The Voynich Manuscript: A Research Compilation

[NobodySpecial268]

As I mentioned in another post the images might provide clues that can help with the written parts and the people in the VM do look have a similar look with posture and features from Cathar art, if a bit less polished. I have no real background in the religious art of the time though and it may be ubiquitous across the western world. I think it would take a real art historian to spot the differences because it all looks sort of similar to me.

Cathar history

They practiced Gnosticism with elements drawn from various sects going back to Zoroastrianism. That fits the general sort of beliefs that most of the alchemist of that time we're leaning toward. It wouldn't be at all out of character for their herbalist beliefs to involve nature beings as part of the lore. That explains the language as well, which would be only accessible to others from the same "school".

You are probably correct there, and it would not surprise me to see a Russian influence there too. From the link it seems the Cathars are extinct, or at least underground.  So the Voynich text may be a language of theirs.

As you know, this is exactly the sort of book we've expected to find attached to the lost book mentioned in The Vertical Plane, though we know the author leaned more toward gnostic Catholicism.

Yes, the historical worldwide destruction of libraries by the church and others is a consideration here.  Perhaps the Voyanich is one of the surviving books.  If one could look through time what a  story that would tell. Especially if such libraries could be accessed in some way.  The Vertical Plane (a book by Ken Webster where messages through time appear on a computer screen.) is an interesting case and perhaps relevant to the contents of the Voynich book.  Though probably worthy of a thread of it's own.

Getting to the bottom of the translation is out of my depth, but I do enjoy the mystery. The plants are not any that I recognize and I did a bit of searching for those before as I have a fair bit of knowledge on wild edibles and medicinal plants. They look sort of like other things, but it seems nobody has discovered real world species that match. That could lend further support for your ideas on what they were recording. The plant world is very large though, so who knows if they were regional plants that either haven't been widely documented or have become exceedingly rare or become extinct.

Aye, the illustrations may yield more information than the language.

I lean toward plants that don't exist and the authors being in touch with entities of some kind, either via their religious practices or just as part of their traditional lore. The plant images themselves may even have codes hidden in their structure. Numerology, perhaps, or symbolism related to their beliefs.

I think it is simpler than that and practical in nature.  Even the fold out drawings that look like mysterious alchemical cosmology are probably just a drawing of how stuff works, like the little women. It shouldn't be hard to use those as one would use a road map.

As pointed out by FCD, vellum and the materials for writing were not exactly something everyone had laying around. A certain amount of wealth or the access to resources was required for them to even have it. It would be a really big expense to give to a crazy person to scribble on.

In the OP there was reference to a few erased characters to indicate someone took a lot of care. It wasn't long ago that people wrote entire letters in what would be called calligraphic writing (copperplate). My grandfather could do that. He was also a clerk for an illegal starting price bookie (horse racing). He took great pride in the fact that the ledger was all in fountain pen calligraphic writing without even one single mistake.

People took more care in the old days.