RE: Observations on the Visual and Functional Structure of the Voynich Manuscript
emanuele.pegorin > 10-02-2026, 03:37 PM
I fully respect your interpretation and I am not contesting it in any way. I have great respect for any perspective, comment, or critique. I am simply sharing how I personally read the manuscript.
My working hypothesis is that the Voynich Manuscript, dated to the late Middle Ages, may describe the working life (not the private life) of a community of women in a female abbey or monastery. In such institutions, women could manage water systems, canals, land, and personnel, and the abbess herself could be of noble origin. In this context, the presence of a nude woman wearing a crown or regal headpiece in one of the circular diagrams could be interpreted as a symbolic or functional reference to that role.
The manuscript appears to give great importance to plants, which is consistent with the first section. I then interpret the following circular diagrams as circles of duties or roles, a kind of mansionary, including hierarchical distinctions. These hierarchies are reinforced later in the manuscript, where we find recurring star symbols (yellow stars, filled stars, stars with a central dot). The same star symbols also appear in the hands of the nude women in the earlier sections, suggesting continuity. I have also noticed that words associated with identical star symbols often share similar initial characters or visual patterns, which may indicate a structured internal system.
The subsequent section, in my view, concerns ritual bathing and purification. These would not be leisure activities, but washings after work, especially after handling plants, dyes, and other substances. In monastic contexts, bodily purity often reflected order, discipline, and hierarchy, not personal hygiene in a modern sense.
Later sections seem to deal with maintenance, followed by areas or territories under their responsibility, and finally with the processing and preparation of plants. The jars, all different from one another, may indicate distinct functions, destinations, or recipients—some perhaps intended for internal use, others for external patrons or specific individuals of rank.
Regarding the Rosettes page, I personally do not see volcanoes in the strict sense. Rather, I see sectional enlargements radiating from a central circle. The central circle may represent the abbey, city, or domain, while the surrounding circles show expanded views of specific areas (north, south, east, west), connected by paths and bridges. The circular form may be a conventional way to represent spatial organization rather than a literal geometric map.
I am fully aware that the colors may have been applied later. However, even if this is the case, it does not necessarily mean that they were applied randomly or incorrectly. It is possible that the person who added the colors followed an internal coherence and had some understanding of the manuscript’s structure or meaning.
This interpretation is, of course, contestable and open to criticism, and I do not present it as a definitive explanation. My intention is simply to propose a coherent line of reasoning that connects the manuscript from beginning to end, based on visual repetition, structure, and internal consistency. If there is interest, I am happy to continue discussing or clarifying specific points.