Hacking at the Voynich manuscript - Side notes 016 Attempts to unscramble the anagrams on page f116v Last edited on 1998-11-20 00:00:18 by stolfi THE MICHITON PARAGRAPH Page 116v, the last page in the Voynich manuscript, contains only three lines of text in Latin characters. The handwriting matches a German alphabet from the 1400's found by Rene. The reading is quite uncertain; for working purposes, we will use the following "conventional" reading, which take sinto account Rene's alphabet and the traditional readings: 1: michiton + oladabas + multos + te + tær cerc + portas + M ++ 2: six + marix + morix + vix + abta + ma+ria + 3: valde ubiey so nim gas mich o The words are in clear Voynichese characters. The final "o" may well be a vellum defect. The last line has also been read as 3': valsch ubrey so nimm geis mich o THE SCRIBBLED NOTE THEORY The simplest theory is that the whole paragraph is a plaintext note, such as a dedication or explanation, written when the manuscript was about to change hands. In this theory, the difficulty of the note would be due to the use of some informal dialect or pidgin, or perhaps to imperfect knowledge of the language by its author. I used Altavista in an attempt to discover possible languages and meanings for these words. Separate files report a summary and more details about these queries. THE EXORCISM THEORY Jacques Guy observed that the crosses in lines 1 and 2 could represent signs-of-the-cross, as in old Catholic missals. The name "maria" (with an extra cross in the middle) further reinforces this suggestion. There are also vague but sugegstive echos between the "michiton" paragraph and certain Marianist hymns and prayers: Ave, Regina coelorum, ave, Domina angelorum, salve, radix, salve, porta, ...ix porta ex qua mundo lux est orta. ...ux Gaude, Virgo gloriosa, super omnes speciosa, vale, o valde decora, o valde et pro nobis Christum exora. Regina coeli, lætare, alleluia, lætare == tær terc ? quia quem meruisti portare, porta... alleluia, ressurrexit sicut dixit, alleluia, ..xit ...xit ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia. Thus these lines may be some sort of "exorcism" --- e.g. an invocation of divine protection against the evil nature of the book; or an attempt by the note's author to dissociate himself from the book contents. Another possibility, suggested by these echoes, is that the "michiton" paragraph was written by someone who was trying to memorize, understand, note down, or remember some Latin prayer. (Anyone who has tried to write down the lyrics from a recorded song knows that the result is often an incoherent scribble --- just what the "michiton" text appears to be.) However this theory does not easily explain the words... THE DOUBLE TRANSLATION HYPOTHESIS Perhaps the third line is an aborted attempt to translate the first two lines from some flavor of Latin into some germanic language: 1: michiton oladabas multos te tar cerc portas 3: OROR SHEEY valde ubiey so nim gas mich 3': OROR SHEEY valsch ubrey so nimm geis mich Latin(oid) German(ish) ------------------- -------------------- michi mich "to me" "to me" dabas gas (gab?) "you gave"? "gave" multos valde "many" te ??? "you, to you" portas ubrey (ubreichen?) "you bring" "to convey, to present?" These translations are terribly strained, but that does not automatically discredit the theory, since the very layout of the text implies that the author was struggling to understand the Latin text and/or write the German one. Walde = forest ubreichen = to convey, to present? = portas ubrennen = run over, squash gar = ready, done gar nicht = absolutely no Geiss = she-goat nimmer = never The "oror sheey" words pose a problem for this theory. Those words imply that the author of line 3 was versed in Voynichese. But, by this theory, the author of line 1 must have been another person. So how comes he wrote on that line THE ANAGRAM HYPOTHESIS A natural conjecture us that these lines are anagrams. Note the characteristic "Scrabble end-game" pattern: an incongruous mixture of words, quasi-words, and nonsense characters. Note also that the loose letters cannot be easily inserted into the other words, or rearranged to form valid words. Finally, the length and location of these inscriptions are consistent with them being anagrams. Anagrams were highly popular in the 1500's as a low-tech cypher. It seems they were mostly used as (1) riddles, meant to be solved by clever recipients; often as a friendly contest of wits. (2) cabalistic elucubrations, where a spurious anagram of a name or phrase is supposed to reveal its "true" meaning; (3) knowledge certificates, where ... LOOKING UP While waiting for a long compilation to finish, I tried to look up the f116v words (to the extent we can read them) in Altavista. The Solution didn't show up, of course, but there were many intriguing hits: [This is mostly garbage...] Notation: | tall letter * short letter ~ sort letter, or nothing ? any letter, or nothing N "n" or "m" (by Agatha Christie? 8-) Y "n" or "y" Attempts to form names with the "michiton" lines: michiton oladabas multos te tccr cerc portas matteo ricci macao abccdehllnooprrssstttu ro!eriuos bacconis aaacccdehllmmoprsttttt iohan!!s marcus marci abcccdeelloooprsttttt anto!ius ascham abccccdeeillmoooprrrstttt iacobus horic! tepen!c aaaccdllmmoorrsstttt athanasius circer abcccdellmmooooprstttt michiton oladabas multos te tccr cerc portas michiton oladabas multos te tccr cerc portas Ditto for the "valde" line: val|*~ ubre* so nimm g**~ Nich o iohane m**us m*rci *Nbglov|~~ iacobus hori ****Neglmmnv|~~ roge* bacon ***Nhiilmmsuv|~~ val|*~ ubre* so nimm g**~ Nich o val|*~ ubre* so nimm g**~ Nich o valsch/valde ubren/ubrey so nimm gar/geis nich/mich o valSCH ubreN so nimm gAR Mich o valSCH ubreN so nimm gAR Mich o valSCH ubreN so nimm gAR Mich o valSCH ubreN so nimm gAR Mich o ioanNes MorcuS mARCi vlHbmgh Rogerius bACconiS valHNmmMh rogeR bacon vlSHuNsimmCAMih valde ubrey so nimm geis mich o valde ubrey so nimm geis mich o valde /ubrey so nimm gar/geis nich/mich o