Page f116v
[f116r] [index] [NONE]
Identification
Title: "Last page"
Page: f116v = TX (Rene) = p234 (Stolfi)
Folio: f116
Panels: f116v
Bifolio: bT1 = f103+f116
Quire: T (Rene) = XVIII (Beinecke)
Shown in Plate 15 of Tiltman's article
[item 10 in Jim Reeds's bibliography].
Attributes
Language: ? (Currier)
Hand: ? (Currier)
Subsets: S (Rene), xxx (Stolfi)
Colors: ??? (Reeds)
Description
This page is blank except for four lines of text at the top
(numbered "0" to "3") and some drawings at the top left corner.
The text is rougly justified against the left margin, and ragged
on the right. Line 0 is flush against the top edge of the vellum,
lines 1-3 lie about 1/2 inch below it, with normal interline
spacing. Except for two Voynichese words at the beginning of line
3, the text is written in a peculiar script ("Michitonese") that
seems to be intermediate between ordinary (Latin) alphabet and the
VMs script. The handwriting is irregular and not very readable.
The letters in line 0 is somewhat smaller but apparently in the
same handwriting as the rest. Rene reports [07 Apr 1999] that
the ink is similar to that used in the rest of the manuscript.
The area next to the upper left corner is heavily stained and
wrinkled. There is a large hole in the vellum, 2-3mm wide, near
the upper left corner, about 2cm from the edges. Lines 1 and 2
of the text start right next to the hole.
In the dark region between the hole and the left edge, roughly
aligned with text line #2, there is the drawing of a four-legged
animal, resembling a dog with round ears, short hais, and a fat
but pointed tail. The animal is facing left, with the snout right
against the vellum's edge.
Below the animal is a female nymph (with breasts), naked except for some
simple hat. She is facing seems to be seated on a sloping surface,
right at the edge of the dark area, with arms stretched sideways
and down.
Above the anumal there is a drawing of an unidentified bulbous object.
There is a large question mark at the right margin, aligned with
line 3 but well beyound its end. It shows up in Newbold's reproduction.
In one reproduction of this page there is a very faint line of modern-style
digits below part of the first line. Each letter (but not the "+"
signs) has a single digit below it; except that one can see also
the numerals "10" and "13", each squeezed under a single letter.
(Part of the line is unreadable, so "11" and "12" could be there
too.) However these digits were probably scribbled on the copy,
since they do not show up in Newbold's reproduction.
Comments
THE SCRIPT
Jacques Guy [] mentions the Michitonese script resembles that of a
1460 German manuscript in Latin reproduced in [1, p.78]. In that
sample, there are letters that look like Voynich 8, but they stand
for "d" not "s". Final "s" is written like the modern "es-zet".
Jacques [29 Mar 1996] also suggest that "ct" coudl be a "t" as
found in Benaventan and Visigothic manuscripts, and "9" could
be "us".
Rene Zandbergen [27 Mar 1996] confirms similarity of Michitonese
with another German manuscript from 1440, in German [2]. In that
sample too `d' was written as `8', `so' was written "just like in
the VMS(?)", and `Venus' was written `Ven9'. He adds later [28 Oct
98] that the f116v text "looks more like a German hand than
anything else. Not Kircher's, not Marci's but earlier."
Some of the "Michitonese" letters seem purposefully distorted to
resemble Voynichese letters.
Denis Mardle [19 Apr 97] notes that the Michitonese writing is
"not unlike" the small extraneous writing on f17r.
Stolfi [01 Nov 98] notes that the Michitonese script resembles
that of the "month names" in the center of the "zodiac" diagrams.
For example, the last character of line 1 is similar to the first
character of the Pisces label (f70v2). If the two sets are indeed
by the same hand, then the month names give valuable clues on the
Michitonese alphabet.
THE TEXT
Before seeing what the text actually looks like, Stolfi [5 Feb
1998] conjectured that the text could be an anagram, given that it
resembles a "Scrabble end-game". Unfortunately anagrams of that
size are practically unsolvable without a clue.
Common opinion is that the f116v text is scribblings by a would-be
decipherer. However this theory does not seem compatible with the
"ordinary" appearance of the text, and does not explain the
normal-looking Voynichese words ("oror sheey" in EVA) inserted in
the text.
Rene [5 Feb 1998] conjectures that the "would-be decipherer" is
the same person who wrote the character tables on f1r. Rene also
remarks that one can exclude Dee, Kelley, Askham, Ricci, and
Bacon, since the third line is very likely German.
Andras Kornai [25 Nov 1998] says that says that "-d" is the 2nd
person posessive ending in Hungarian, but the text does not seem
to be Hungarian.
Newbold [1921] reads the first line, rather arbitrarily, as "michiton
oladabas multos te tccr cerc portas" (and ignores the other three).
After many arbitrary manipulations he gets a "cipher key" out of it.
Brumbaugh reads the text as "(...)con olada ba", interprets
"con...ba" as an anagram of "bacon", and turns "olada" into
'rodgd' by adding 3 to each letter. Brumbaugh then says "rodgd"
means "roger"; but he concludes that this evidence was planted by
Dee/Kelly. (Reported by Rene [2 Feb 1998].)
Jim Reeds [15 Apr 94] quotes Erwin Panofsky [4] who reads the
second line as "so nim geismi[l]ch o", meaning, "... take goats
milk, or..."
Jacques Guy [] remarks that the the word that Newbold and others
read "valst" or "valsch" is actually "valde" ("strongly, very") in
the 1460 german manuscript [1, p.78].
Rene, tongue in cheek [15 Apr 1998], notes that the mapping
{ol->d, m->p, ch->e, d->b, b->n} turns "michiton oladabas" into
"pieiton d abanas", i.e. "Pietro d'Abano" modulo transcriber
errors.
Rene [07 Feb 96], looking at D'Imperio's photocopy, thinks that
there might be at least one (unreadable) letter before "michiton".
Rene [13 Mar 1996] noted that the text begins with "mich" and ends
with "nich", suggesting it was written by "MICHael voyNICH".
Rene [5 Feb 1998] notes that some Voynichese words are similar to
"oladabas", e.g. the label on the NE corner of f67v2 ("otararain").
Dennis [28 Oct 1998] suggests "otardar" from f67r1 (outer circle,
at 11:00).
Rene [28 Oct 1998] also suggests f76v.P.19 ("orar.sheey") as a
possible source for line 3. Stolfi observes that there is also
an "aror.sheey" on f104r.P.28.
Stolfi [] remarks that "Olazabal" or "Olazábal" is a common mame
in Spanish-speaking areas, probably of Basque origin.
THE DRAWINGS
Rene [18 Sep 1997] thinks the animal looks like a horse. Stolfi []
thought it could be a dog.
Rene also observes [] that the nymph on f116v looks very much like the
"dead" nymph on page ???---which also has extraneous writing, possibly
by the same hand.
References
[1] Joyce Whalley "The Art of Calligraphy -- Western Europe and America"
Bloomsbury Books, London 1980
[2] Manuscript Palat. Lat. 1369. Cited in [3].
[3] Fritz Saxl, book about astronomical and astrological images in medieval
manuscripts.
[4] Erwin Panofsky, in a letter to W. F. Friedman, 19 March 1954,
now in Marshall Library.
[f116r] [index] [NONE]