tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58511025338720579522024-03-13T06:29:00.618-04:00Unlocking the Voynich ManuscriptOne assumption has blinded research for six centuries.Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-76950082472828297432023-12-29T14:21:00.008-05:002023-12-29T20:36:03.482-05:00An Odd Voynich TranslationIntro In this age of technical sophistication like AI and Google, it should be quite easy to pinpoint the language and hence the origin of the Voynich manuscipt...or at least find a relative to it.
With that power in our hands, we may be able to peer into the manuscript and produce either a few words or some blaring flubs. At any rate, it's fun to try. But there is a pivotal question: have Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-35712901345796236992022-05-27T23:28:00.004-04:002022-05-27T23:28:48.626-04:00The Ghost Faces of CarmarthenIn 2015, researchers at the University of Cambridge shined a UV light on an ancient Welsh manuscript and discovered "details hidden in the book that had been erased from history, finding doodles, marginalia and an additional verse" (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-32133243). Among their findings are the two faces shown below on the right.They speculate that a later owner had erased parts of theClaudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-61329772587106881432019-04-30T11:37:00.003-04:002019-05-19T22:49:09.517-04:00Old Permic Script and the People of the Perm Krai
Mikael Agricola, who lived in the early 1500s, is credited with creating the first comprehensive writing system in a Finnic language. He is even called "The Father of literary Finnish." However, the birch bark letter no. 292, created over 200 years before Agricola, is the oldest known document in any Finnic language.
In addition, inscriptions in Old Permic script are among the Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-81256452650677444492018-01-14T19:38:00.001-05:002018-01-23T21:17:00.120-05:0030 Keys to the Voynich Manuscript
The research outlined below indicates northern Europe as the Voynich manuscript's origin, and it goes further.
1. Transcription Alphabet - 90 words gleaned using the transcription alphabet in this blog suggest constructions of an old Finno-Ugric origin with a substantial amount of Old Norse. In addition, there is a distinct Slavic influence. (Below is apai, aunt in Udmurt)
Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-17174745734775785852017-09-15T23:00:00.000-04:002017-09-16T02:58:19.532-04:00Rosette Map with Prefix Key
It's pretty fair to assume that the rosette folio in the Voynich manuscript is some type of map. After all, it shows waterways and buildings. At the same time, it has got to be one of the oddest-looking maps ever created.
This might be for two reasons. First, as was discussed elsewhere in this blog, the map's structure mimics the framework used to make certain types of lace.
Second, as a Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-46775664295371756232017-06-28T00:57:00.000-04:002018-03-09T21:00:00.850-05:00Introduction
The Voynich manuscript has been carbon dated to the 15th century (~1430).
Housed in Yale's Beinecke Library, it depicts largely middle-aged women dancing naked in the water of a cave, and also around star designs and zodiac signs. Other pages illustrate plants and herbal jars.
Statistical analysis of the manuscript's text reveals Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-34835957074066076272017-06-27T03:10:00.000-04:002019-05-19T23:03:56.389-04:00Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: The Latency and Mutations of Christianization in Various Regions of Northern Europe
Women in the Baltic region in the late middle ages might be seen as thralled in a catch-22. If they tried to live freely, practicing their rites under no institutionalized guard, they could easily fall prey to the booming slave trade of the times, when word had gotten out that there was a great demand for blond girls in other parts of the world as far away as the Middle East. Trade in blond Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-59811502866400387202017-06-22T20:35:00.000-04:002017-06-22T20:41:57.971-04:00Permian Animal Style and early non-Church manuscripts
This is the long answer to a question asked in the comments section of the Questions List.
