Several researchers have pointed out that the features underlying Currier's A and B "languages" do not form two separated sets, but spread over a continuous range. For instance, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. represents pages on the basis of word frequencies: Donald used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to reduce the number of dimensions from the long raw vectors to plottable 2d points.

   

Donald Fisk wrote:...Prescott Currier reported in Papers on the Voynich Manuscript that the text is in two separate languages or dialects, now commonly referred to as Currier A and Currier B. It will be shown here that this distinction is somewhat fuzzy. There are differences (see "A Principal Component Analysis of the Voynich Manuscript Words"), but these can be explained more simply by differences in the text's subject matter.

Rene Zandbergen wrote:When Currier identified his languages A and B, he did this on the basis of the different statistics of the initial herbal pages in the MS [...]. It is clear that these have distinct properties - the clouds do not overlap. He also checked the other pages, and noted more variations, but his criteria for distinguishing the languages did not allow him to see that the overall statistics demonstrate that there is a continuum, and the other (not herbal) pages actually 'bridge the gap'.

This does not demonstrate that the text is meaningful, or that the text variations are caused by different subject matter (as suggested in by Montemurro and Zanette). If that were the case, the difference between herbal A and herbal B should not exist. The cause of the (statistical) language variation is still unexplained.

Diane recently pointed me towards a potentially relevant manuscript: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. 
The page I linked above shows a diagram which struck me as familiar, similar to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. . It is best seen in the full version, but I'll include an image:

   

In the Madrid MS, all four men are facing front and holding hands in a strange way. There is also no text in the diagram itself. But I found the similarities with the VM circle too great to ignore. In both diagrams there are four concentric bands surrounding the four men. The centre is split in four (with lines or text) assigning each man his quarter segment. There's also divisions in the bands, although in the VM these are fewer.

Likely someone with greater knowledge and skills than mine will be able to tell us what exactly this diagram represents (there's an accompanying text in the MS).

I vaguely recall that something like this may have been posted before but wasn't able to find it.

Also, on the left page there's a few more elements that recall of the VM drawings. These are more likely to be coincidences, but I will include them anyway. I feel much more confident about the relevance of the four-men diagram, but since these elements are on the page right next to it they may be worth noting.

   

The initial gallows on the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. has a striking decoration.

The decoration of the letter "p" looks very similar here, but goes straight down:



Call Number: HM 932
Folio: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Colophon: Ricardus Franciscus Scripsit Anno domini 1447.

On folio 42v, a counterclockwise rotation is performed. This is not possible otherwise because of the line spacing.


Does anyone know other examples?

Five of these ten fragments were written by a single scribe. The other five were written by different people. I will post details in a few days, in case someone wants to have an unbiased look at the scripts. The sources were discussed on this forum, so cheating is fairly easy, if one feels so inclined

   

Sometimes interesting articles like this come up, that reveal how a manuscript's provenance can be obscured by unusual events (the VMS certainly qualifies in this category, given that Voynich originally hid where he procured the VMS).

Here is a thread to post articles of this kind, and one to start it off...

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Unfortunately, this also happens:

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Sometimes the mysteries are solved (or partly solved):

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A thread for examples of foldout folios from c. 1500 and earlier.

Here is one from c. mid-1400s, southern Germany (possibly Augsburg), a prognostication manuscript on vellum with several foldout pages:



Christie's Lot 1550, 2014:

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Some points of interest:

• Clearly designed for portability (115 x 85mm), a little smaller than the VMS. Possibly created for someone who earned money as a fortune-teller?
  
• Zodiac symbols are within roundels but are the more traditional style (e.g., nude male Gemini twins).
  
• Connection between health, hygiene, and astrology.
  
• Note that the charts are in Roman numerals, so it might be on the earlier rather than the later side of c. 1450.
  

I checked René Zandbergen’s website about quire schemata, and found that all foldouts are bound in a way that their left is shorter while their right is longer.

Images are downloaded from René’s website.

   
Quire 9: 2-page wide to the left, 3.5-page wide to the right

   
Quire 10: 1-page wide to the left, 2.5-page wide to the right

   
Quire 11: 1-page wide to the left, 3.5-page wide to the right

   
Quire 14: 1-page wide to the left, 2-page wide to the right

   
Quire 15: 1-page wide to the left, 2.5-page or 2-page wide to the right

   
Quire 17: 1-page wide to the left, 2-page wide to the right

   
Quire 19: 1-page wide to the left, 2-page or 2.5-page wide to the right

So here’s my question: Is this phenomenon just a coincidence, or a common practice at that time? In other words, is it possible for the original author to design pages that to be bound in a way where left foldout is longer than right foldout?

I want to ask this question, because I am trying to review and re-order Herbal-B pages. When I was examining the foldout f94-f95, I wondered that if I could bind between what is now referred as f95v1 and f95v2, a.k.a. f95r1 and f95r2, like this:

   

There are a few instances in the manuscript where cloud bands appear to be combined with what looks like tent parts (sectioned roof + finials). I wonder whether this might bear some relation to Exodus 40, wherein a tent is set up for the Tabernacle and the Lord descends upon the tent in the shape of a cloud.

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I got this idea when I came across this image in a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., depicting a tent upon which the Lord-as-cloud has descended. The manuscripts employs a different style of drawing clouds, but if the cloud band were used, it might look a lot like some of the VM images.

   

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. "was the portable earthly dwelling place of Yahweh among the children of Israel from the time of the Exodus from Egypt through the conquering of the land of Canaan." This means that for an audience familiar with this story and the imagery, the invocation of the Tabernacle might signify a specific place, region or route. 

That's all I have so far.

I was going to respond to Koen's barrrel image on the "rings" thread but realized this probably needs its own thread...



Diogenes is traditionally shown in a barrel, sometimes upright:


Morgan MS M.126 (England, c. 1470 but notice that the text and illustrations are in the French/Flanders style)


Or sometimes on its side, like a cave. These two, in which the barrel is sideways are from French manuscripts:








Alexander in a glass barrel (medieval submarine):



British Library Royal MS 20 B (France, c. 1420)


Bathing barrels (there are many of these, and they are always upright, so I'll post just one):



Morgan MS M.312 Book of Hours, use of Rouen, c. 1470s

Barrels for food and tools:




There are also many barrels associated with milking cows and goats, distillation and fermentation, and they are pretty much always upright, so I'll post just one:



The ones that are most consistently sideways are Alexander's barrel and Diogenes's barrrel.