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What initially sparked your interest in Voynich research?

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• What initially sparked your interest in Voynich research?

• What initially sparked your interest in Voynich research?

  Mark Knowles > 27-03-2023, 07:58 AM

  As an example: Obviously I was curious about the unknown script and its meaning. However my interest was really sparked by seeing the Rosettes folio and particularly the "castle" and also to some extent the other buildings and geographical features that appeared to be illustrated on that page. The page looked like a fantasy map out of Tolkien or some other fantasy literature, however it seemed more likely that it was a real map than something dreamt up by modern fantasy fiction. I found the idea that the page represented a map of some unidentified, but real geographical region, a fascinating one and that by identifying the geographical area one might be able to say something about where the manuscript came from enticing. So that is what drew me initially to be interested in this manuscript.
  
  However, I am curious what really attracted others to this manuscript amongst the uncountable other topics one could devote one's time to.

• RE: What initially sparked your interest in Voynich research?

  Lissu > 27-03-2023, 04:57 PM

  At first I was interested in the Phaistos Disc and somehow ended up reading about VMS on Wikipedia. I started watching Voynich documentaries on YouTube and got deeper and deeper into the mystery. And here I am reading this forum every day!

• RE: What initially sparked your interest in Voynich research?

  Mark Knowles > 27-03-2023, 05:22 PM

  (27-03-2023, 04:57 PM)Lissu Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.At first I was interested in the Phaistos Disc and somehow ended up reading about VMS on Wikipedia. I started watching Voynich documentaries on YouTube and got deeper and deeper into the mystery. And here I am reading this forum every day!

  Yes, it's funny. I have never really looked at the Phaistos Disc; I think the brevity of the text would make me concerned as to whether it can be read.
  
  I am pretty confident that without the Rosettes folio I would have never have got stuck in Voynich research. And it has taken me down a path to becoming a specialist in 14th and 15th century ciphers, not something that it had occurred to me to research beforehand.

• RE: What initially sparked your interest in Voynich research?

  R. Sale > 27-03-2023, 09:36 PM

  Though I had seen the old 'Scientific America' article earlier, what got me interested in the VMs was the Goldstones' old book, 'The Friar and the Cipher'. That was several years before the VMs parchment C-14 tests. So, while the premise failed, it was an interesting biography of Roger Bacon. So much so, that I did a bit of my own supplementary research on that era, and, to make a long story short, specifically Bacon's connection to Ottobuono Fieschi, who was elected Pope in July of 1276 and died a few weeks later.
  
  There's a lot of history there to pick up on, but one of the relevant details is heraldry. And one of the specific details is that Fieschi heraldry is armorial, and that it existed long before the general back-fill that gave all popes heraldic insignia sometime in the 1700s, (IIRC) There are actually a number of differing presentations of the Fieschi blazon, some better than others.
  
  What caught my eye at the time was the final color image in the Goldstones' book which was VMs White Aries. And there among the surrounding nymphs, there were two whose tubs had blue stripes. Furthermore, if one ignores the axial misdirection, the stripes on the page are close to being oriented in the same diagonal direction as specified by the Fieschi blazon. And the fact is that the patterns are paired.
  
  So, there goes nothing, because if the relevant history is unknown, nothing happens.
  
  Investigation of the nymphs on VMs White Aries reveals a lot. Lots of painting. There are blue tubs and green tubs and tubs with blue stripes and more. There are red hats and white hats and so on.
  
  Investigation of history reveals that heraldry functioned as a method of communication in both armorial and ecclesiastical situations. Red galeros for cardinals; white for Premonstratensians. Turns out that there is a nymph on the left side of the inner White Aries circle that has a red hat and a tub with blue stripes. Can this construction be given historical interpretation? History tells the origins of the cardinal's red galero; Pope Innocent IV was Sinibaldo Fieshi, who made his nephew a cardinal in 1251. This historical interpretation is supported by further investigation of VMs placement according to independent hierarchical, heraldic, and religious considerations. It's a long story.
  
