Re: VMs: Colored paints, touch-ups, and the michiton text

["GC" <gc-@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dennis wrote:

> I thought "oladabas" might be Currier OPAR8AR on
> f67r1,at 11 o'clock in the outermost text ring.  That
> of course isn't the Voynichese.  Does anyone have any
> serious ideas about what "michiton oladabas multos
> portas" means, if it isn't a distorted idea of
> Voynichese?

Serious idea?  I have one I've been entertaining, but how serious it would
be taken is a true unknown.  Anyway, I'll stick my foot in my mouth on this
one, since it's a holiday and I don't have anything better to do than make a
fool of myself. :-)

First, I still don't read "michiton", rather "anchiton", and I see some
slight differences in the handwriting between the line at the very top of
the folio and the "valsch ubren" line.  I don't know that these are the same
writer, but not enough to tell, except the slants are different and the
loops slightly different.

The top line is the one I'm curious about - my reading is "poxleber romen
not?ifer".  I take the "x" to be an "s", which gives me "posleber romen
not?ifer".  I'm not a star linguist like many of you, so I'm stuck taking
the roots of things and working from there.  "Posleber" sounds a whole lot
like some spoken form of "Possibly", and the root of "not?ifer" may well be
from "note" or "notae", which would give the line the meaning "Possibly
Roman notae".  If this is so, then it's probably a reference to Tironian
notae, and someone's idea that the VMS was based on Tironian notae.

As for the "anchiton oladabas + multos", I'd hate to venture.  There is a
Greek word "anchiron", and the root of our word here may be the same as used
in "anchor".  "multos portas" taken together would be "many doors", but
there are several characters in between these two words.

The "voynichese" in the last line I can't find in the manuscript, so I can't
say where it comes from.  The rest of the line, "valsch ubren so nim gaf
mich", I don't know that we still have any precise translation of.   I'm
concerned about the dotted lines extending from the "o" that ends this line.
This appears to connect the "o" with the "ma+ma" in the line above, which
reads by my reckoning "six + maurx" + moorx + vix + al(ph)a + ma + ma +"

None of it seems to make sense, but if I'm even close on the top line, and
others are even close on the "valsch ubren" line, it's not from the VMS
author, but someone trying to make sense of it just like us - maybe we
should invite him to join the list? :-)

GC

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dennis" <tsalagi@xxxxxxxx>
To: <vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2004 11:35 AM
Subject: Re: VMs: Colored paints, touch-ups, and the michiton text


> Jorge Stolfi wrote:
> >
> >   > [stolfi:] The zodiac names, e.g. on f71r, f72r are written in a
> >   > different ink and thicker pen than the surrounding text. So that
> >   > practically closes an old open question.
> >
> >   > [Dennis:] Meaning that someone else wrote them, as we'd always
> >   > thought?
> >
> > Yes. To be precise, the central figures, the Voynichese text, and most
> > of the women figures in the circular diagrams seem to be all in the
> > same hand, pen, and ink; whereas the *month names*, and some
> > touch-ups, seem to be different.
>
> OK.  I sure never thought the VMs author did the month
> names.  Bruce Grant's idea about Catalan is
> interesting.  Occitan would also be possible.
>
> >   > I would be very much surprised indeed if the VMs
> >   > author(s) wrote the "michiton" text!!  I never took the
> >   > "key" seriously, and doubt anyone here did.  I always
> >   > thought it was someone else's scribbling, trying to
> >   > understand Voynichese, and "michiton" etc. is distorted
> >   > Voynichese.
> >
> > Well, I never found that explanation convincing. Why would that guy
> > write *distorted* Roman letters? Why would he copy the "oror sheey"
> > undistorted?
>
> Good point.   I don't know why the VMs author wouldn't
> be fluent in Roman writing, though, since the VMs
> script is based on Roman writing, after all (in many of
> our opinion, anyway).
>
> > Why would he write onto f116v rather than on a piece of
> > scrap paper?
>
> Another good question, especially if the author
> intended concealment.  We do see a certain amount of
> extraneous scribbling elsewhere on the VMs, though.
>
> > Where did he copy the text from? Note that if the book was
> > already bound, while writing f116v he would not normally see any other
> > page, unless he unfolded a fold-out with the book closed, or had f1r
> > flipped over -- possible, but somewhat unlikely. Several people have
> > scanned the VMS looking for his presumed source text, but haven't
> > found it.
>
> I thought "oladabas" might be Currier OPAR8AR on
> f67r1,at 11 o'clock in the outermost text ring.  That
> of course isn't the Voynichese.  Does anyone have any
> serious ideas about what "michiton oladabas multos
> portas" means, if it isn't a distorted idea of
> Voynichese?
>
> Dennis
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