Voynich Manuscript or Book of Dunstan coding and decoding methods
📝 Abstract
The Voynich manuscript is the book initially dated as fifteenth century book. It written using specific and smart coding methods. This article describes the methods how it was analyzed and how coding keys were found. The last manuscript page decoding. Correlation of the last VMS page content with John Dee notes dedicated to 12th of December 1587. The proof that the Voynich manuscript and the “Book of Dunstan” - the same manuscripts. This article contains Engish version(pages 1-86) and equal Russian (pages 87 - 192) version. The new chapter (#13) is dedicated to Christian symbolics in VMS as well as for the solution of the riddle of 3 queens in astrological part and the riddle of diagram with 2 cancers (red and white) as additional proof of John Dee authorship of manuscript.
💡 Analysis
The Voynich manuscript is the book initially dated as fifteenth century book. It written using specific and smart coding methods. This article describes the methods how it was analyzed and how coding keys were found. The last manuscript page decoding. Correlation of the last VMS page content with John Dee notes dedicated to 12th of December 1587. The proof that the Voynich manuscript and the “Book of Dunstan” - the same manuscripts. This article contains Engish version(pages 1-86) and equal Russian (pages 87 - 192) version. The new chapter (#13) is dedicated to Christian symbolics in VMS as well as for the solution of the riddle of 3 queens in astrological part and the riddle of diagram with 2 cancers (red and white) as additional proof of John Dee authorship of manuscript.
📄 Content
1
Voynich Manuscript (The “Book of
Dunstan”) coding
and decoding methods.
Alexander G. Ulyanenkov, alex.ulyanenkov@protonmail.ch
© 2016 Alexander Ulyanenkov (Александр Ульяненков). All rights (inc. also code location,
identification, decoding, translation etc.) – reserved. (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Abstract: The Voynich manuscript (VMS) is the book dated as 15th - 16th century, written using specific and smart coding methods. This article describes the methods how it was analyzed and how coding keys were found. It also shows the VMS author’s method of coding.
Keywords: Voynich manuscript, code, codes, coding, decoding, decipher, VMS, key, Kelley, Kelly, Dee, John Dee, Trithemij, Trithemius, Dunstan, Book of Dunstan.
- Introduction
This is an ancient manuscript, familiar to many researchers
of medieval riddles under the names “Voynich Manuscript” (also
known in abbreviation – VMS, which I will use in the article),
it was also called “The book, which no one can read,” because
neither the language used for writing it or its author, nor
place, nor even the date of writing was unknown.
Its current name the manuscript received from the name of one of the last owners - Michael Voynich (1865 -1930) - Polish revolutionary (pseudonym “Wilfred”), bibliophile and antiquarian, husband of well known writer Ethel Lilian Voynich.
Voynich acquired the mysterious manuscript for his collection
in 1912. And although that did not affected the success in
deciphering the manuscript, but finally influenced its future
fate - in 1959 Voynich family heirs sold it to bookseller Hans
Kraus, who in 1969 gave it to Yale University Benecke
rare book library , where it is still being held.
2
On the official website of Benecke library of rare books of
Yale University [1] the manuscript description is the
following:
Call Number: Beinecke MS 408 (Request the physical item to view in our reading room)
Alternate Title: Voynich Manuscript
Date: [ca. 1401-1599?]
Genres: Manuscripts
Botanical illustrations
Astronomical charts
Drawings
Hand coloring
Illustrations
Type of Resource: mixed material
Description: Parchment. ff. 102 (contemporary foliation, Arabic numerals; not every leaf foliated) + i (paper), including 5 double-folio, 3 triple-folio, 1 quadruple-folio and 1 sextuple-folio folding leaves. 225 x 160 mm. Abstract: Scientific or magical text in an unidentified language, in cipher, apparently based on Roman minuscule characters.
Physical Description: 1 vol. color illustrations 23 x 16 cm. (binding) The main text and illustrations look like image on Fig.1 (all the images of VMS pages were taken from VMS web-page of the library of rare books Benecke at Yale University [1])
The most of plants on VMS pages are not exists in the forms represented on VMS pages.
3
Fig. 1 The typical VMS image of page containing plant (VMS page 11v in accordance to the library page identification).
- Initial approach and assumptions for the VMS analysis.
- No stereotypes - After reading some corresponding to VMS
articles the decision was to start from “zero” – to try
to avoid any stereotypes which can finally lead to
4
critical errors. Because of that you will not find a lot of citing links in this article.
- Trust you own eyes - what you can see from the initial VMS data:
- VMS is well structured (you can see botanical,
astronomical,
anatomical and pharmaceutical data)- something similar
to Avicenna’s Canon - it consists of encrypted and non-encrypted text
- it contains allegory images
- it contains Arabic numerals
- Written by clear and stable handwriting and using at least 4
different handwriting fonts – 1x stenography like (for main
text), 1x Latin gothic (in Astronomical part for zodiac
constellations marking), 1x italic (for ciphering), 1x –
ancient (probably “black English” like used for hornbooks -
also for ciphering) - all are present on the 4r page (in accordance with library page identification). - It consist of the text in different colors
- VMS is written on most expensive type of parchment
In more details - the manuscript is visually divided onto the following sections:
Botanical - this is one of the most voluminous chapters. It contains the description and the drawings of plants, the vast majority of which can’t be recognized even approximately.
Astronomical - contains charts on which the symbols of the sun, the moon, stars and zodiac constellations are used. Zodiacal part consists of 12 related images, among which there are no signs of Capricorn and Aquarius, but twice repeated signs of Aries and Taurus. In addition, the zodiacal section contains signatures in Gothic letters in the Latin alphabet, which are relatively easy to read and which relates to the corresponding months.
Biological - a chart with allegorical images of human o
This content is AI-processed based on ArXiv data.