The matter of authentic replication seems at first to be a purely visual situation. It is simply a determination that the item under consideration, the one that looks most like the original item, is the most authentic replication. And conversely it is often perceived that the lack of visual similarity carries with it a reduction, even the elimination of authenticity. This position can even become dogmatic.
 
This is where the creator of the VMs demonstrates a masterful talent with medieval information and the ability to improvise, to cant, and to compose. The composition is a puzzle. Improvisation occurs through visual trickery and optical illusion. Reality has been hidden behind a façade of fictitious existence. And in seeing only the façade, the reader is deceived and diverted from any investigation of how the VMs really does show connections to historical reality.
 
The talent of the VMs creator is not seen in the replication of visual similarity. That talent is shown in the ability to create an illustration in which a strong visual divergence can still exhibit a significant ideological similarity with the original, historical images. And the best example is the comparison of VMs You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. with the Oresme cosmos (BNF fr 565). And that comparison suggests a series of propositions.
·       The Oresme model of the cosmos is not common in medieval sources.
·       The Oresme cosmic structure is relatively uncomplicated. It consists of three parts: an elemental (inverted) T-O representation of the earth, a starry field, and a cloud band.
·       The VMs cosmos presents a similar, uncomplicated structure in that it is also constructed without the typical, planetary orbits.
·       The parts represented in the VMs correspond to the parts used in Oresme in an interesting way. They are clearly different in their appearance, but there is reason to interpret that appearance in a very similar manner.
·       Thus the comparison shows a clear structural analogy and a strong ideological similarity in the details of the corresponding parts – with the option of enhanced visual similarity through the combination with the Central Rosette cloud band.
·       The combined use of visual discrepancy, often created though artistic ambiguity, and ideological similarity is the method by which the VMs creator has disguised the hidden historical content in this mysterious text. The use of this methodology is intentional. Deception is intentional.
·       The general failure of modern investigation is the reliance on visual similarity, while at the same time recognition is blocked by the inability to recognize the necessary sources and their corresponding ideological details.

In a number of VM plants there are "stubs" from where it seems that a branch or twig has been removed. This motif is apparently fairly common in other manuscripts. My guess is that since forests and trees in general used to be managed very intensively, people were used to seeing trees with cut branches. Might this mean that the motif might be a "tree marker" or "woody marker" in the VM?

Here's just two examples, from the Liber Floridus and MS Palatino 586, but it is certainly not limited to these:

   

I guess there's a triangle on f72v1, so  I examined it more closely. At first, I thought it might be the pointer of a volvelle, but there were two problems: First, the position is not in the center of the circle (clearly to the right of it). Second, there are no obvious clues for the number and positions of additonal pointers in the large outer circle.

Here's a (of course speculative) thought experiment:

Assuming that it makes sense to divide the inner circle into segments, one would most likely divide them into 12 equal parts. In fact, the triangle could be an hint that a division into 13 segments should be made. This is easy to be done by transferring the line segment AB. Then you can produce up to 12 more triangles.

All steps are traceable on a drawing board ( or with drawing programs ).





I don't know whether a division into 13 segments makes sense or not. For example, one could speculate that certain stars can only be marked this way. Then you would have number and position of other pointers. What do you think ?

I have more than a thousand samples of handwriting that I specifically culled from many thousands of manuscripts due to their similarity to the column text, the main text, and the marginalia.

I also have enough background in this area to have some expertise at this.


I have hundreds more "reference" samples, some of which are hybrid or transitional between the 1) Italic and Humanist/Secretary hands and 2) the proto-Gothic and Gothic cursive hands, along with more pure examples of each and some of their related styles (e.g., Anglicana, which is a cousin to Gothic cursive).


My observations so far (I've been working on this for many years):

• I'm reasonably confident that the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. column text is Italic/Humanist/Secretary hand (the differences are small and I'll explain them in more detail later along with more correct terms). I have many samples to support this. I'm close to pinpointing a date and location (it took several hundred samples before even I began to consider dates and locations because I don't think it's good science to rush this and guess from a small set of samples).
  
• The marginalia is an early Gothic cursive blended with a small amount of Gothic book hand (this is not unusual since some people learned both hands). I have many hundreds of carefully selected samples, a half a dozen of which score in the 80s (out of 126) on a mathematical scale keyed to the reference marginalia. I also know which letter forms are specific to this hand (I can document this) so that the hand can be recognized.
  

