(11-08-2025, 08:32 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.On what evidence is the period from 1450 to 1500 eliminated?
Because the only plausible reason for retracing it was that the text had faded almost to the point of invisibility. It seems unlikely that such degradation could have happened in a mere 80 years.
And also the Retracer apparently did not even know what was the alphabet. So the restoration must have happened after the manuscript had left the Author for a different owner.
Quote:Or could it have been retouched by Voynich himself?
I don't think so. I believe I saw several places where the retraced strokes themselves have faced or were damaged by "ketchup" and water stains, bookworms, etc. So I would say that the retracing happened at least a century ago.
I once suspected that Voynich had forged the signature of Jacobus on page f1r, in order to bolster Raphael Mnishowsky's claim that it was a Roger Bacon original and had been bought bt Rudolf for a huge sum. And then he would have erased it with chemicals, to hide the forgery; with only a photocopy left as "proof". But the book index number that was apparently added by Jacobus, after his signature, pretty much disproved that theory...
All the best, --jorge