RE: VMs: RE: a and b (and a personal guess)

["GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Philip Neal wrote:

> I think that there is a difference between the writing of the gallows
> characters
> in hand 1 and hand 2. In hand 2 the right hand loops are much more often
> written so small that there is no white parchment visible inside
> the loop. I
> have
> just done a rough count of this on a few pages.
>
> Page     Hand     Open loops     Closed loops
>
> 25r       1          21                 0
> 25v      1          22                  0
> 26r       2          34                 4
> 26v      2          38                  7
> 31r       2          47                 4
> 31v      2         48                  7
> 32r       1          31                 0
> 32v      1           14                 0
>
> The explanation may be that the same scribe was writing smaller
> letters in a
> more
> cramped space, but the question remains why the text on the hand 1 pages
> occupies
> more space on the page.

I don't really have a problem with this, and I don't think I have a problem
with 'ha' pages showing up in much later quires.  We tend to forget that
these 'pages', when unbound, are merely pages that can be moved around to
some extent, and even folding a page backward changes its order.  As I said
in my earlier post to Larry Roux, there is evidence of a "contemplation of
structure" that was not resolved in the early folios.  If someone like
Askham wrote this, he began the project when he was 18-20 years in age.
Compare that to a manuscript written by someone in their late 30's or 40's,
and the structure is more rigid through experience and the ability to
readily categorize new information and "hold the course" in any tedious
task.

By this definition, the early pages (h1) were less laborious, probably
worked out first and then transcribed (by a method similar or identical to
Nick's wax tablets) in a fluid and abundant style.  Call it "youthful".
Assume for a moment that the writer had not, at this point, spent
incalculable hours in the study of his selected subject, but was instead
acting on what he considered new and "volatile" information.  This info
trickled in, and maybe a single folio was composed in a month.  How many
months does that make it across the spectrum of VMS pages?

Evidence demonstrates that the VMS was written in "spurts and pauses".  The
initial herbal pages were written in a "youthful" hand, (not reflected in
f1r), and that after awhile a change occurred in this flow.  In fact,
throughout the manuscript's production, many, many more changes will have
occurred.  There was some reshuffling of pages, writing on folios only
partially complete, etc, and other features that can and will lead to a very
good hypothesis of its order of construction, should the right questions be
asked of its nature.

> I think Glen's work on the distribution of words between the two hands is
> useful
> and interesting and confirms the existence of two languages in Currier's
> sense, but
> I don't see how he gets from there to the idea that different
> lines on the
> same
> page can be assigned to one language or the other.

I agree fully.  Where does that M-F get off making such wild claims, just
when I was thinking he had some sort of head on his shoulders?  Oh my God,
he killed Kenny - That Bastard!  Be patient and let me demonstrate this in
full.  I've already found some statistical support for this idea in Rene's
files, and I'm only moving this one notch up the ladder.  I point to
Currier's analysis when he surmised that the "statistical unit" was the
line.  However, I find no evidence that Currier offered any statistics to
differentiate between one line and another.  Consider this a continuation on
a theme.

> As I think Rene is saying, one of the big differences between
> language A and
> language B is the relative frequency of edy and ody. This might
> simply be a
> difference
> of spelling (under certain circumstances A writes e where B
> writes o): there
> is a similar
> relation between the frequency of ey and oy in the two languages. Another
> difference
> is the occurrence of the compound gallows characters such as eke. In
> language B they
> occur in the same contexts as d towards the end of a word (forms such as
> okeekey
> seem to alternate with okedy). In language A, they seem to occur
> in the same
> contexts
> as d but towards the beginning of a word (forms such as eteol seem to
> alternate with
> dol).

edy, ody, ey oy eke.  okeekey okedy eteol dol .... Jesus H. Christ!  Leave
it to the anally retentive English to come up with something as bizarre as
this, and then tell me that I'm way off base when I think the Voynich was
authored by an Englishman! :-)  Even something as simple as "8am" they have
to turn into gibberish.  (No, not ALL Englishmen are anally retentive - only
the ones I've met!)  :-)  (Your turn - western jokes - How does a Texan
spell "calibre"? - he doesn't, Texans can't read)(Why did Texans vote for
Bush? - If you don't know that, you're one of them other kinda fellas, like
from Calfornie).

> I think that the two "languages" are not two languages such
> as German
> and Latin
> enciphered by the same method, but the same language enciphered by two
> slightly
> different methods.

The terms "language" and "hand" lead to this confusion.

GC


>
> As for my personal guess, my views have not changed since I last
> speculated.
>
> When: 1400-1600 (because of the marginalia)
> Where: Germany/Austria/Bohemia (because of the marginalia)
> Who: probably unknown to history
> What: the herbal is a herbal, the astrology section is a calendar, the
> recipes are
> recipes, the final section is an index and the nymphs I don't
> know. Probably
> several
> unrelated books enciphered as a compendium. Enciphered because it
> contained
> Big
> Secrets which need not be true or interesting from a modern point of view.
>
> Philip Neal
>
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