Re: Reading the Voynich MS in Voynich

[reeds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jim Reeds)]

Cory Snow and Steve Ekwall discussed:


><snip most> You Wrote:
> 
> 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).
> 
><end snip>
>
>   I agree !!  One additional point would be the preservation of the 
>MS itself ... and IT could be saved in it's entirety from hence forth.
>

With the exception of the IR and UV stuff, this plan is being
sort-of-acted on.

Last fall I sent out an email about a scanning project, which
I append below.  Since then there have been 2 developments,
one bad, one possibly good. The bad development is that the
scanning firm's timetable was set back because the branch office
they were opening at the Yale campus would not be open until March
of this year, and all negotiating and so on was to be postponed 
until then.  Well, March is near, so maybe things will get going
again.  The other development is that I have gotten word from
a publisher that they want to publish a facsimile edition of the
VMS, and are interested in using the results of the scan.  It is
not yet clear if they will be able to do this in a cost-effective
way, however.  

As I hinted in my 25 Aug 2000 email, some amount of hat-passing
might be needed to help pay for the project.

Here is that 25 August 2000 email, a document from another
century, nay, from a byegone millennium.  Stuff marked > is
me writing, and > > is Seth Morabito (sjm <sethm@xxxxxxxxxxx>)
writing on 22 August 2000.


> Subject: Re: Voynich research needs
> As part of this thread,
> 
> On Aug 22, 14:47, sjm wrote:
>  
> > I personally feel that the single most useful research tool we could have
> > is a very high quality color photographic reproduction of the manuscript.
> > We have discussed this matter to death in the past, even rather heatedly,
> > but it never hurts to revisit it in summary.
> ...
> > 
> > At any rate, fresh eyes looking at the problem can never hurt.
> > Welcome to the discussion, and good luck!
> 
> Yes.  Fresh eyes looking at good photocopies.  That's what's needed.
> 
> Over a year ago now, one of our members, Mark Perakh, announced
> that he had a wealthy friend willing to bankroll production of a
> high quality photocopy of the the VMS. After some initial
> discussion, Mark chose me to look into just how we should go about
> doing this. (In Mark's terms, to figure out to whom the donor should
> send the check.) Which I have been doing ever after. I picked an
> informal "board of advisors" of about 10 people most active in this
> list and in the eary list discussion of how to spend the Perakh
> donation (which really comes from Mark's generous friend).
> 
> I have sent copies almost all of my email discussion to the board
> of advisors (which includes Mark) all along, keeping them abreast
> of what's up on this project.  At many times I have received a lot
> of help from the advisors, both in clarifying issues and in
> explaining technicalities.  I think they are truely representitive
> of the "Voynich research community" and that almost everyone will
> be happy with the outcome of the project.
> 
> Now on to details.  There are two potential vendors I have talked
> with.  One, the Beinecke Library itself, was almost prepared to
> make a digital scan for us,  but after months of negotiating,
> decided not to.  Their reason not to was apparently based entirely
> on their feeling that their scanning equipment and staff were not
> technically capable of doing the job as we wanted it done, for the
> price we could pay.  They suggested we approach the other vendor
> (whom I had contacted early on in the project but put on hold
> while the Beinecke negotiations were underway).  This vendor
> is more technically competent than the Beinecke photo department,
> and has better equipment.  But they are also pricier, and we may
> have to pass the hat around for a few extra thousand dollars to
> pay for the job.
> 
> Jim Gillogly (this list founder, perhaps the country's top amateur
> cryptanalyst, and more importantly, a member of my "board") and I
> visited the offices of this vendor and had a 2 hour chat with the
> boss. He will prepare a formal proposal (with variously priced
> options which I will discuss with my advisors) in a few weeks and
> if all goes well, scanning will commence this fall.
> 
> In general terms, we would get a high resolution color scan of
> the whole VMS, with something like 70 megabytes of TIFF file per
> page.  These master images  will be delivered on a set of CD roms.
> I am pretty sure that Yale will also recieve a copy of the same
> set.  We might also recieve a set of derived JPEG images.  What we'd
> do with these master images is, I suppose: make a backup copy or
> 2; circulate them by sneaker net to the hard core researchers;
> make derived JPEGs for easier distribution.  If Yale makes a
> CD rom of JPEG derivatives we don't have to, but if they don't,
> maybe we could.  At any rate, the present project is to accomplish
> the scan, not to publish a CD.
> 
> As a final comment:  Yale's stance on permissions seems to have
> taken a radical turn for the better and they seem to favor this
> project.  It used to be popular to bad-mouth the Beinecke Library
> in this forum, but I think its completely inappropriate now.
> 

-- 
Jim Reeds, AT&T Labs - Research
Shannon Laboratory, Room C229, Building 103
180 Park Avenue, Florham Park, NJ 07932-0971, USA

reeds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, phone: +1 973 360 8414, fax: +1 973 360 8178