Request For Status: Language vs. Cipher / Facsimile Edition

[Andreas Wilhelm <wilhelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

I suppose no-body is really interested in in-depth epic details about
who I am and what I care for ;-) , but  just for the records: I'm the
"new guy" on the list (did anybody notice except for Jim Gillogly?). My
name is Andreas, I working as a producer at a multimedia agency in
Hamburg. Cheers!

I have been reading about the Voynich Manuscript for quite a while and
checked the various websites, documents and reports. I am quite honored
to find myself on this list and thereby be in direct contact to all
these people, Reeds, Landini, Stolfi, Guy, Zandbergen - only to name a
few!

I am currently trying to wade throught the whole of Jim's compiled
mailing list traffic (which is a great thing with which to start off!),
however to shorten my efforts it would be great if I could get a
summarised status of discussion on two issues:

Language vs. Cipher
What are main arguments for the thesis that MS408 is written in cipher,
and what are the main arguments for it being a (maybe artifical)
language?
I understand that Newbold's "decipherment" has been identified as
insufficient (read "wrong") at the best. Brumbaugh does also seem to
walking in these footsteps. Also a "Glen" (writing from
"cryptography@xxxxxxxx") is strongly argueing in favour of
"decipherment". There are a great many papers on entropy and Zipf's
laws, but is there also already a summarized (somewhat final) conclusion
of the findings? Are there people actively working on a "decipherment"
of the book or are people mainly envolved in the structural and
linguistic (semantic) analysis?
Who are the "key-players" in this discussion (if I may ask so bluntly)?
btw: Is the text of Newbold's "decipherment" and possibly the
counter-arguments available online or digitally?

CD-ROM / Wishlist - Facsimile production
There have been numerous statements on how badly needed a high-quality
edition of MS408 would be. People have been exchanging photos,
photocopies and GIFs. There have been wishlists, hopes for a CD-ROM
edition, pricelistings from the Yale Library (for photos) and so forth.
I would like to know what the status of this issue is. How many percent
(which pages) are available in what quality so far? Is there anyone
envolved in organising or in the production of a high-quality
reproduction of the whole MS408?
I am asking this, not because I wish to start my own Voynich collection,
but because I am about to start this as a project; the production and
publication of a high-quality facsimile edition of MS408 (comparable to
the Thames&Hudson hardover slip-case edition of the "Book of Kells"). I
don't wish to interfere with any other on-going projects or
communications/negotiations with Yale, therefore I would like to know
the exact status on this.

All the best for the start of the new Mill... NewYear (successfully
avoiding the M-word) and cheers from Hamburg,

Andreas
--


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Schulterblatt 58  .  20357 Hamburg  .  Germany
phone: + 49 40 432 03 - 37  .   fax: - 20

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