Triple convergence

[R. Sale]

It's an arbitrary symbol in an arbitrary place. It looks like an inverted letter 'V', the Roman numeral 'five' and it's in the fifth position. That is a coincidence! And the 'coincidences' mount up from there.  They are objective facts from valid historical sources. This is not something that happens by accident - when the totality is considered. Positional structure is objective fact, and interpretation depends on cultural bias.

We must conform to the VMs. It will not conform to us. In the few places where the VMs has some potential basis in actual facts, there should be continued investigation.

[Bluetoes101]

I'd always just assumed it was based on 7.

   

[R. Sale]

Also the 15th C. glyph for the number "4".

[Bluetoes101]

Ah, I should have backtracked  I was just commenting on "Voynichese v is not Greek Lambda, nor Latin V upside-down, nor the logician's "and", nor the circumflex of French, or whatever.  It is an arbitrary symbol that the Author chose to represent something that we still cannot guess."

I think this is based on 7 (also as noted above 4 l) what's beyond that mask though I have no clue, maybe in 2026!  

[R. Sale]

The visual interpretation is certainly similar. However, the confirmation comes from the structure. There are three overlapping systems of interpretation. It's not like these individual elements are taken from diverse places. The symbols are presented in a proper positional relationship. The system of interpretation is appropriate to the particular symbol set. There are two intervening symbols between the medieval '4' and the medieval '7'. There are three intervening symbols between the Greek 'omicron' and the Greek 'lambda', as reading right to left is valid in Greek. The Latin numeral 'V' has been dumped upside down in the fifth glyph position.

This is not accidental, random happenstance IMHO; this is VMs trickery. This is part of the reality hidden behind the VMs façade - fingers crossed.

Since Greek is alphanumeric, that makes three numerical systems using the same set of symbols. But *HOW?!!*

[Jorge_Stolfi]

It's an arbitrary symbol in an arbitrary place. It looks like an inverted letter 'V', the Roman numeral 'five' and it's in the fifth position. That is a coincidence! And the 'coincidences' mount up from there.  They are objective facts from valid historical sources. This is not something that happens by accident.

I would be impressed if there was more than ONE symbol in that list with such a coincidence. 

"Octavian" has eight letters, and the fifth one is "v".  Is that more than just a double coincidence?

All the best, and Happy New Year! --stolfi

[ReneZ]

The short phrase "this cannot be a coincidence" is famous for appearing in Voynich theories and solutions, where the thing observed is more than likely a coincidence, and not even a bit one.

[anejati]

Simply substituting Voynich letters with greek/latin/cyrillic/turkic/hebrew/chinese/hieroglyphs/runes/inuit syllabics will never work as even a cursory glance will show. You can try any substitution and it leads to nonsense strings of highly repetitive words: "the them theme they then". Or "when where tses y kor whens" (a latin substitution of the first line of the manuscript I came up with just now).

This is the first thing everyone tries and it's the first to fail.

[R. Sale]

It's not one not just one silly old coincidence. It's three different and independent coincidences all coincidentally coincident in the same place. The relevant symbols and their placement are apparent in the text. The interpretations are based on well-known historical facts. VMs artistry is known for its inherent "creativity". It's another example of VMs trickery. It's meant to be overlooked and dismissed as coincidence. Nothing to see here.

The VMs uses "medieval" information, not to create a narrative, but to create a puzzle. If the innate, internal clues clearly evident in the VMs are so easily dismissed, then the current stalemate will continue in place.

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Simply substituting Voynich letters with greek/latin/cyrillic/turkic/hebrew/chinese/hieroglyphs/runes/inuit syllabics will never work as even a cursory glance will show

Take out "chinese" from that list and I will completely agree with you. 

All the best, --stolfi