The Permian Animal Style
The Permian style survived well into the 13thc, and never
completely vanished. In the spring of 2001 the water level in the channel of
Sofjanga connecting Pjaozero and Topozero lakes (Kumskoye reservoir) sank,
exposing the Sofporog Discoveries: 10 bronze thongs and their Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-26311454786261530352017-06-21T00:34:00.001-04:002017-06-26T05:38:29.478-04:00List of Research Questions
Following is a list of questions. Further research into them through the lens of women's culture may help to open up understanding of the Voynich manuscript. I will be adding to them periodically. Feel free to take on the one that piques your interest and to collaborate. I check the blog comments regularly and can be reached at the(dot)pyat(at)gmail(dot)com.
Women's brooches (solde, solju, Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-14628296896020674532016-12-07T01:41:00.000-05:002019-05-28T06:47:14.278-04:00A Voynich Word List
Here are over 90 words found in the Voynich manuscript transcribed and translated. You can find an ongoing spreadsheet with these words here: Voynich Lexicon
For the transcription alphabet and an explanation of how it was derived, go to Transcription Alphabet and The Handwriting.
For an introduction to this blog, the Voynich manuscript, and the theory covered in this Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-65985391804543867892016-10-28T04:07:00.000-04:002017-03-14T22:24:48.917-04:00Sauna Banya Bastu Spa
The oldest known saunas in Finland were made from pits dug in a slope in the ground and primarily used as dwellings in winter. The sauna featured a fireplace where stones were heated to a high temperature. Water was thrown on the hot stones to produce steam and to give a sensation of increased heat. This would raise the apparent temperature so high that people could take off their clothes. The Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-57462334695999670672016-10-18T07:48:00.002-04:002023-07-23T22:14:16.971-04:00Voynich Rosette Map Records An Ancient Pilgrimage
No one would dispute that during the 11th and 12th centuries the Finnish (Komi) migration drained the Urals of much of its Finno-Ugric population and that by the late 12th through 14th centuries other populations that made for the ancestors of the Bashkir largely took their place in the Perm region of Russia.
However, the Voynich Manuscript proves that a seasonal pilgrimage voyaging to the Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-3991521076183660202016-10-17T14:30:00.001-04:002021-12-23T01:23:19.286-05:00Design & Symbol in the Voynich Manuscript
"Images are just constructions, as any other human product."
Joan Fontcuberta
In visual art as in literature, what is chosen to be depicted and how it is depicted can speak volumes about the creator of a work. So it is with the Voynich. We can pick up a substantial amount of information about who created it by looking at what they drew.
Suns and Brooches
Women in many parts Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-57855067700112052682016-10-16T22:28:00.000-04:002017-10-31T23:47:04.534-04:00Language Candidates
The Geographic Target: Northern Europe
Above is a map that targets a broad area which contains cultures that employ similar symbolism and ritual to that found in the Voynich manuscript. What symbolism and ritual? Torcs, drop spindles, distaffs, seidr staffs, sun spirals, eight-pointed stars, sun-mothers, spa/banya, ceremonial spoons, women's choirs singing rune songs/leelo, waterbirds, Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-4492455871471907842016-10-15T23:52:00.000-04:002017-10-07T01:44:19.763-04:00The Stars
The Sun in the Center
This is a Voynich manuscript picture of a sun inside an eight-pointed star or octagram.
