Re: Reading the Voynich MS in Voynich

[Corey Snow <cyclometh@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Adam McLean <alchemy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> Is the use of the transcription into Latin
> characters a 
> hinderance to our investigation of the manuscript ? 
> Has 
> transcribing it into our familiar English alphabet
> actually 
> removed  us somewhat from the context and we have 
> lost some facet of the work which is contained 
> somehow in the shapes of the Voynich characters 
> themselves?
> 

I think it may be something of a hindrance, to be
sure. However, we would be more hindered without it,
because there is no (that I know of) good source for
clear, detailed images of the manuscript itself in its
entirety.

A while back I toyed with the idea (and discussed it
with some friends offline) of getting enough money
together using donations, grants, etc. to pay Yale to
take a set of images of the VMS using standard, IR,
UV, and maybe other formats as well. This would be
complete, large-format, high-resolution images of
EVERY page. The resulting (rather large, I would
imagine) database of images and data could be put onto
a set of CDs or DVD-ROMs.

These images would be of extremely high quality and
the thought I had was that Yale could be convinced to
undertake such an effort in return for having the
right to distribute the resulting CDs/DVDs as long as
they were free of cost (except media and/or delivery
costs).

The arrangement I thought would work would be that in
return for having the effort paid by VMS researchers,
they would have a high-quality set of images to give
to interested parties, thus preserving the original
VMS and making everyone happy. No longer would they
have to deal with people potentially wrecking the
original VMS.

Obviously this would take some negotiating with Yale
to make happen, but I think it would be worth the
effort. And it might even be something for which we
could get a grant.

Thoughts, comments, derision? :-)

Corey Snow
cyclometh@xxxxxxxxx

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