17-01-2026, 12:15 PM
(This post was last modified: 17-01-2026, 06:17 PM by PeteClifford.)
An idea just occurred to me in relation to the marginalia, and I thought I’d mention it here since I don’t recall it being discussed previously.
In Samuel Pepys’s diaries (250 years or so later, of course), certain sections of the text are written in what scholars call “polyglot”, i.e. a mix of languages (French, Spanish, Latin, Greek etc.) to add an extra layer of obfuscation. This particularly applies to sections describing Pepys’s sexual adventures/misconduct.
So, perhaps something similar is occurring here in the marginalia, and we are failing to identify the original language with any confidence because the text is deliberately obscured by employing a mix of languages - including Voynichese???
An example of polyglot from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
In Samuel Pepys’s diaries (250 years or so later, of course), certain sections of the text are written in what scholars call “polyglot”, i.e. a mix of languages (French, Spanish, Latin, Greek etc.) to add an extra layer of obfuscation. This particularly applies to sections describing Pepys’s sexual adventures/misconduct.
So, perhaps something similar is occurring here in the marginalia, and we are failing to identify the original language with any confidence because the text is deliberately obscured by employing a mix of languages - including Voynichese???
An example of polyglot from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.