The correct medieval interpretation of heraldic elements opens a door to better understanding of the VMs.

In the proper naming of the 'nebuly' line, terminology is significant when etymology and its connotations can influence interpretation. The artist clearly knows and uses the "cloudy" cosmic boundary interpretations attributed to this heraldic line pattern. Nebuly line patterns with variations occur in the botanical, cosmic, bathing, and rosette illustrations.

The second example of heraldry is VMs White Aries. The VMs artist presents an attempt to establish communication with the reader by posing the question: Does the reader know the armorial insignia of the pope who instituted the Catholic tradition of the cardinal's red galero?

Unfortunately, from the perspective of modern investigation, it tends to be that the reader does not readily find what the reader does not know already. However, from a medieval perspective, among certain groups, perhaps the dualistic construction of the radial / non-radial orientation serves as a sort of disguise - the intentional creation of ambiguity.

Can heraldry carry a message? Clearly it can. Better than starlight.

Can heraldry carry a hidden message? Let's follow the evidence.

Preface: don't take this too seriously.

During discussion with friends, I imagined a hypothetical explanation for the creation of the manuscript. My chief problem with most hoax theories is that the amount of effort required makes the proposition that it was made as a hoax to fool someone gullible out of money stupid: a fraudulent actor simply finds someone more gullible to con, not spend a year's worth of scribing effort to create a fraudulent artifact. Such forgeries do happen, but when the amount of money thus received is tremendous - like an art forgery. The manuscript, to my mind, doesn't fit this criteria.

However, that is not the only way a con artist could use a manuscript like this. In fact, a travelling snake oil salesman could use such an artifact to bolster their credibility among marks, as a prop. After creation of such a prop, it could be reused, making for a much better return on investment. A con artist group could reuse the same artifact, making it a reasonable proposition for the five scribes to collaborate. And, the prop would also serve its purpose during creation: one could simply show off a single folio or quire and, noticing an uptick in marks catching the bait, spend more effort to create further and further pages, culminating in a book.

The advantages of this speculative hypothesis:

• Explains the amount of effort for a hoax
  
• Allows for collaboration with common purpose by multiple people, explaining multiple scribes
  
• A hoaxster could plausibly have enough cunning to invent a simple method to generate words (crust-mantle-core style) and then generate a document by basing it bits of meaningful books, thereby reproducing many of the features of the manuscript
  
• A hoax would have little use for corrections unless they looked bad on a page, explaining the relative lack of retouching
  
• Explains the signs of use on the manuscript
  
• Explains how someone (perhaps after incarceration or death of the hoaxters) could find the document and then bind it/add things at a later date.
  
• edit to add: The lack of occult or religious symbolism makes sense for such a hoax, as it gives plausible deniability that this isn't some cursed or heretical artifact, allowing for safer use as a prop in a Christian community.
  

• This is still a lot of effort, but perhaps one spent to assure that someone can't realise it is gibberish at a glance - important when you're showing the prop to multitudes of people. But there are easier ways to con people.
  
• The explanation for why the larger-scope semantic and textual analyses seem to suggest topic clustering is flimsy
  
• Gives zero clues for a possible decipherment scheme
  
• The parchment appears to have been acquired and prepared similarly, not congruent with being built up piece-by-piece (though not impossible)
  

Over time, people have wondered whether the writing in the Voynich MS is an invented script, as used in ciphers, or a genuine old script to represent some language.

When Voynich first presented the MS to the world, he had made up his mind: this has to be a cipher, and ever since, the MS has been called a cipher manuscript.
 
Nowadays, we can be certain beyond reasonable doubt, that the Voynich MS is not an example of some old writing system. No other examples have ever been found, and we know that because, in the modern world, research is accessible globally.
Did Voynich have a similar consideration, or was it commercial decision? A Roger Bacon cipher should sell for more than some unknown language. 
We don't know what his reasoning was, and it does not really matter. 

