Re: VMs: summaries - summarise

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi William,

At 20:34 02/02/2004 +0000, William Edmondson wrote:
> But I urgently need some summary information before heading off to the 
> British Library and the Welcome Library.

*sigh* If only it were as simple as Woody Allen says - that 70% of success 
is "just turning up". The BL is an amazing resource, but you simply have to 
have a guiding principle to find anything - whether that's siyaqat, 
balneology, or whatever.

Also bear in mind that many of the most relevant manuscripts in the BL 
(typically anything pre-1500, but I'm thinking specifically of the 
Gasparinus de Bripio manuscript here) require you to pre-request them (and 
you may also need a letter of recommendation, etc). These are delicate and 
irreplaceable - and so the BL is naturally ultra-cautious and ultra-sensitive.

> Are there any fora/journals/websites for presenting/archiving summaries?

Our general methodology is to self-publish anything of substance and then 
to post a link to the list - apart from pure crypto stuff, which tends to 
find a happy home in Cryptologia. That aside, the VMs fails to fall nicely 
into any specific academic pigeonhole, so its a "hard sell" to academics 
looking to publish and be recognised. AFA the VMs goes, a single email here 
goes to (I guess 70-ish% of) active VMs researchers.

> What are the current opinions on the [age & geographical origins] of the 
> VMS, supported by what evidence, countered by what other evidence?

Recent emails have tried to cover some of this: pharma maiolica albarelli, 
glass, maps, hairstyles, clothes, crossbow technology... all seem generally 
centred on the 15th Century, but there are always contrasting opinions to 
say it's much earlier / earlier / later / much later / etc.

For example: having looked into the history of circular maps quite a lot, 
I'm quite sure that the main "castle" rosette is an encrypted map of Milan, 
based on one produced by Jacopo del Massajo in 1428. For me, that points to 
a pretty reliable earliest date and a likely geographic location - but 
until people can read the text, opinions will continue to differ.

> What are the current opinions on code vs shorthand vs idiosyncratic 
> transcription (and if the latter of what language), supported by what 
> evidence, countered by what other evidence?

Too much to contain in this small margin. If I say that I've been proposing 
a combination of all three for ages, would that help? :-/

> What are the opinions on the character set - have characters been 
> accurately isolated, for example, because low entropy is extremely 
> suspicious, assuming a meaningful text.?  Again, evidence for and against?

Again, too many for this small margin. I've pointed to the likelihood of a 
verbose cipher for some time (specifically, "qo", "dy", "ol", and "or" seem 
powerful candidates), which help reduce the entropy... but I'm far from 
convinced that this alone holds all the answers.

> What physical/chemical tests could/should be done on the real VMS to help 
> clarify any of these issues, and has anyone approached Yale to see if they 
> can be done?

They're interested, but would like a formal proposal with accredited 
people. Bear in mind that they've had a rough time over the Vinland Map 
recently, so any single test would be unlikely to bear much unambiguous 
fruit. :-o

> What archive of false avenues exists, and with what data?

It's called "the mailing list archive" - but, like Scottish Law, we prefer 
a verdict of "not proven" rather than "false". :-)

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


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