VMS -- Encryption Keys

["Dana F. Scott" <dfscott@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

In looking at herbal folio f49v we find that a series of characters in
Voynichese is listed along the left hand column of the text. Upon close
observation we see that there is a sense of ordering and some repetition
in the sequence of characters. To the left of this list at the top left
of the page the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 have been added, presumably not by
the original scribe of the text. It appears that there might have been
an attempt to associate the listed characters with numbers; however, the
numbering sequence seems to be incomplete. So perhaps the attempt at
number sequencing was abandoned. More importantly, however, I find the
list of Voynichese characters to be rather puzzling. I find no
correlation between this list of characters and the 2 paragraphs of text
associated with the plant. This is somewhat interesting because it
suggests that the column of characters may not original. While the
characters do look very much like original Voynichese calligraphy, there
does seem to be evidence of discrepancies between these characters and
the text on this folio. It also strikes me as somewhat unusual to have
this list of characters appear here in the manuscript. Why are they on
this folio? What is different about this plant that might be of interest
to the original scribe, if indeed there was some original significance?
In addition, why don't all the Voynichese characters appear here, if
this is an attempt at disclosing a key to the text? I would suggest that
perhaps there were two analysts here examining the manuscript at
different times and would caution reasearchers of the text to be very
careful about presuming that what appears in the columns reflects an
original key to the text.

Regards,
Dana Scott