• I'm reasonably confident that the main-text writers were familiar with Gothic cursive scribal conventions and abbreviations and I have some reference hands that are mixed Humanist/Gothic (that sounds like a contradiction but they do exist, they include both Gothic forms and Italic spacing conventions) that come somewhat close, and I have also identified which key shapes are unique to the main script, and which ones are common to many (I have done the same with the marginalia). It's very important to keep in mind that ciphers are often written with different spacing from a person's regular hand. There are many historical examples that show cipher shapes are often closer to a person's printing than to their handwriting. IF the VMS is ciphered text, the spacing will not necessary reflect the person's handwriting, but some of the letterforms may (e.g., a and o).
  

Already in December 1995 Jim Reeds reported about a discussion that he and his wife had with the Italian herbalist Sergio Toresella, who had visited the Beinecke library where he had spent some time with the Voynich MS.
One of Toresella's observations, which was clearly supported by Jim, was that the handwriting in the MS was in an Italian humanist hand.

This observation was supported much later by a Spanish handwriting expert: Juan Jose Marcos, who further pointed out that this type of handwriting was used only by educated people.

It has always remained a bit of a question what to do with this information, and how the humanist strive for good form can be reconciled with the amateuristic and not all that elegant drawings in the MS.

Just a few weeks ago, I received a very interesting tip about this from Michelle Smith. I wanted to write about it earlier, but then other things happened.

One of the early Italian humanists was born as Zomino, but he changed his name to Sozomeno (1387 - 1458). He was born and died in Pistoia, and studied in Padova from 1407-1413. He entered the clergy already at an early age, and met other humanists in Florence (where he knew Poggio).
He did several of the 'usual'  humanist things such as composing greek and latin grammars, and commenting on many classical authors. He built up his own library, which he donated to the city of Pistoia in 1423.
Here are some links (all in Italian):
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What is unique about him is that his change from a standard gothic handwriting style to a humanist handwriting style is fully document and can be followed in his works. This is explained in detail You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. .

What most attracted my attention was the picture that Michelle sent to me:

   

I have not been able to find this one back on the net, but there are a few others:

   

The marginal writing and drawings are confirmed to be in Sozomeno's hand.

I am not at all trying to argue here, that Sozomeno is suddenly a candidate for having written the Voynich MS.
However, the almost doodle-like marginal illustrations do have a very familiar ring to them.

What is this?

I've never seen it before.

The text looks real (although the last two lines are a bit small compared to the rest).

The green paint looks real, as does the band around the "tub" both top and bottom.

Parts of the nymphs look real.


But...

The top of the "canopy" (the part to the right of the scaly texture) and the steel-blue paint look totally fake. Parts of the "barrels" (the brown paint) and most parts of the goblet-like tub look totally fake.

It's like it was a half-finished page that someone tried to doctor and removed because it failed. There's no folio number even though it appears to be the right side of a folio.


Why has this never came up on the forum? Has it been discussed elsewhere?

What the heck is it? Who has it? Has the other side been digitized?

As though it did not seem ridiculous, this drawing (a green square) reminded an old children's cartoon, where ants participated - "robots" You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (15min 39 sec). The figure shows two eyes with eyebrows and mouth.

The text in my transcription ے|t3iiiit3
   

Hello everyone!
I'm glad to tell, that this document was decoded. It took 16 years to do this hard work for one man.
He just wrote a book about this. 
Book you can find here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

 In the aid of Koen, I want to separately discuss the sign of the scales in the MV.
These are not ordinary pharmacy scales, which are attached with a rope (hook) to a vertical stand, or they are held by of the hook the hand .
  I believe that this is scales with a pre-adjusted neutral position (for weighing small masses of elements). The cog in the reciprocating-lever (in scale-beam)  of the scales is placed in the conical recess of the vertical rack.
Equilibrium is achieved by selecting loads that are attached to the vertical connecting rod. Equilibrium will be obtained when the arrow and connecting rod are parallel. A similar scheme of scales is depicted in the Egyptian figure of Osiris.
Of course, it would be simpler to achieve equilibrium by putting a counterweight directly into the cup, but this design of the scales eliminates the fear that the counterweight material will react (contaminate)  the substance to be weighed. Especially when the substance to be weighed is a liquid (acid).
   

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My thoughts go to his family.