But what would people well before the 20th century have thought?
What was the question from Prague to Kircher?
A) please translate this language
B) please solve this cipher

This question has been asked before, and Marci's letter is neutral about this.

Barschius also does not express this very clearly in his surviving letter, which is the second about this topic.
Still, there are two hints.
First, he repeats in his letter that the reason he approached Kircher was his (supposed) success in deciphering egyptian.
Second, from Kircher's answer we know that he (or Moretus) sent Kircher a sample of a printed text in Glagolitic.

Both suggest that he was approaching Kircher for a translation of an unknown language.

Barschius certainly could not have our overview of foreign writing systems, so this is not a strange viewpoint at all.

Is this then also how people in even earlier times would have seen the MS? I do think so.

Hello all,

I would like to know the latest ways on how to decipher the MS. I mean, what are the key points, their order, what should not be left or forgotten...

René Zandbergen says

"Some time in the past, somebody or some group of people sat down and generated the text of the Voynich MS using some method.

This may seem trivial but, in reality, it is fundamental. There may or may not be a decoding method (step 1 above), but there certainly was an encoding or rather text generation method.

Anybody who wants to present a Voynich MS solution should present the method how the text that we see in the MS was generated. The main advantages of this approach are:

this method certainly exists and was really used by someone in the fifteenth century;
this approach works both in the case that the text is meaningful, and in case it is meaningless."


Now, for example, magnesium's Naibbe cipher has been published. A cipher that matches very well with the MS entropy and statistics. So... how should we continue? Is this a start? Should we look for other ciphers?

According to the most expert people here... What should we do? Which direction should we take? Which steps?

Thank you!

This is maybe the wrong place to mention this, but: the file You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (linked from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) had been removed at some point in time, because it had a  "Happy99" infection.  I recently found a stack of backup CD roms made in 2002, found the infected file there, unzipped it, found and deleted the infected email, and rebuilt 1999.zip. My "Bitdefender" antivirus detects no infection in the new version of 1999.zip.  I will try to get it put back on the voynich.net site.

Hello all,

I am not very aware of the astronomical and astrological part of the MS (I am mostly centered in the text analyse). But I found one Astrological rose, in catalan, dated from the XV century, that attracted my attention:
[im


There is not a lot of information about the manuscript, which is written in catalan. What interests me, are the writtings in the center of the rose: look how they repeat some characters. Names are also interesting, mixing catalan and latin. The text (paragraphs) of the other pages area also interesting.

Here the link: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

As I have not studied yet the astronomical/astrological part of the Voynich I would like to read your thoughts about it. As I live next to Barcelona, I could even go and check the whole manuscript, if they let me.

Looking forward to reading your thoughts.

In Swiss digital library : Cod S386 foil 165r there is a remarkable similarity to the Voynich foil 116v "ma+ria". Refer the attachment.
In the text (German Language script) there is an explanation how to create a holy new wooden vessel , enscribe the sentence in th ebuild below and give to the sick person to drink water from this wooden vessel. Maybe VM "ma+ria " is exactly this.

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1. Top left: North America
At the very top, one can discern the outline of the continent’s maritime borders: to the right – Greenland, in the center – the Arctic Ocean, and to the left – Alaska. Further west lies only the Pacific Ocean and beyond it the Bering Strait. The sun is setting.
On the eastern side, a connector: enormous in width and, of course, highly informative about the origins of the settlers who populated the New World.
Top of the connector:
Upon closer examination, one can clearly see a small airplane taking off. This fragment encodes information about the northeastern region of the United States – New England – the cradle of U.S. culture, and more importantly here, the story of America’s aviation pioneers – the Wright brothers, who continued their flight experiments in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Middle of the connector:
A space rocket launching into the sky symbolically encodes the scientific achievements of the continent’s inhabitants. The Wright brothers could be seen as the first page of this virtual book, and the moon landing its last. However, this may be interpreted as a general symbol of the "evolution of science."
Bottom of the connector:
The turbulent waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
Between the eastern and southern connectors:
A towering skyscraper – the first modern one:
Home Insurance Building (1884–1885) – as a symbol of "America" in general.
Southern connector:
Compared to the eastern one, it is rather modest – linking North America with the Caribbean.
Continent:
The outer ring, depicted in a cartoon-symbolic manner, shows a dense tangle of human figures: torsos and heads. The lines above the heads suggest aggressive intentions toward the human figures concentrated in the center of the "continent." This is a symbolic narrative of the extermination of Native Americans, from the time of the first explorers to the era of the "Wild West." It is clear that the Native Americans (in distinctly different colors), tightly compressed in the center, are fighting for their existence – with lines above their heads pointing outward. The outcome of this struggle was clearly unfavorable for the indigenous population, as evidenced by the great emptiness in the center of the graphic.



