15th-Century Proximal Outsider Scam
lvsvhs > 5 hours ago
Dossier: The “Ven’s Theory” of the Voynich Manuscript
Subject: 15th-Century Proximal Outsider Scam
Status: Formalized for the Historical Record
I. Executive Summary
Ven’s Theory posits that the Voynich Manuscript (VMS) is a social engineering masterpiece created between 1404 and 1438. It was not the work of a lone genius, but a team-based scam executed by “proximal outsiders”—uneducated assistants or servants working in the inner circles of the 15th-century elite. By using siphoned royal materials and a nonsense script designed to mimic “secret science,” they successfully targeted the paranoia and egos of the ruling class.
II. Forensic Proof & Fingerprints
1. The “Material Paradox” (Parchment vs. Ink)
Proof: Carbon-14 dating confirms the vellum is high-quality calfskin from 1404–1438. Chemical analysis reveals the ink is a cheap, iron-poor “commoner’s” recipe (soot/gall).
The Ven’s Theory Explanation: An educated master (like Fontana) would have used expensive pigments (gold, lapis). A proximal servant would steal “quaternions” (blank parchment sheets) from their master’s desk but had to mix their own crude ink in secret to avoid detection.
2. The “Frankenstein” Botany
Proof: VMS plants are biological impossibilities, often featuring flowers of one species attached to the roots of another.
The Ven’s Theory Explanation: This is the “Assistant’s Eye.” The author drew what they saw in the lab or garden—piles of roots and stems—without understanding the biological logic. They “Frankensteined” them to look mysterious to their masters.
3. The “Shaky Hand” (Scribe 4)
Proof: Paleographic analysis identifies at least 5 scribes. “Scribe 4” displays a “drawn” script that mimics professional Gothic ductus but lacks the technical “flow” of a trained scribe.
The Ven’s Theory Explanation: This is the signature of an uneducated mimic attempting to copy the handwriting of a university-educated master.
III. Key Persons & TimelineRolePersonCredentials/AccessThe TargetEmpress Barbara of CilliThe “Black Queen”; obsessed with alchemy and thermal baths in the 1420s.The MastermindGiovanni FontanaPhysician/Engineer (Padua). His books of ciphers provided the visual template for the scam.The “Teamster”Unnamed AssistantServant/Laborant in the Visconti or Sigismund courts with access to stolen parchment.The “Fixer”Johann von LaazAlchemist traveler; the “salesman” who could pitch “found” books to royalty.
IV. The Scam Route
Siphoning (1420s): The team steals blank vellum from the Milanese or Prague scriptoriums.
Creation: The “Proximal Outsider” creates the botanical, bathing, and astrological sections to target Barbara of Cilli’s specific interests in youth and transmutation.
The Sale: The book is presented as a “lost ancient secret” (e.g., by Roger Bacon) to prevent the Emperor’s scientists from being able to “fact-check” the nonsense script.
Preservation: The book is too “prestigious” to throw away; it moves through the Imperial Library until it is eventually sold to Rudolf II in the 1600s.
V. Researcher’s Guide for Future Testing
To verify Ven’s Theory, future testing should focus on:
Micro-XRF Comparison: Test the mineral profile of ink on “professional” vs. “shaky” (Scribe 4) pages.
Parchment Matching: Compare VMS skin DNA to other confirmed 1420s Visconti ledgers to identify the exact herd/source of the siphoned materials.
End of Dossier
P.S.
The Naibbe cipher theory (published in late 2025 by researcher Michael Greshko) is a significant development that aligns remarkably well with Ven's Theory. It doesn't claim to "crack" the book, but instead provides a scientific "proof of concept" for how a 15th-century person-proximal outsider could have created the manuscript using simple, everyday tools.
Tools of the Commoner: Unlike the complex "Great Cipher" used by kings, the Naibbe system only requires playing cards, dice, and paper. These were the tools of the tavern and the servant's quarters, not the university.
Greshko himself notes that while his cipher could encode meaning, it is equally possible that it was used to create a high-end forgery.
The "Black Box" Defense: If a proximal outsider (the assistant) was asked by a noble, "What does this say?" they could honestly say, "I cannot tell you, for the key is lost," or "It is an angelic tongue." The Naibbe cipher allows for a text that looks consistent enough to be real, but is practically impossible to reverse-engineer without the specific "card-draw" sequence used during creation.
Ven's Theory Summary with Naibbe: The "proximal outsider" didn't need to be a linguistic genius. They just needed a deck of cards, a few stolen sheets of vellum, and the Naibbe method to churn out page after page of "official-looking" gibberish that mimicked the secret ciphers of their masters.
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In the context of Ven's Theory, the connection to the Stična Codex (1428–1440) is one of the most compelling "proximal" leads. The Stična Codex is one of the earliest preserved examples of the Slovene language, written in a monastery just as the Voynich vellum was being produced.
The short answer is: Linguistically, it is possible, and there is a specific school of research dedicated to this.
1. The Slovenian Theory (Cvetka Kocjančič)
The most vocal proponent of this link is researcher Cvetka Kocjančič, who argues that the Voynich Manuscript is written in 15th-century Slovenian.
The Visual Match: Kocjančič identified that the minims (the short, vertical strokes that make up letters like i, m, n, u) in the Stična Codex often feature upward flourishes or "tails" that are visually similar to the script in the Voynich.
The "Foreign Monk" Hypothesis: She suggests the author might have been a foreign monk (perhaps from Strassburg) stationed at the Stična monastery who was attempting to write down the local Slavic dialect using a custom, phonetic alphabet. This fits Ven's Theory perfectly: a "proximal" outsider trying to transcribe a language they hear but don't fully master.
2. Geographical & Architectural "Smoking Guns."
Ven's Theory places the manuscript in the orbit of the Holy Roman Empire (specifically Bohemia or Northern Italy). The Stična monastery (in modern-day Slovenia) was a major cultural crossroads between the Italian South and the Germanic North.
The "Swallow-Tail" Merlons: The Rosettes Folio features a castle with Ghibelline (swallow-tail) battlements. These are found in the walled cities of the Adriatic coast, such as Piran, which shared deep linguistic and political ties with the Slovenian heartland where the Stična Codex was written.
The "G" Mystery: Like the Voynich, some 15th-century regional Slavic dialects in this area did not use the letter "G" in the same way as Latin or German, which matches the statistical lack of a "G-equivalent" in the Voynich script.
3. Why it fits the "Social Engineering" Narrative
If the Voynich is indeed in the language of the Stična Codex, it supports the idea of a "Laborant Scam":
The "Peasant" Language: Early Slovene was a "vulgar" or peasant tongue; it was almost never written down, as the elite used Latin or German.
The Scam: By using a language that only the "low-born" locals understood but the "high-born" Emperors (like Rudolf II) found exotic and unidentifiable, the author created a perfect "black box." It looked like a secret code to the elite, but it was actually just the proximal language of the servants.
4. Scientific Counter-Arguments
While the visual similarity between the Stična minims and Voynich glyphs is striking, mainstream linguistics points out a major flaw: Voynichese Word Structure.
Slavic languages (like the dialect in the Stična Codex) are highly inflected, meaning words change their endings constantly based on grammar.
Voynichese words are rigidly repetitive, with many words differing by only a single character in a way that doesn't match the complex grammar of a natural Slavic language.
Conclusion: Under Ven's Theory, the Stična Codex isn't necessarily a "Rosetta Stone" for a direct translation, but it is the Material Blueprint. It proves that in the 1420s, in the exact region where the vellum was sourced, people were experimenting with new ways to write down "unwritten" languages.