decryptions of the voynich manuscript

Author

Methods & Findings

NEWBOLD (1928) [1]

Microscopic Script Analysis

Claim that the VMS was written by Roger Bacon (?1214-?1292) in Latin in a microscopic greek or latin shorthand and encrypted in a simple substitution cipher with multiple plain text equivalents. [2]

Falsification of Newbolds shorthand cipher theory. It was only based on crackings in the ink on the vellum. [3]

Summary of Newbold's Methods [4]

Deciphering the Latin texts

1. Syllabification: Double all but the first and last letters of each word, and divide the product into biliteral groups or symbols.

2. Translation: Translate these symbols into their alphabetic values.

3. Reversion: Change the alphabetic values to the phonetic values, by the use of the reversion alphabet.

4. Recomposition: Rearrange the letters in order, and thus recompose the true text.

Reading the cryptogram or shorthand texts

1. Transliteration: Identify the shorthand characters and transliterate them in order.

2. Syllabification: Double all but he first and the last character, for there is no word-division; and arrange in biliteral symbols.

3. Commutation: In any symbol where the second letter is a commuting letter, namely c o n m u t a and q, change the prior letter by the conversion alphabet; where the first letter is a commuting letter, change the second by the reversion alphabet; where both are commuting letters, change both in the ways just stated.

4. Translation: Assign to the commuted symbols their alphabetic values.

5. Reversion: Change alphabetic values to phonetic values.

6. Recomposition: Rearrange the letters in order, as with the cipher Latin.

FEELY (1943)

Script Analysis and Letter Frequency Analysis of a number of folios printed as illustrations in NEWBOLD (1928) [5]

Claim that the VMS was written by Roger Bacon (?1214-?1292) in Latin and encrypted in a simple substitution cipher. [6]

STRONG (1945)

STRONG & McCAWLEY (1947)

Script Analsysis based on a number of folios printed as illustrations in NEWBOLD (1928) and illustrations in other published works concerning the VMS [7]

Claim that the VMS was written by Anthony Askam (...) in medieval English and encrypted in a "peculiar double system of arithmetical progressions of a multiple alphabet"[8]. "The details of his cryptoanalytic work and his method of decipherment, however, have apparently never been explained, and remain problematical." [9]

CHILD (1976)

Trial and Error Analysis of words and word endings. No description of methods.

Theory that the VMS is not a cipher or code but a text in a medieval North Germanic dialect [10]

EPHRON (1977)

Theory that Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) is the author of the VMS [11]

STOJKO (1978)

Encoding of Ukrainian [12]

LEVITOV (1987) [13]

Encoding of Flemisch Creole. [14]

NEWSOM (1995)

Theory that Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639) wrote the VMS. [15]

GIBSON (2003)

No description of methods.

Theory that the VMS is written in kind of Nabatatean Script

BANASIK (2004-06-01)

SAZONOV (2005)

Analysis of  stars section. No clear description of methods.

"The star setion (f102 - f116) is a calendar of 365 (366) days, starting from the 1-st of January. Each star correspons to a day."

small stars or excentric stars could mark equinoxes

CHILD (2007)

No description of methods.

Theory that the script is in an Germanic idiom or language. Paper includes a proposal of the phonologic values of some letters [16]

LANDMANN (2007)

No description of methods.

Theory that the script is "completely normal Latin writings with some old-German letters"[17] and that the text is dealing with spacecraft, space origin of man and germanic mythology.

TEAGUE (2009)

Comparative analysis of the proposed label of Aldebaran on folio 68r3 with similar labels on other folios.

Based on the proposed label of Aldebaran on folio 68r3 it is claimed that the script is enciphered vertically by use of an "Magic Rectangle". [18]

BAX (2013)

Visual examination of f25v and f116v

Interpretation of some symbols and words as semantically empty discourse markers separating out sense units.

Existence of borrow words from Arabic or Hebrew.

Proposed structure of the text on f25v (based on the proposed structure of the text f116v):

1. nature of the preparation and its medicinal use.

2. instruction, with verbs in the second person

3. ingredients, in the form of nouns and numbers

4. Further instructions with noun and verbs

Proposed decodings

COMEGYS (2013)

Comparative analysis of the script and  the illustrations of the VMS with mesoamerican artwork

"Provenance of the manuscript lies in early colonial Mexico" [19]

"The Voynich script is apparently a local variant of the Courtesan hand, the national script of Spain and her colonies in the XVIth century adopted by indigenious Mexican scribes. [...] The language, by inference, used must be Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs with Spanish loan words." [20]

TUCKER & TALBERT (2013)

Botanical Analysis of the illustrations

No description of decoding/transliteration method

The origin of the VMS could be in "Nueva España between 1521 and ca. 1576" [21] and the underlying language of the VMS could obtain "Loan-words for the plant and animal names (...) from Classical Nahuatl, Spanish, Taino, and Mixtec. The main text, however, seems to be in an extinct dialect of Nahuatl from central Mexico, possibly Morelos or Puebla." [22]

"We had to face the facts that (so far) there was no clear, solid chain of evidence of its existence prior to ca. 1576-1612." [23]

some of the characters of the VMS (t, s, p, m, ü) script are similar to some of the characters in the Codex Osuna (1563-1566) and the Codex Mendoza (1541/1542).

some plant illustrations in the VMS are very similar to plant illustrations in the Codex Cruz-Badianus (1552)

Transliterations:

KELLNER (2014)

No description of methods.

Script is in Latin

BALANDIN & AVERYANOV (2014)

Comparative analysis of the illustrations and the accompanying labels.

"The two words around her are: 'darseBar' and 'olkes'. 'darolsy' and 'darseBar' have the same root. Thus 'dar' denotes feminine." [27]

Theory that the text was written by Leonardo da Vinci in an artificial language called Lojban due to his contact with time travellers. [28]

"The whole text of the manuscript is written in a variation of Lojban logical language adapted for beginners." [29]

BAX (2014)

Linguistic and phonetic analysis of possible plant names

Theory that the script shares some features with Abjad and/or Abugida scripts and the underlying language could be of middle or near east origin.

"The evidence shows that the manuscript is not a hoax, and is probably an explanatory treatise on nature. The script was possibly devised to encode a previously unwritten language or dialect, perhaps by a small community which later died out or disappeared." [30]

some vowel are omitted, perhaps those in unstressed position (like in ‘Abjad’ languages)

some vowels are indicated in the script, possibly when long or in a stressed position

some consonants (e.g. [r]) appear to vary in shape according to the position of the word in a sentence, and also their position in a word. "This might indicate that they have a different inherent vowel, in the manner of some Abugida scripts [in which the consonant is understood to have an inclusive vowel], either before the consonant (e.g. /er/) or after it (/re/), which may be indicated by the varied shapes." [31]

Proposed decodings