Re: VMs: decryption document

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Larry,

At 17:29 15/02/03 -0500, you wrote:
> I put together a document on some encryption methods and how they
> pertain to the Voynich.  It can be found at
>
> http://web.syr.edu/~laroux/voyencrypdoc.html
>
> While I have seen several sites that attack Voynich from a  particular
> decryption method, I have not seen a more general one that shows
> different methods and how they relate to the Voy Manuscript.
>
> I am NOT an expert in cryptology, so be kind.  I am sure I am not using
> the official terminology, etc.  And this is a work in progress.  Note
> that I am doing this more for my own reference and a way to focus my
> ideas than to be the "go-to" reference (or I would be more careful to
> learn the correct terminology, etc.

There are plenty of crypto books and articles out there to get the right 
terminology (monoalphabetic, polyalphabetic, etc) from. What's perhaps more 
important to point out is that if you can infer some kind of date-range for 
the VMS, then you can - almost certainly - rule out many encrypting 
mechanisms that were developed later than that time.

The "4" glyph (especially in combination with the "4o" pair) seems 
extraordinarily specific to cipherbets devised (or recorded) in Northern 
Italian states around the period from 1440 (in Urbino) through to 1455 (in 
Milano): and as the "castle" (though there are in fact several) on the 
9-rosette page appears to be Milan sometime shortly after 1453, I think we 
can probably narrow it down to the time period 1454 to (say) 1470 without 
getting too scary.

For me, this rules out (for example) polyalphabetic ciphers on likely 
provenance grounds alone.

I think that further (art-historical-style) inferences are possible, but 
that's another story (or ten). :-)

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....

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