Cipher Mysteries

For the most part, constructing plausible explanations for the drawings in the Voynich Manuscript is a fairly straightforward exercise. Even its apparently-weird botany could well be subtly rational (for example, if plants on opposite pages swapped their roots over in the original binding, in a kind of visual anagram), as could the astronomy, the astrology, and the water / balneology quires (if all ...

If you combine the thoughts I posted yesterday (suggesting that the "o[r]aiiv" word in the top line of f67r1 might encipher "luna") with the "or oro ror" sequence on line #2 of f15v (which would appear to be a verbosely enciphered Roman numeral, probably "CCCC"), the two would superficially seem to be incompatible. How can the Voynichese "or"-pair encipher ...

Would we recognize the solution to the Voynich Manuscript even if it was right in front of us? Some people believe that it continues to evade us because our expectations of where we should be looking are wrong: in other words, that, pace Henri Atlan (as quoted by Cornelius Castoriadis), we have got into the habit of looking beneath lampposts for our key because that's where ...

Here's a nice palaeographic puzzle for you! While looking at some images from a linked pair of Florentine astronomical / astrological manuscripts written circa 1400 (as Voynich researchers inevitably do), I noticed that one had an unknown shorthand (?). So far I've only had access to a handful of the pages, so the full document would probably contain several more examples - but ...

Has Robert Teague found a sensational astronomical 'crib' into the Voynich Manuscript's ciphertext? Several Voynicheros have asked me to have a look at his claim: normally, this is researcher code for "I think it's nonsense but I'd like someone else to say it rather than me, because I quite like the guy", but let's see what he has ...

A new day brings a new Google Adwords campaign from Edith Sherwood (Edith, please just email me instead, it'll get the word out far quicker), though this time not promoting another angle on her Leonardo-made-the-Voynich-Manuscript hypothesis... but rather a transposition cipher Voynichese hypothesis. Specifically, she proposes that the Voynich Manuscript may ...

My last post on Elmar Vogt's new blog received a comment from infinitii, asking me for the source for the suggestion that the zodiac motifs may have been copied from a (possibly 14th century) German woodcut calendar. I had long forgotten the story's origin, but a quick grep through the VMs mailing list archives (the ones before 2002 that aren't ...

Google only finds about ten pages where Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) is linked with the Voynich Manuscript. Here's a short research note to fill that gap... If you look at Mattioli's CV, you'll see plenty of echoes with other people linked to the VMs. Though a renowned herbal compiler & writer in his spare time, he was also a physician ...

Would having "Expert on the Voynich Manuscript" on your CV significantly raise your perceived intellectuality (i.e. an extra ten grand per year on your salary)? It would? Then read on, and I'll reveal the secret two-stage process that They don't want you to find out... Stage One. You start out by pretending to be a Voynich expert. All you ...

Every few days, I get asked to recommend a good introduction to the Voynich Manuscript (the 'VMs' for short). But each time this happens, my heart sinks a little: given the size and scope of historical research you'd need to have to properly grasp the subject, it's a bit like being asked to recommend a good 5-page encyclopaedia. Or rather, ...