The Voynich manuscript with its heliocentric star charts was written 105 years before Copernicus’ publication that posited the sun in the center, causing the Copernican Revolution. In what context outside of classical astronomy might a sun appear at the center of a chart of heavenly Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-21755351404835502822015-12-31T09:33:00.000-05:002017-11-07T01:34:55.316-05:00The Kvens and the Voynich Manuscript
A brief history of the Kvens
Over a thousand years ago, the word Kvens (quain, qwaen, quen, cwen, fin, finn) meant to most western people the Finno-Ugric family of peoples who lived in the British Isles, Denmark and northern Germany until they merged with invading Celts and Goths from the east. The Kvens of Western and Central Europe are the people who disappeared from the map, but their Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-91980824191036429652015-11-07T00:35:00.002-05:002016-10-28T09:52:59.701-04:00The Context for the Voynich Manuscript
Lands surrounding the Gulf of Finland
To understand the culture of the people native to the lands surrounding the Gulf of Finland, you would in fact have to start off the map toward the east, in the cradle of the Urals and read from right to left. For millennia, a North-Eurasian mythology was known variously to the Sami, Estonians, Mari, Komi-Permyaks, Mordvins, Setu, and KareliansClaudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-19849252768472743472015-11-06T22:50:00.001-05:002017-03-14T17:31:37.004-04:00The Para: An Example of Folk "Magic" and Natural Science
You may have read the post about Ukko and learned that his other name, Jumala, had started out meaning simply the heavens, and then meaning a god of heaven, and then finally God. This action of anthropomogrifying non-anthropic beings may be seen as one of the most prevalent sea changes brought about by the Church. Another example is here, with what appears to have started out as an animal Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-3453995072170992702015-10-26T20:26:00.000-04:002016-12-29T12:39:57.236-05:00The Voynich and the Spring Thaw
Words4It: Nature at the Brighton Millpond in Michigan
So let's guess that the woman to the right isn't simply a bit of marginalia but actually part of the content and message of the book, and therefore, if we do not dismiss her, able to tell us something about what the authors meant to convey. What might it be? Well, for starters, her face, you might have noticed, is Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-57609123487340396702015-10-26T15:48:00.000-04:002017-07-06T02:04:18.696-04:00Ukko, Red, and the Rainbow
Above is one of the most striking images in the Voynich manuscript, along with some translations of the words, most of them, as with so many words in the manuscript, tied to the Finnic root signifying "life." What is the significance of the double rainbow? Why are the women gathered around it? And why do the words seem to point to some sort of crux about life?
First of all, let's take a Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-69926161267360207792015-10-23T10:45:00.000-04:002017-05-20T14:55:08.946-04:00What They Wear
There's quite a clear language used throughout the Voynich manuscript, but as much as any extinct dialect, centuries of hubris and narrow vision, and an inability to see past the nakedness of the women depicted in its pages have obscured the meaning of this work.
The women wear distinctive head-dresses.
Simply by what they were wearing on their heads (women's Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-71313313842850589152015-10-18T23:39:00.002-04:002023-03-11T11:38:52.196-05:00Watercraft
Some say the women in the Voynich manuscript stand for anatomical agents and that the craft they stand in represent organs of the human body. Others see these figures as dwarfish fairies sitting in various plant parts illustrating oil and essence extractions. Still others see perhaps baths that were meant to be and are purely fantastical. Looking at these, you have to ask yourself, what in theClaudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-51049019557908253322015-10-12T23:34:00.000-04:002016-10-31T09:22:07.238-04:00The Herbal Jars in the Voynich
The Voynich manuscript contains several drawings of containers that were apparently used to store and carry medicinal powders from the roots depicted beside the containers.
The photographs above are of a carved wooden needlecase, possibly once painted. The finder believed it to be from Victorian Bavaria.
Treen, literally "of a tree" is a generic name for small handmade functional Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-69985279411866460822015-10-11T00:49:00.002-04:002017-01-01T16:01:43.024-05:00A Page of the Voynich Translated: #f5v
During spring when sunlight (Phes/Hulda's bright phase) heats the fallow ground at the time when life wakes to migrate, the hoofed animals moving from the south, the moon low or new, then walk south by the singing Ukelei river--make a joyful sound and walk southward.
The above is a translation of the page shown below. It would be interesting to discover whether a certain Rumex does bloom Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851102533872057952.post-55223402659389239642015-10-08T17:21:00.000-04:002019-05-27T00:10:10.670-04:00What They Sound Like: Rune Songs and Joiks
The Voynich manuscript appears to contain some sort of chanting in the tradition of the joik and the
From "Women and Death - Karelian Laments"
Nordic Women's Literature
charm rune. Certain characteristics point strongly to this conclusion:
The text appears to be largely trochaic, which is the meter of choice for such purposes.
Like joiks and chant songs, the Voynich text is Claudette Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15981351775979769705noreply@blogger.com0