Re: VMs: Re: Astronomical Notes, Comments, and Replies

[Luis Vélez <legal1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dana writes:
> I am wondering why such public astronomical events should be subjected to
> encryption? What is the great secret mystery that must be hidden from public
> knowledge? It strikes me that there should be more significant knowledge
> that warrants keeping it from the rest of human understanding and awareness.
> I wonder what that might be?

My first thought was: maybe the encryption was necessary, not because of the
content itself, but because of the risk for the safety of the author
involved in anything astronomical/astrological. After all, inquisition was
very active in those days... however, an encrypted text with stars, weird
suspicious-looking symbols and nudity all over was still very likely to get
the author in more trouble than any user-friendly blasphemy.

Another possibility is that special encryption was required in order to
embellish the book and make it more 'obscure' and mysterious, rather than
for protecting its content. I like this option because it does not call so
strictly for heavy linguistic rules, which could then account for many of
the oddities. Perhaps Voynechese was never intended to be readable in the
first place.


Luis

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