Posted on 02/12/2011 2:01:35 PM PST by FTJM
There is more information here. http://www.isi.edu/natural-language/people/voynich.pdf This is one of those “search for the holy grail” type things. It’s a really cool mystery.
Diatoms
Very good neighborhood at the time I assure you.
He had money to burn~
Ebonics?
Btt for later
Or just some merchant’s in house code and inventories.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHj7bH4yHbg
It's just become the rage again...
It's not that easy; first he'd need to invent a completely new alphabet; then he'd need to invent a language that is written in that alphabet, with grammar and other rules. Only then one can "write" something that convincingly resembles a text.
There is another catch. If he is caught with this book, the Inquisition would ask him, quite insistently, to reveal the language, so that they can translate it and see in what exactly words he is expressing his love for the Devil. The inquisitors wouldn't take "no" for an answer, and they wouldn't believe that the book is a prank. In their opinion (quite justified, IMO) very few people would go to such a great length to make a practical joke.
to impress the ladies who listened to his fanciful tales about what he had drawn and written in the book. It is very likely none of them could read anyway.
As I understand, ladies 500 years ago weren't too demanding. Besides, they'd be bored by the book in an instant - like if I give you a large crystal of salt and start blabbing for hours about its physical properties and X-ray crystallography (especially if we both know nothing about that.) A book would be of no interest to illiterate ladies, beyond a few pictures - and there aren't too many, and majority of them are [unknown] plants.
One theory is that the book was made as a con job, to be sold to a collector for good money. The text then is indeed meaningless, but some effort was put into making a language.
the notebooks of a doctor/scientist ? who would have had to keep a low profile on his studies in those days - or face the Inquisition? - if in a Catholic ruled country. Otherwise, the above without fear of the powers that be.
Just a research scientist of his day?
The manuscript is too "clean" for it to be a lab journal. There are no corrections, but a scientist wouldn't discard a spoiled page just because of a typo. There are no notes on margins, and those would be very natural when the scientist reviews his notebooks and thinks of something. The manuscript is also split into several chapters, and there is no empty space between them. A scientist would be unlikely to do a study of plants and completely finish it, then switch to something else and be done with it, and so on. A scientist would keep several notebooks, one per study. This looks like a specially arranged material, written for other people to read.
It’s ancient astronaut theorists at it again. The History Channel puts all it’s academic authority on the line here. Star people stopped here to use the bathroom once during a long intergalacic trip. They left their travel documents behind at this church, which had a nice bathroom for public usage.
It’s ancient astronaut theorists at it again. The History Channel puts all it’s academic authority on the line here. Star people stopped here to use the bathroom once during a long intergalacic trip. They left their travel documents behind at this church, which had a nice bathroom for public usage.
It’s ancient astronaut theorists at it again. The History Channel puts all it’s academic authority on the line here. Star people stopped here to use the bathroom once during a long intergalacic trip. They left their travel documents behind at this church, which had a nice bathroom for public usage.
Something like that I think. Tolkein was a linguist who could and did invent new languages out of nothing. Not the first that could do it, I’m sure. Would be a nice way of keeping prying eyes from discovering what was in your papers.
that would've put Leonardo at minus 18 years to plus 14.
I know just about everything under the sun that can't be pinned down is credited to him, even the creation of THe Shroud - which is known to have existed several hundred years before Leonardo was born -
He WAS a genius. But he had limits, one being that he had to be alive to do ANYthing. I 'assure you" ;o)
So he was about 14 at the outside date of the creation of this book - but he was pretty busy apprenticing at the time. Probably not enough time and privacy to spend the time required for these extensive observations.
As an artist/writer, I wouldn't use my first drafts and sketches in my final work - I get them worked out, notes, scratch-outs, additions, etc and THEN put them to the final work.
Certainly, many ancient manuscripts exist as final, edited 'editions sans notes, corrections - n'est-ce pas?
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