VMs: Introduction, speculations, & questions

[Barbara Barrett <barbarabarrett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Barbara babbles;

Hi All ;-)
At 49 there are few things I can claim "virginity" in but the Voynich
MSS certainly falls into that category!
I became interested via a few TV docos and a few articles in magazines
like Fortean Times and a goooogle of Web sites. I was born in '54, I'm
Northern Irish, unmarried, I live in a beautiful part of rural Berkshire
in Southern England. I gave up being a therapist/counsellor to look
after a disabled lad full time (whom I've since informally adopted as my
son) so I'm a full time carer now. 

I was originally trained as typographer and layout & paste-up artist
back in the early 70's (just before DTP cut that job market in the late
80's down to nearly nil! - story of my life really, this is Betamax
Woman writing here!) which engendered a lifelong interest in type design
and writing systems. Particularly the latter, the various "logics" used
world wide to encipher spoken language fascinate me (I got so deep into
middle egyptian hieroglyphs I ended up learning the language too! I've
also smatterings of Irish, Japanese, Akkadian, and a few dialects of
english which technically qualify as languages in their own right like
Scots, Won Tok, and Ulsterscots). My interest in forteana has given me a
passing knowledge of Alchemy, Hermetism, Medieval Astrology, medieval
secret writing systems, and the Qabbalah (some of which seem to be the
subject matter of the Voynich)

It is the writing system of the Voynich MSS that fascinates me; how does
it work, what is its logic? This question doesn't *seem* to be answered
as sites/docos/articles have numerated the total graphemes of the
Voynich MSS as small as 14 and as large as over 40. There also seemed,
from the info, many attempts to decrypt the document but few (if any) to
decipher it.

I know from personal experience that even a known language written in a
writing system with a unique logic is almost impossible to decipher and
there hangs a tale that might amuse you, but it might bore you too, so
I'll save that for later.

I therefore suspect that a Kober/Ventris approach might determine not
what language is used but how the Voynich writing system works. From
this you can deduce that I'm of the opinion that the MSS is designed to
be just picked up and read by anyone who understands the system (and
language). A Kober/Ventris approach *might* also identify how the
language works (if not the language itself). I suspect, for example,
that because the Voynich is obviously supposed to be secret that things
like pronouns are run into the words they act upon.
Even in medieval times writers knew that 1/2/3 letter words could
provide "cribs" for decryption, and by Elizabethan times frequency
analysis was a known "code breaking" technique (as in cracking Mary
Queen of Scots cypher alphabet) - such run-ins would confound frequency
analysis.

The other thing that attracted me was the plant drawings which I've
often found described as "fantasy plants", however my great great
grandmother McBride was a herbalist, she died before I was born, but I
saw her journals. She was no artist, so when she drew medicinal plants
she exaggerated the features by which they'd be identified and was very
careful about colours. The Voynich "fantasy plants" remind me very much
of great great granny McBride's drawings. I think herbalists could
identify the plants (as opposed to botanists who're obviously looking
for exactitude rather than a memory aide). However, even if you
assembled every name for a plant in all the older versions of european
languages a "crib" would not be forthcoming unless one knows how the
writing system works. Hence the Kober/Ventris approach first.

Now I'll sit back and wait for all the posts telling me I'm reinventing
the wheel and all this was done by X and Y in nineteenbodythrim ;-).

My questions as fairly simple. Is there a FAQ out there that explains
the Jargon used on this list? And has anyone published a reasonably
affordable facsimile of the Voynich MSS and where do I get my sweaty
hands on it?
(URLs are not a good idea for me as it costs me 5p just to initiate a
phone call, and being on a fixed income I want to keep costs down by
working in hardcopy as much as possible).

Happy to make your acquaintance.

Barbara


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