Most of the planning for VM Day was being done by Mary, but we have not heard from her in a while. Rene tried emailing her, but so far without an answer. First of all, I really hope she is okay, and it is just work preventing her from following up on Voynich stuff. Either way, Voynich Manuscript Day is rapidly approaching, and I am still set to host it August 4th, from CEST 12:00pm-7:00pm. Just in case we are not able to reach Mary soon, I would like to schedule the events that will certainly happen. Since I was not involved too much in planning, I will need your help.

• Please respond to this thread if you are planning to do something for VM day. 
  
• Did you already get a time slot? And if not, what is your preferred time slot? (Please provide the time you will need to present your research/music/art etc. We can then add some extra time for Q&A and buffer).
  
• Do you know of any forum-external people that were committed and should be informed?
  

I was looking at this manuscript (medical handbook) in the hope of images to help with another project, while flicking through I noticed some similarities in the writing with the VM
I can't read Latin so maybe this is nothing of worth, but I thought there's no harm in sharing and seeing if it is of any use to anyone. Maybe JKP will like it for his handwriting collection (?) It seems to have a lot of different hands.



"Language(s): Latin with some Middle English" The original handbook was written by English friars between 1416-1425, this copy is an early one, at least pre-1428 (More details on both links below), couple of images of things I noted as quickly flicking through 




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45 Ferry Rd, Saunderstown, RI 02874, USA

Event at the Willett Free Library ( July 24) :

Voynich Manuscript Program

July 24, 2024  3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Wednesday, July 24th at 3pm
Presented by Ben Sousa, MLIS

Quote:Many call the fifteenth-century codex, commonly known as the “Voynich Manuscript,” the world’s most mysterious book. Written in an unknown script by an unknown author, the manuscript has no clearer purpose now than when it was rediscovered in 1912 by rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich. The manuscript appears and disappears throughout history, from the library of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to a secret sale of books in 1903 by the Society of Jesus in Rome. The book’s language has eluded decipherment, and its elaborate illustrations remain as baffling as they are beautiful.

Join librarian Ben Sousa to learn more about this manuscript and its interesting history.

The Translation of The Voynich Manuscript: Folio 1r
Jessica L Scott
June 7, 2024

ABSTRACT: The following paper reveals the language of the Voynich Manuscript as Latin
and is a celestial, herbal book of hours to treat ailments according to an individual’s birth
chart and humoral disposition.

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I have difficulties understanding the path to the translation. Perhaps there are other opinions on this.

Thoughts on the five scribes of the Voynich manuscript, as identified by Dr Lisa Fagin Davis; and the commonalities and divergences of their vocabularies. 

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The counts and frequencies of the top ten glyphs used by Scribe D1; and the counts and frequencies of the same glyphs as used by Scribes D2 through D5. Counts based on v101 transliteration. RSQ1 denotes correlation with frequencies of Scribe D1. RSQ2 denotes correlation with frequencies of Scribe D2. Author’s analysis.

Hello, I'm new to this forum and VM topic but very enthusiastic about the fun it gives to solve at least some puzzle the VM has.
I don't know how many puzzles are there - the first owner, the author, is it a medical recipe or not, did the author had a sense of humor or not.
Definately he was not a monk.

I believe the author was asked if he can read it. The answer was kind of why? I know its contents without reading. 

The manuscript was never meant to be decoded. Why did an author encoded it? Perhaps it was a tool in some negotiations. 

I think botanist Dr Leonard Rauwolf did own the manuscript but he was not the 1st owner. 

The manuscript was never meant to be docoded since the author could write it in plain text. There was some context to it. Probably of a very significant historical moment. You just can’t go to king and sell him book. He may just cut off your head  


I think he left no key to read the text. Let's say we see STAR on page X. STAR can have different meaning on page Y. It is one difficulty.


The code has 2 layers: the unknown alphabet that hides some word say DESCENDANT. If somene will get that deep enough to read this word the author by DESCENDANT means other word say CASTLE.

Plain text = CASTLE

coded text = DESCENDANT

word DESCENDANT is then encoded into unknown alphabet.

Like that. Good luck.

My copy of this page was terrible until recently, but I got a better one and had a closer look, there are some really odd things going on! 

Is this a Voynich/Latin mixed word?! It might be a Voynich "s" done... weird.. but the "u/v" is odd, maybe its o and they didn't join up, and the "i" is tilted the wrong way in comparison with rest of text.. just feels like a couple too many "mistakes" in a row?

The "e" shape reminded me of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. marginalia, because of its enlarged size to what I would expect (in modern writing). My Latin knowledge is as far as I could get from what I picked up on posts on here, but I thought it was "st", I had ChatGPT image analyse it and it seemed confident on "e", be interested to hear the real answer from people on here




ḡ?! I thought it said "5" for a second, then saw another one

Some of you may recall my "state of the Voynich" polls, conducted in 2017 and 2020. We are way overdue for a new one!