  The question that remains unanswered is whether VMs White Aries is a visual gate to a linguistic pathway? Do Stolfi's markers in the circular text bands have a real purpose?

• RE: What initially sparked your interest in Voynich research?

  Mark Knowles > 28-03-2023, 12:30 PM

  (27-03-2023, 04:57 PM)Lissu Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I started watching Voynich documentaries on YouTube and got deeper and deeper into the mystery. 

  I saw the National Geographic documentary before I read about the Voynich. What annoyed me about that documentary is that it went through a variety of theories only to show that the carbon dating demonstrated that they were wrong, so it seemed a waste of time discussing these theories. I later saw the BBC documentary, which although quite old 2003?, is in my opinion the best about the Voynich.

• RE: What initially sparked your interest in Voynich research?

  Lissu > 28-03-2023, 01:26 PM

  (28-03-2023, 12:30 PM)Mark Knowles Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

  (27-03-2023, 04:57 PM)Lissu Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I started watching Voynich documentaries on YouTube and got deeper and deeper into the mystery. 

  I saw the National Geographic documentary before I read about the Voynich. What annoyed me about that documentary is that it went through a variety of theories only to show that the carbon dating demonstrated that they were wrong, so it seemed a waste of time discussing these theories. I later saw the BBC documentary, which although quite old 2003?, is in my opinion the best about the Voynich.

  
  I watched all the basic documentaries first but then I found Stephen Bax's videos and they made me think that this thing could actually be deciphered.

• RE: What initially sparked your interest in Voynich research?

  Mark Knowles > 28-03-2023, 06:35 PM

  (28-03-2023, 01:26 PM)Lissu Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

  (28-03-2023, 12:30 PM)Mark Knowles Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

  (27-03-2023, 04:57 PM)Lissu Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I started watching Voynich documentaries on YouTube and got deeper and deeper into the mystery. 

  I saw the National Geographic documentary before I read about the Voynich. What annoyed me about that documentary is that it went through a variety of theories only to show that the carbon dating demonstrated that they were wrong, so it seemed a waste of time discussing these theories. I later saw the BBC documentary, which although quite old 2003?, is in my opinion the best about the Voynich.

  
  I watched all the basic documentaries first but then I found Stephen Bax's videos and they made me think that this thing could actually be deciphered.

  I didn't see Bax's videos till later. In fact I think I started researching the Voynich before he made those videos.

• RE: What initially sparked your interest in Voynich research?

  R. Sale > 28-03-2023, 06:47 PM

  If there is any question as to whether historical heraldry and Stolfi's markers are somehow related, the answer is in the White Aries illustration. An example of each pattern is drawn so that they are contiguous. They share a common side. They are literally connected. It is possible to communicate without words.

• RE: What initially sparked your interest in Voynich research?

  Koen G > 28-03-2023, 07:10 PM

  I read about the Voynich many years ago in an article in a magazine in a doctor's waiting room (it may have been EOS magazine). The article also treated other "mysterious" works, like the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. - a known forgery. 
  
  (The contrast between the Voynich and books like the Oera Linda is interesting in the whole 'forgery' debate as well, most tellingly that the latter, like all forgeries I know of, is clearly "trying to be something", namely a Frisian mythology).
  
  A few years later, I somehow remembered this article, and I wondered if the Voynich had been solved already. This happened to be in the "Bax era", when many of us seem to have gotten interested. What I found the most appealing, apart from the object itself, was the fact that there was still very little scientific consensus despite the manuscript containing a wealth of material. That a mystery like that could still exist in the 21st century. 
  
  So I guess what initially sparked my interest in Voynich research is the fact that an exceptional item like this exists, and the desire to learn more about it.

• RE: What initially sparked your interest in Voynich research?

  Anton > 28-03-2023, 09:40 PM

  Stephen Bax's paper of 2014 (which somehow got discussed in the Russian media back then).
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