2. Top center: Europe
Continent:
As befits the Old World, it is a veritable tangle of human figures, clearly grouped.
These clusters encode various nations and states, contributing both the good (values of European civilization) and the bad (wars) to world heritage. The inscriptions (likely symbolic) represent the names of individual European countries, and there are many. The large white-blue rosette encodes the fact that the “rays” of European civilization, like solar rays, spread out and dominate the other continents.
Right connector:
Top of the connector:
On one side blue, on the other colorless waves – the waters surrounding Europe’s northern fringes: the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Below is land resembling Norway’s rocky fjords.
Middle of the connector:
The continent itself – Europe.
Bottom of the connector:
The turbulent waves of the Mediterranean Sea.
Southern connector:
A narrowing stream of human heads – this tells of the frenzied military campaigns that overtook medieval Europe. (More in the central graphic discussion.)
Western connector:
Top of the connector:
Wavy green lines with lines resembling those in the American section, all conveying information about Irish refugees from the "Green Island" (English religious persecution, agricultural crisis).
Middle of the connector:
The rocky Iberian Peninsula.
Bottom of the connector:
The Pillars of Hercules, waves of the Mediterranean.



3. Top right: Asia – northern part of the continent
At the very top, one can see the outline of the continent’s maritime borders: the Arctic Ocean, with a clearly marked edge of floating ice. To the right, marked in green, is the strait between the Asian and American continents – from the time when ocean levels were low enough for human migration. Climate warming caused Asia’s separation from North America (Bering Strait). Beyond lies the Pacific.
Southern connector:
The Manuscript’s authors, acknowledging cultural and civilizational distinctions as well as narrative importance, divided the continent into two parts: the north (Russia, Siberia, India) and, in a separate graphic, China. Hence, the southern connector of point three refers to interactions between the northern part and Chinese civilization.
Right side of the connector:
Stretching northward is an arc of islands formed by tectonic activity and underwater volcanoes: the Japanese archipelago, the Kurils, all the way to Kamchatka.
Middle of the connector:
A castle – representing cultural differences between Chinese civilization and the Russian model. Between the southern and western connectors, a civilization on a very distinctive peninsula – the Deccan. The fact that this is now the most populous country in the world is signaled by the massive crowd of tightly packed heads.
Western connector:
A large gate with open doors shows the continent’s primary focus. Just as symbolic is the castle at the edge of the connector, encoding the Iron Curtain – symbolizing the imperial influence zone of the Russian state, under both tsars and communists.
Continent:
Almost the entire continent is dotted with small stars symbolizing the eternal Siberian taiga. The eastern part is the land of eternal snows and frosts – Siberia, encoded by large white clouds (probably permafrost). The western part is the "European" side of the Russian colossus. The northern section graphically and symbolically refers to the Kremlin – seat of state power, with characteristically shaped domes. The southern section tells of the long, dramatic history of Rus' and successive invasions by nomads, Mongol hordes, and later the Ottoman Empire – symbolized by a small but fierce beast. Two small buildings near this beast refer to the Golden Horde or the Crimean Khanate. A spiral inscription in the center refers to the complex beginnings of the continent’s statehood, which, step by step, eventually freed itself from foreign domination and began to impose its will on others.



