Could the Voynich Manuscript be a private educational system?

[LisaFaginDavis]

In the forthcoming book Colin and I are co-editing, I have written an entire chapter about art and artists in the manuscript. The argument is lengthy, so I won't reproduce it here (you'll have to wait for the book, forthcoming in late 2027 or early 2028, hopefully). The upshot is that I am arguing that - for the most part - the scribes illustrated the pages they wrote. This explains in part why the art is so amateurish - it was drawn by scribes, not artists. In consultation with several medieval art historians, I've analyzed several features of the drawings that help distinguish the artists - not just the A/B plant distinctions so aptly laid out by Coen and Cary, but faces, use of color (which I think is almost certainly original, although I do not have explanations for each of the surviving guide-letters beneath the pigment), and more. Each of the singulions, then, can be interpreted as the product of a single artisan who both wrote and decorated. There are exceptions - there are currently 50 complete bifolia in the manuscript, two leaves are missing their conjoints, and six other bifolia are missing, and of those fifty, most - but not all - can be attributed to a single scribe/artist.

[Zauriek]

Article coming out in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. soon! 

Amazing! Thank you for the good work!

[R. Sale]

It is not a teaching agent intended to impart information to the reader. Instead, it requires information from the reader. Does the reader know the armorial insignia of the pope who initiated the tradition of the cardinal's red galero? See VMs White Aries.

[Zauriek]

Each of the singulions, then, can be interpreted as the product of a single artisan who both wrote and decorated. There are exceptions - there are currently 50 complete bifolia in the manuscript, two leaves are missing their conjoints, and six other bifolia are missing, and of those fifty, most - but not all - can be attributed to a single scribe/artist.

Any hope we can get the correct arrangement of the manuscript?

[LisaFaginDavis]

Working on it! Our article posits a singulion sequence for folios 75-84 and for folios 103-116, as case studies.

[magnesium]

I am also working on this problem. I have submitted an abstract (and have written a whole paper) for Voynich 2026 where I tackle the VMS's physical structure using different natural language processing techniques. Without giving too much away, my results are consistent with the ones Lisa and Colin have released to date.

[Zauriek]

Working on it! Our article posits a singulion sequence for folios 75-84 and for folios 103-116, as case studies.

Thank you so much.

[Zauriek]

I am also working on this problem. I have submitted an abstract (and have written a whole paper) for Voynich 2026 where I tackle the VMS's physical structure using different natural language processing techniques. Without giving too much away, my results are consistent with the ones Lisa and Colin have released to date.

Right... "Analizing the the Goatskin vellum of the mannuscript with speech patterns?" Got it.....
I feel sorry for the mods of the forum.

[Koen G]

Right... "Analizing the the Goatskin vellum of the mannuscript with speech patterns?" Got it.....
I feel sorry for the mods of the forum.

 
You should, after your own comment

Physical structure of the book = order of the pages, the way they are nested into each other, binding... Since we know the pages are currently not bound in order, it makes sense to look at what's on them if we want to learn more about the original structure.

[magnesium]

I am also working on this problem. I have submitted an abstract (and have written a whole paper) for Voynich 2026 where I tackle the VMS's physical structure using different natural language processing techniques. Without giving too much away, my results are consistent with the ones Lisa and Colin have released to date.

Right... "Analizing the the Goatskin vellum of the mannuscript with speech patterns?" Got it.....
I feel sorry for the mods of the forum.

To be clear, I mean "physical structure" in the way Koen describes it: how the pages are nested together and sequenced. (And for what it's worth, the VMS parchment is calfskin and not of the quality that "vellum" typically connotes. If memory serves, if the VMS had been made with goatskin, it would have been more securely traced back to Italy.)