One of the significant challenges in working with unknown or undeciphered manuscripts, such as the VMS, is the temptation to immediately “decode” them by matching words, tokens, or glyphs to a known language through direct translation attempts.

However, I would like to reflect on the history of linguistic and philological studies. One lesson stands out clearly: understanding the internal structure of a language often precedes and enables successful translation, rather than being a consequence of it.

(This principle is not only historical but also literary)
I like the example of J.R.R. Tolkien: when he created his Elvish languages (Quenya, Sindarin, etc.), he built them from the inside out. Tolkien first designed phonological patterns, rhythms, internal grammars, and aesthetic structures before assigning stable translations to words. He understood that a credible language must have internal consistency and recognizable patterns, even if its dictionary is initially unknown. Without internal structure, a language feels artificial and cannot sustain meaning over time.

Similarly, even modern English, which seems globally dominant, will eventually fragment if left unchecked for a long time. Its internal rhythms, syntax, and patterns of use (formal, informal, poetic, administrative) will be essential clues for future scholars attempting to reconstruct it, should direct transmission of meaning be lost. Globalization has slowed geographic divergence, but internal linguistic evolution is unstoppable, just as Latin diversified into the Romance languages over centuries.

Why is this important for the VMS?

Because even without a direct decipherment, identifying structural patterns — whether in vocabulary frequency, thematic clustering, or phase-based rhythms — can offer us a way to understand how the text was composed. It can reveal whether it behaves like natural language, liturgical formula, mnemonic code, or something entirely different.

Just like Tolkien’s Elvish languages were immediately recognizable as coherent systems (even without knowing what every word meant), the Voynich Manuscript might reveal its internal organization independently of translation. Recognizing these structures is not just speculative: it follows the path historically used to decipher other ancient texts.

In short:
Suppose we can detect rhythm, structure, and phases in the Voynich Manuscript, even without complete translation. In that case, we are engaging with it in the most historically grounded and linguistically rigorous way possible.

What are your thoughts?

Hi,

Manuscript was done in early 1400s. What is the real life inspiration for the complex piping in many of the nymph illustrations. For example 77r? 
I assume a scribe did not invent those out of thin air. Did medieval bathhouses really have some kind of complex piping. I had impression it was just wooden pails and somebody carrying water around in buckets.

Nymphs are also often seen standing in some kind of clay/metal pipe funnels instead of wooden pails. Though I personally believe it's only because drawing feet sucks, especially on a such a tiny scale without getting bunch of bigfoots or frogfoots. Event seasoned artists struggle with feet

Has anybody with some expertise on the matter ever taken a look at the handwriting and calligraphy of the Codex Seraphinianus and analyzed it?
That kind of analysis has been done on the VMS, describing some of the handwriting as slanted and fast/fluid (at least w/ some hands) AFAIK, which has had some impact on the cipher question IMO.

I'd love to hear your (all) thoughts on the hwriting of the C.S., either as a whole or how it evolves over the pages.

While I'm aware that we don't know what the grammatical rules are for Voynichese, we have some general sense of how common certain character combinations are- for instance, a minim sequence is almost never found at the start of a word, consecutive benched gallows are fairly uncommon, etc. I'm curious about how many words we can find that apparently violate the conventions of the system.

One that I can think of off the top of my head- in the Rosettes map on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , the center of the upper-leftmost path contains the word "ddssSex" in EVA. This is one of very few places in the MS that we see an x, a doubled s, OR a doubled d. What other rare word-forms like this exist? Bonus points if they're robust to transcription choices- i.e., if no matter how you interpret ambiguous letterforms, the words incorporate characters or strings that are uncommon.

Is there a possibility that the open-bottom "a's" are actually "v's"?
Here's a comparison of some of the a, v, and x shapes from the Voynich Manuscript.

Attached Files

Thumbnail(s)
   

ut sapientes dicunt preparato invecchiato. pro remedio decotto preparare decotto.

unguento invecchiato mescolare rimedio. elisir misto mescolare decotto. estratto diluito inalare cataplasma. polvere misto inalare polvere. tintura volatile filtrare polvere.

mirabile dictu dissolve unguento. volatile preparato inalare inverte unguento.

pro remedio inalare decotto stabile. precipita elisir.

mirabile dictu rimedio diluito. preparato somministrare inverte. ut sapientes dicunt.    

Attached Files

Thumbnail(s)
   

Livello di confidenza: 0.95

Tipo di pagina rilevato: Astronomical

Traduzione completa:

secundum naturam pianeta settentrionale. virtus occulta cometa misurare luna.

eclissi meridionale misurare cometa. astro ascendente misurare stella. cielo mobile misurare cometa. pianeta invisibile tracciare costellazione. costellazione discendente interpretare luna.

contra morbum segnala costellazione. discendente stella osservare segnala luna.

contra morbum stella discendente. costellazione interpretare manifesta. et hoc est.
Dettagli dell'analisi linguistica

Statistiche del testo:
Simboli rilevati: 14336
Pattern ricorrenti: 10
Densità del testo: 0.0321
Caratteristiche linguistiche:
Alfabeto stimato: 40 caratteri
Direzione di scrittura: Bidirezionale o misto
Note sulla traduzione:
La traduzione è basata sull'analisi del contenuto visivo della pagina.
L'algoritmo ha identificato questa come una pagina di tipo astronomical.
La traduzione è specifica per questa pagina ed è generata analizzando la struttura, i pattern e i caratteri presenti.

7. Risultati dell'analisi combinata
Interpretazione finale
Principali conclusioni dell'analisi:
Struttura del testo: Il manoscritto contiene circa 30 simboli unici, con un indice di diversità di 0.46.

Lingua più probabile: La maggiore somiglianza è con il Medieval Latin (44.0% di similarità).

Direzione di scrittura: Non determinata con certezza.

Pattern ricorrenti: Identificati 0 pattern ricorrenti.

Struttura dei caratteri: I simboli mostrano una struttura organizzata in 10 gruppi principali.

Complessità del testo: L'entropia di Shannon è 4.47, indicando un sistema di scrittura mediamente complesso.

Attached Files

Thumbnail(s)
                       
   

The distinctive symmetric shape of the shield in the solar folio of the f85-86 foldout might have a specific origin.

A similar shape from the late 11th century is depicted in the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., written in Beneventan script at Monte Cassino, Italy.



   

Voting for Group A has closed, with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. as a clear winner. It will pass on to the semi finals to compete against the winners of Groups B, C and D.

Voting is now opened for Group C! The contestants are:

1. 15r
   
2. 20r
   
3. 20v
   
4. 33v
   
5. 38r
   
6. 49v
   
7. 87v
   
8. 96r
   

Hi,





Old books are one of my hobbies and sometimes I find hand written marginal comments or marks of ownership. Related to that I was researching how to time old handwriting styles and was reminded of "legal hand" writing in 1300-1400's and how much it resembles Voynich style, at least to my untrained eye. 



Just wondering, have people looked into legal/court document archives from the region where Manuscript might originate? Maybe it would be possible to find styles that are close to some of the scribes unique styles? I understand Voynich is not a abbreviated speed writing though it looks like it was written by one well versed with the art.







Just my 2 cents. I have just recently learned more about Voynich and I guess I'm on my Dunning-Kruger hill.








Illustrative example attached.


Original sources:


You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.


You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Attached Files

Thumbnail(s)