMS decoding alphabet and around 7 symbols are not found in the VMS decoding alphabet.
4. The VMS gives every appearance of being written in a left to right direction but the letter reversals seen in the marginalia oblige us to consider that it may decode in right to left direction. Thus, for example, sihpmēē can transcribe into either Memphis or Nemphis, where small letter repetition capitalizes the letter.
5. The encoding (and therefore the decoding) of multiple Old World languages applies only to the sections of the VMS written in what the experts refer to as "Currier's Language B," which includes the stars section and f57v. The bulk of the VMS, however, is written in Currier's Language A, which is believed to be a language that became extinct in the 15th century (shortly after the VMS was written). Except for some words that may have been absorbed into Nahuatl, that extinct language is unlikely to be recoverable.
SUGGESTED VMS DECODING STRATEGY
Insert a stars line of symbols from the Rosetta Stone into a blank wheel adjacent to the alphabet wheel on folio 57v, rotate it around, and when symbols in the stars line match symbols on the alphabet wheel, exchange one or more of the symbols (in the stars line) that have no counterpart in the decoding alphabet with symbols from the decoding alphabet. Use the chart to convert the alphabet symbols into Latin letters. Use the Spanish side of the Rosetta Stone for guidance on how to manipulate the wheels. Another step (to reverse or rearrange the order of the Latin letters) may or may not be necessary.
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I remain convinced that you guys are very mistaken in thinking that the VMS was written in a monastery somewhere in northern Italy. Among other things, there is evidence that the VMS inspired the creation of Rosicrucianism and, as such, would be a document of major importance from the point of view of world history in general. Please consider renewing your efforts to decode the thing. Programming skills (which I am unable to relearn) are required to test diverse possibilities on how the 17 symbols of the decoding alphabet convert into Latin letters. But these possibilities are far from limitless. It can be done.