Secrets of the Voynich manuscript.

[Windowpane]

3 minutes ago, Kenemet said:

I had a look at the "paper" and it doesn't pass the sniff test for me (I still think it's an old fraud and is mostly gibberish though I could be convinced otherwise by better information."

But the starting premise is one that we've seen too many times on this message board and other spaces on the Internet.  To quote from the paper itself: "Unbeknownst to the scholarly community, the manuscript was written in an extinct and hitherto unrecorded language as well as using an unknown writing system."  But luckily newly minted Dr. Cheshire was able to figure it out, thanks to his degree in theology, after encountering the manuscript while finishing his dissertation and studying it for a mere two weeks.

Color me skeptical.

 

Oh, dear ... !

Possibly back to the drawing-board, then .... 

[Duke Wellington]

3 minutes ago, Windowpane said:

Oh, dear ... !

Possibly back to the drawing-board, then .... 

There is a news article today saying someone has managed to translate some of it.

It is written in the language of the ancient Aragonese - https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/the-mysterious-voynich-manuscript-has-finally-been-decoded/

[Ell]

nickpelling strongly disagrees that the manuscript code has been cracked: http://ciphermysteries.com/2017/11/10/gerard-cheshire-vulgar-latin-siren-call-polyglot

[Will Due]

 

Medieval "Voynich code" finally cracked by Bristol academic

http://flip.it/fWh_Gc

 

 

[Wistman]

                                 

[Kenemet]

2 hours ago, Windowpane said:

 

Oh, dear ... !

Possibly back to the drawing-board, then .... 

I think so.  Nick Pelling's article hit most of what I found squidgy about the paper: http://ciphermysteries.com/2017/11/10/gerard-cheshire-vulgar-latin-siren-call-polyglot ... and I admit that I'm no linguist.  But if I can find that much to object to, someone who's a medievalist and a linguist could probably find even more holes in it.

As you well know, having a PhD in one area does not make one an omniscient scholar of all possible fields.  Here we have someone announcing that they've cracked a code after only two weeks of study... and while there are indeed people that brilliant, you need more than two weeks worth of study in a field to grasp the depths of it.

 

[Windowpane]

4 minutes ago, Kenemet said:

I think so.  Nick Pelling's article hit most of what I found squidgy about the paper: http://ciphermysteries.com/2017/11/10/gerard-cheshire-vulgar-latin-siren-call-polyglot ... and I admit that I'm no linguist.  But if I can find that much to object to, someone who's a medievalist and a linguist could probably find even more holes in it.

As you well know, having a PhD in one area does not make one an omniscient scholar of all possible fields.  Here we have someone announcing that they've cracked a code after only two weeks of study... and while there are indeed people that brilliant, you need more than two weeks worth of study in a field to grasp the depths of it.

 

What annoys me is that the BBC blithely posted the story ...

[Windowpane]

Someone else has just found the following article:

"No, someone hasn’t cracked the code of the mysterious Voynich manuscript"

[Ozymandias]

So much for academic rigour! I see Bristol University has published a retraction of their earlier announcement that Cheshire had solved the problem of the Voynich MS. 

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2019/may/voynich-manuscript.html 

Despite clearly not knowing what a diphthong is Cheshire's article was read and accepted in certain quarters where one would expect higher standards. What is the world coming to?

[Princess Serenity]

I don't think anyone would ever "crack the code" to be honest. :/ 

[Timothy]

On 4/28/2019 at 5:15 AM, Nikolai21 said:

"Dear" Timothy and Jaylemurph.

You told me about your level of education, thinking and upbringing. Unfortunately, all this was not enough for you to say anything about the method of deciphering the manuscript of Voynich and the results obtained. In this case, it's not just about negligent attitude to the lessons. Your upbringing was also not given enough attention. The first is a consequence of the second. As for the lost civilization. I recommend that you read the encyclopedia "Britannica" 1771 edition. From it you will learn that at that time there was the largest Empire, which was called "great Tartary". A little bit about yourself. I'm not a historian. I'm a radio engineer. History is my hobby. I'm not even comfortable teaching you history. I ask you not to comment on my materials from now on. It's insulting to me.