4. Center left: Central America
Northern connector:
Symbolizes the year 1492, i.e., the discovery of the West Indies by Christopher Columbus. The conquest of the New World began with the capture of the island named Hispaniola.
Eastern connector:
Narrowing lines resembling massive ropes (white bands with black ticks) indicate the source of enslaved labor, which was meant to gradually replace the exterminated Native American population.
Southern connector:
Blue waves on both sides of a narrow connector clearly represent the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In the center, marked in black, is the canal between these great waters – the Panama Canal.
Continent:
The entire history of this region is one of massive extermination of indigenous peoples and their replacement by slaves from the Black Continent. The spreading stars symbolize this expansion. Blue semicircular forms represent a symbolic map of the region, with some larger islands possibly labeled – e.g., the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic.



5. Center: Jerusalem – the spiritual center of the world
Unlike the three upper (and three lower) graphics that encode individual continents, the three central illustrations address specific thematic topics. “Central America” tells the story of slavery, while “Jerusalem” represents the cradle of the three major monotheistic religions.
Continent:
As is well known, the earliest humans were nomads who, around 9000 BCE, in the fertile crescent, turned to agriculture, laying the foundations for the first civilizations. The castle towers depicted in the central graphic symbolically narrate the story of successive: first cities (Jericho, Çatalhöyük), later civilizations (Sumer, Babylon, Hittites, Egypt, Persia, etc.), up to more recent times (the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Holy Land – Crusades, etc.). Among these “towers” are dome-topped buildings, with defenders surrounding them. This encodes the region’s unique history of wars, uprisings, and struggles over the land, as empires and powers rose and fell like in a kaleidoscope.
The densely packed inner circle of defenders tells of the Holy Land, fiercely defended by "infidels" against the crusaders incited by the papacy. The blue-colored ring of figures represents the next story, this time about Jerusalem – the spiritual center of the world. The “Holy City” for Jews (capital and location of the Temple), Christians (crucifixion and resurrection of Christ), and Muslims (from where Muhammad began his Night Journey). Upon closer inspection, this graphic seems to present a panorama of Jerusalem viewed from the Mount of Olives: the Russian Church of St. Mary Magdalene, the Dome of the Rock (Islam’s third holiest site), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, etc. Above, in blue, the author symbolically indicates the Western Wall – the only remaining part of the Second Temple.
Northern connector:
The First Crusade (1096–1099), proclaimed by Pope Urban II, captured Nicaea, Edessa, Antioch, and finally Jerusalem. The enormous stream of human heads narrowing from Europe to Jerusalem symbolizes the literal and figurative "torrent" of “liberators” of the Holy Land.
Eastern connector:
Due to limited contact between the empires of the fertile crescent and the Middle Kingdom (China), this connector carries no specific content.
Southern connector:
Successive waves of ever more evolutionarily adapted and mobile nomads from the Black Continent gradually settled all accessible regions of the world. The only viable (apart from sea) channel for human expansion was, of course, the Middle East.
Western connector:
Due to the condensed nature of the map (nine graphics connected by channels), some conceptual shortcuts were necessary. It is a fact that enslaved labor mainly came from Africa, not the Middle East, though some transport might have originated from there. The direct connection between the Caribbean’s eastern connector and “Jerusalem” reflects graphic limitation, not historical causality.