Purpose

The poll is for fun and does not aim to establish truth or consensus. The aim is to get an idea of the average opinion on the forum and how it evolves over time. Both the composition of our member base and overall changes in perception of the MS will have an impact on this, and measuring this change is the point of this exercise. I will share the results during VM day, and compare them to previous editions. This will be a fun little break from the presentations.

RULES

• Answer either by PM to me, or by replying to this thread, preferably using spoiler tags: 
  
  Code:

  [spoiler]  [/spoiler]
• reply in a NUMBERED LIST to avoid confusion
  
• A change from previous editions, you are now allowed to answer with a percentage. How much (in %) do you agree with the statement? If agree completely, write 100, if you don't agree at all, write 0. People did not like answering either agree or disagree in the previous system, so percentages should offer some more flexibility.
  
• Answer from the heart: this is about how you feel, not about what can be proven. Any answers sent by PM to me will not be shared publicly. 
  
• Please participate! It does not matter whether you post rarely or every day, your opinion matters. The more people answer, the better impression we will get about currently held views on the MS.
  

1. Voynichese text, or part of it, contains (semantic) meaning.
   
2. The contents have been enciphered with simple substitution or something close to it.
   
3. The contents have been enciphered using a more complex cipher.
   
4. The contents have been obscured, but not by means of a cipher.
   
5. The images match the text
   
6. The plants are meant to refer to real plants
   
7. The majority of the plants is exotic from a European perspective (Asian, African, American...)
   
8. The images have been made ambiguous or otherwise strange to conceal their true meaning
   
9. Alchemy is an important part of the MS.
   
10. Astronomy and/or astrology are an important part of the MS.
    
11. Medicine an important part of the MS.
    
12. The MS is the creative product of one mind, i.e. an author. (Taking into account the possibility that one or more scribes helped to fashion the physical manuscript)
    
13. The MS is authored by a known historical figure. Let's define "known" as "has a Wikipedia entry".
    
14. One day, we will be able to read the MS.
    
15. There will be a breakthrough in Voynich studies in 2024-2025.
    
16. The MS is some kind of hoax (i.e. the main motivation for making it was to deceive others).
    
17. Have (part of) your views about the MS changed notably over the last few years?
    

Dear Voynich Ninjas,

I'm excited to share with you a new novel that I've written called "Decoded" which was heavily inspired by the incredible knowledge, theories and discussions in this very forum. In fact, you may notice that Voynich.ninja itself features in the plot!

The story follows Amalia Rose, an intrepid journalist who finds herself on the trail of the Voynich Manuscript's secrets after a mysterious blog post by Computational Linguist, Dr. Emily Hathaway, goes viral claiming to have finally decoded it. As Amalia investigates, enlisting the reluctant help of her ex-partner and rival, a charismatic YouTuber named Bastian Ham, she uncovers clues pointing to a lost matriarchal civilization.

At a critical juncture, an anonymous source directs Amalia to the Voynich.ninja forums, hinting that the collective wisdom and keen insights of this community may hold the key to unlocking the manuscript's ultimate mysteries. Fascinated, Amalia and Bastian use your knowledge to guide them on a globetrotting adventure involving secret societies, psychedelics, AI, and a battle over the very future of civilization.

This book is my love letter to the Voynich Manuscript and the dedicated community of scholars, enthusiasts, and armchair detectives who have poured so much passion into unraveling its secrets. Your tireless efforts and brilliant observations have been a constant source of inspiration to me.

Of course, the story takes fictional liberties and should not be considered a factual account. However, I've woven in many real historical details and Voynich theories, and provide an extensive bibliography at the end for those who want to dive deeper. I hope the book will entertain you and perhaps bring a few new curious minds into the Voynich world.

I'm making the book available online for free for the next five days, and would be delighted if you'd consider reading it and sharing your thoughts. As the people who inspired so much of the story, your feedback would mean the world to me. Thank you for being such an amazing community and for all you've done to shed light on the beautiful enigma that is the Voynich Manuscript.

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In case the genre does not interest you, I leave the extract I want you to read:

"But every time I sat down to write the piece my editor so desperately wanted, the faces of my heroes danced before my eyes. An ancient scribe, Elizebeth, Ethel, Mercy, the brave souls of the Cretan resistance, and countless others who had sacrificed everything in the pursuit of truth. And then there were the unsung heroes, the librarians and archivists at the British School at Athens, painstakingly digitizing the John Pendlebury Family Papers and blogging about Mercy’s achievements so that they wouldn’t be lost to time.

And of course, there were the mighty academics at Yale, who had the foresight and courage to open-source the Voynich Manuscript research and the Voynich family archive, inviting a multidisciplinary gang of ninjas to join the hunt for answers. There was wisdom in that approach, the same collaborative, interdisciplinary approach that had allowed John Seiradakis and his colleagues in the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project to crack the secrets of that ancient wonder. We walk farther when we walk together, pooling our knowledge and resources in the service of a common goal."

With gratitude, Amalia Rose #TheExFiles

Thoughts on how the scribes of the Voynich manuscript might have handled upper- and lower-case letters in the presumed precursor documents.

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Selected v101 "core glyphs" and possible variants with (mostly) lower frequencies. Author's analysis.