Loved your scathing reply and uncanny knowledge of my negligent upbringing. It seems you've failed though.

Are you a big enough person to realise your shortcomings? Or must we highlight them further?

What's happened, why are people not supporting your code-cracking skills now?

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/05/sorry-it-looks-like-a-researcher-didnt-just-crack-the-voynich-manuscript-after-all/

Edited May 22, 2019 by Timothy
Edit: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/05/sorry-it-looks-like-a-researcher-didnt-just-crack-the-voynich-manuscript-after-all/

[Timothy]

14 hours ago, Princess Serenity said:

I don't think anyone would ever "crack the code" to be honest. :/ 

Well that's the beautiful thing: We don't know!

Is it an actual comprehensible text, or gibberish?

[Alchopwn]

I remember reading an article that I can no longer find that suggested that the Voynich Manuscript was a reproduction of an earlier work, and that it was written in a Syriac script, but the language in use was Old Romney, which is an all-but-extinct language.  This would place the work as part of the Hindu Diaspora from around 1000AD when the Muslims began their atrocity campaign in India, and the use of Syriac would not be out of place as that was part of the migration route for refugees.

[jaylemurph]

So a group of Gypsies up and decided to use a script unrelated to their own language, from an entirely different language family? 

And the first attestation of any Romani language isn’t for five centuries after 1000 CE.

This theory depends on lots of suppositions that don’t make sense, I think.

—Jaylemurph 

[Dynamo X]

Just for the record, there is Keele University in Stoke on Trent, England.  Is, or has there ever been a Gordon Ragg  positioned at that particular Uni? 

[Mello_]

Voynich is just one of many dechiper texts and I actually cant belive that we have total media blackout about others similar texts. As someone wants to dumb peeps.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

My personal theory based precisely on no evidence is that the Voynich Manuscript is the literary equivalent of the Man from Taured. It fell here through a hole from a parallel universe. 

[Mello_]

38 minutes ago, Sir Wearer of Hats said:

My personal theory based precisely on no evidence is that the Voynich Manuscript is the literary equivalent of the Man from Taured. It fell here through a hole from a parallel universe. 

Thats why we have many chiper texts in history. They are from different dimensions. Many universe. Why Voynich caught attention and others didnt I can really tell. Total media blackout.

[jaylemurph]

It’s /still/ just a very specific kind of Renaissance joke. There’s no real content to translate, just saps who want there to be. 
 

Hence the joke. 

—Jaylemurph 

[Mello_]

Well I noticed one paper where botanists recognized some plants. And on other hand on guy try to break a chipher. And they both got Paprika. I was thinking wow, I feel now stupid even before reading it. So all that noise about Voynich this Voynich that...resources spent to investigate it...and we got Paprika! 

Edited November 26, 2019 by Mello_

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

36 minutes ago, jaylemurph said:

It’s /still/ just a very specific kind of Renaissance joke. There’s no real content to translate, just saps who want there to be. 
 

Hence the joke. 

—Jaylemurph 

Wasn’t there a band who wrote a nonsense album with the intent of p***ing off the sort of people who examine all songs for hidden reasons? I’m thinking the Eagles or someone like that.

[Piney]

58 minutes ago, Sir Wearer of Hats said:

Wasn’t there a band who wrote a nonsense album with the intent of p***ing off the sort of people who examine all songs for hidden reasons? I’m thinking the Eagles or someone like that.

The Beatles? 

Hey @acute  which group did this??? 

[acute]

9 minutes ago, Piney said:

Hey @acute  which group did this??? 

EDIT:  I've just thought of Secret Messages by the Electric Light Orchestra.

Edited November 27, 2019 by acute

[Piney]

11 minutes ago, acute said:

EDIT:  I've just thought of Secret Messages by the Electric Light Orchestra.

That's the bunny!!! 

[+DieChecker]

On 11/26/2019 at 3:08 PM, jaylemurph said:

It’s /still/ just a very specific kind of Renaissance joke. There’s no real content to translate, just saps who want there to be. 
 

Hence the joke. 

—Jaylemurph 

I've always thought it was an artwork, and not a real book.