6. Center right: China
The entire graphic is bordered by large, blue spheres unlike anything else in the manuscript. These clearly symbolize the most iconic structure of the Middle Kingdom – the Great Wall of China, stretching 2,100 kilometers. While commonly believed to have been built to deter nomadic invasions (e.g., Xiongnu/Huns), the wall’s symbolism here should be interpreted less "materially." It also contributed to the isolation of the civilization from external influences. In the center is the capital of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) – Beijing – with the Forbidden City, the residence of the emperor (commonly referred to as the "Son of Heaven").
Northern connector:
As mentioned, the authors separated northern Asia (Russia, Siberia, India) from China due to civilizational and narrative differences.
Southern connector:
The main direction of Chinese civilization’s expansion was toward lands more suitable for agriculture than the Mongolian steppes, as indicated by the flow of “human heads” moving southward. The absence of western and eastern connectors further emphasizes the isolationist nature of Chinese civilization.



7. Bottom left: South America
The history of this continent is relatively simple. Before the intense conquests by Spanish conquistadors, the people of South America lived relatively peacefully. In addition to many local cultures, the continent boasts one of the greatest pre-Columbian civilizations – the Incas – comparable to the Olmecs and Aztecs.
Continent:
Inside the graphic, one can spot a coastline, particularly on the western side, reminiscent of the continent’s actual shape. The eastern side refers to the world’s largest river system – the Amazon Basin. Blue sea waves surround the various states, whose names are inscribed on a white background (if that is indeed the case). In the center, a dense crowd of heads symbolizes the tragic fate of indigenous peoples who suffered from both the lust for gold and the zealous push to convert “barbarians.” Stars and a small cloud in the middle indicate the mountainous terrain that was the heartland of Incan civilization (Machu Picchu, Nazca, Cuzco).
Northern connector:
The Panama Canal.
Between the northern and western connectors:
An unusually protruding bulge between the connectors encodes information that Central America should also be represented in this symbolic map – the Yucatán Peninsula (Mayans, Toltecs).
Eastern connector:
The blue wavy lines show the only available path for contact with the outside world. Through this maritime route came Spanish and Portuguese expeditions – shown in the upper part of the connector by vertical lines representing sword and crucifix. Again, we see the constraints of symbolic representation: the connection between South America and Africa was real, but in this place, a link to Europe would be more logical – which the viewer must infer. To the southwest, one can see a unique detail encoding a message about an important world location not to be omitted – Easter Island.



8. Bottom center: Africa
In the center of the continent, a large white-and-blue rosette symbolizes the Black Continent – the cradle of humanity. Just like the sun-like rays in the European section, this rosette represents the idea that Africa “illuminated” the entire world. The various background colors of the stars signify the different human races, which, through global migration and in response to varying levels of melanin, developed different skin colors. The inscriptions along the edge of the graphic refer to the continents and regions to which humanity has spread.
Northern connector:
The main direction of human expansion.
Eastern connector:
Further stages of land colonization: continental Asia, Southeast Asia, the islands of the Pacific, all the way to Australia.
Western connector:
Primarily encodes the direction of European expansion. However, South America – especially its Portuguese colonies – also drew heavily from this seemingly endless reservoir of cheap labor.



9. Bottom right: Australia
Continent:
The North Star marks the position of the Earth's North Pole and is used to navigate the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, however, the Southern Cross serves this function – clearly symbolized by the central “crossing” in the graphic. There is little doubt that this illustration represents Australia, the last of the Earth’s continents (excluding the poles). Due to difficult living conditions, human settlement across the continent is uneven – the vast majority live along the coasts, which is clearly reflected in the distribution of “human heads” within the image.
Above the Southern Cross, one sees a unique shape, which can be interpreted as the most famous rock monolith in the world – Uluru. To the right of the "monolith" is something that likely symbolizes the beliefs of the Aboriginal people – the Dreamtime, during which their spiritual ancestors roamed the world creating elements of the landscape. The stars within the graphic likely represent the continent's arid and inaccessible desert plains.
Northern and western connectors:
These indicate the directions from which the colonizers of the Pacific and Australia arrived.
To the south of the Australian continent, one sees only giant whales – the plumes of exhaled air with bursting streams of water. And finally, at the very end of this entire tale – the rising sun.

This is one of the images I've made for something I am working on, just thought I'd share

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