Re: VMs: French Review -- 1912

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Philip,

> I think we have been fairly lucky so far. The pseudo-science of the 1970s has
> increasingly been replaced by a fad for pseudo-history on the lines of
> The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. You know the formula: you take two
> genuine mysteries (Stonehenge, the Templars, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Easter
> Island, the Cathars, Atlantis, the Phaistos Disc) and invent a spurious
> connection between them. It can only be a matter of time before somebody
> writes a quick paperback called The Voynich Manuscript and Atlantis /
> the Templars / Stonehenge or whatever.

Well... it would have to be a pretty special theory to strongly link the 
VMS with something we haven't discussed to death on-list already - such as 
(in no particular order, with no particular preferences):-

        Bogomils / Cathars (and hence to the Templars? If you squint a bit?)
        Medieval voyages to the US (pre-Columbus)
        Witchcraft / astrology / heresy / early modern gynaecology?
        Alchemy / John Dee / Edward Kelly / Rosicrucians?
        Grimoires / necromancy / magic circles
        Roger Bacon / Francis Bacon / Kevin Bacon?
        Dead Sea Scrolls / Kabbala / gematria / notarikon / temurah
        Poison / beauty / recipes / experimenti / Caterina Sforza / 
Lucrezia Borgia
        Ottoman courts / "language of the mutes" / siyaqat
        Virgin Mary / gnosticism / cults?
        Ukrainian prayerbooks
        Nabataea

- so I'd probably buy such a book regardless, just for the fun of it. :-)

But who knows? A careful study might (for example) uncover subtle drafting 
similarities between the VMS' 9-rosette "map" page and the Vinland Map 
(they do, arguably, both contain hidden messages), so - in the absence of 
smoking-WMD-style proof - anything's possible. :-)

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


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