On Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 9:49:25 PM UTC+2, Dr. HotSalt wrote:
>
> I am quite happy to take credit/blame for what I write but I prefer not to
> be misquoted (Franz!).
Here is the version on my website, 2009/14. Correct me if I should have
misquoted you. In my language I would say müesti, a subjonctive of must,
far less conclusive than the hammer bang of the English must. And I achieved
my transliteration not quite in the way I just told Peter; t'was a long time
ago:
Francis Bacon, author of the Voynich manuscript ? © 2009 by Franz Gnaedinger,
www.seshat.ch
Foreword May 2014. The vellum of the Voynich manuscript was recently dated to around 1430, while the inks could not be dated. In principle it is possible that Bacon got a stack of old virgin vellum from an Italian monastery on which he wrote the MS.
H.R. SantaColoma, on his great page
www.santa-coloma.net Drebbel/Voynich theory, links the Voynich manuscript to Francis Bacon’s Nova Atlantis, an utopian island west of Peru, and interprets the circular drawings via cilia as they may have been observed through a microscope fabricated by the Danish alchemist and inventor Cornelius Drebbel at the begin of the 17th century. And in an online forum one Dr. HotSalt wrote that the five vertical vents at the top of 77r could represent the four classical elements plus aether (the quinta essentia introduced by Aristotle). Using this hint I transcribed four words that may name the four elements water earth fire air in heightened, energized and organic form:
Water akuvà – combining Latin aqua ‘water’ with Italian uva ‘grape’, the latter evoking vine and wine, Mass wine being transformed into the blood of Christ in the Catholic church. We have then a triple liquid, water wine blood, explaining the triple beam spouting out of the first vertical vent on the left side
Earth akasl – combining Latin ager ‘field’ and German Acker ‘field’, an old form being achar, while akka was the Indo-European earth goddess (Julius Pokorny) with s for sun and the solar metal gold and l for luna ‘moon’ and the lunar metal silver, both concealed inside the earth
Fire akan – combining Latin accendo ‘I kindle, set on fire, light’ and German Vulkan ‘volcano’, a highly energized form of fire, suiting the red cloud emerging from the second vertical vent from the right side
Air vivà – combining Old English wawan ‘to blow’ and English wind with Latin viva ‘may he or she live’, thus denoting the air in the lungs, organic air, breath and breathing
The six words under the long tube at the top of 77r from left to right: anlis akuvà akasl vivà sasen, and the names of the three women and of the man, in clockwise direction: Akaneroà Akivà Vasives Vakuvà.
I believe that the Voynich manuscript was written and drawn by Francis Bacon in 1622, as a private sequel to the highly successful Nova Atlantis, written in a pseudo-Polynesian idiom allowing page-filling automatic writing, and drawn in a deliberate retro-style honoring Francis Bacon’s ancestor Roger Bacon. The text is gibberish but makes allusions. Here is the first paragraph of 77r:
Panveseroan dalan iuà dapiuvà dapiuvà vàniuu anluvà nanà
kanivas inuà dalero dakuvà dalan ivà dalero iukuà sen
dakuuvà dalero ihuvà ian ihuvà ihuvà ihikiuà daluuvà akuuvà ian
sankuuvà daluuvà daluuvà ihuvero iuvà ihuvero ihuanan iuv
daluuvà danihuavà ihan kuvà iuvà nihuuvà daluvà dalen iuvà
daluvà ihuvà dakan ihuvà dalero ihuuà daluuvà niuvà nan
sihuvà dalero iuvà dalero ihuvà daniuuvà daluuvà nan
dakuvà dakuuvà daluvà ihuuvduà sero ihuukà daluuvà nan
vero iuuvà nihuà danasiuus ihiliuvà dan iuuvà dakero
daluuvà niuà nihuuà daluuvà daluuvà dales daluuà nero iua
dakero ihuan daluuvà daluuà dalero ihuuà daluvà daniuvà
iuvero ihuvà daluuvà daluvà daluuà iuvà aluvà dalà
ihualà dalero iuvà anihuà daluvà iuvà dalan
vero vanihas ipiuà npiuan ihues dalià
In line ten occurs the word danusiuus, perhaps a pseudo-Polynesian-Latin reference to the Danish alchemist and inventor Cornelius Drebbel. Among the gibberish are a few words that make sense, iuvà reminding of Latin iventus ‘youth’ and Italian giovane ‘young’, niuà reminding of new, and daluvà evoking Italian dall’uva. Francis Bacon may have dreamt of a magic herbal wine that may rejuvenate him, make him young again, give him new life, going along with the rejuvenating baths in Nova Atlantis and in the medieval imagination. The second paragraph of the text on 77r begins with akuvà meaning water wine blood (as explained above), then we have a line reading sero iuuan daluuvà daluuvà dalan which may be a melodic form of: I will be young again thanks to the magic wine from then on … But we also have vanin evoking vain, in vain, and in the first paragraph vanihas, vero vanihas, evoking Latin vanitas, vanity, true vanity …
In his main work Novum Organum Francis Bacon explains that spirits “less than air” are present in all tangible objects and cause alteration, quick or slow decay, but also, we may assume, healing and evolution, favorable changes. Herbs can be combined to healing infusions, why not also to a rejuvenating herbal wine? We just have to find out what plants and which parts thereof must be combined in such a way that their inherent spirits less than air do us the favor of making us young and lively again … The dwellers of New Atlantis combine various plants, and the many plants in the Voynich manuscript are combinations of existing plants. Francis Bacon may really have hoped to concoct a magic herbal wine of rejuvenation, but he also knew that his hope was in vain.
87r shows one of the many flowers in the Voynich manuscript, and the text reads:
Paenihihen ihuaipas àpiapiuasero akuaven sero
viuuilias iukà ikiaven àkuavero ipiuipià sàkà
kias akuuvà àluuvà ikiuavà luas ihiuuliuà servà
sasero dailias iuavas iliualuà ikiavà sasero
kas ihu luavero piuas ihua sa ihluavà sasero
àkuuaven ia luuavà ihàlansens iulan
sanihuas àsero ias iuasà dakà
sas ihaikiuà akuavà vian sasero
iha ikias iuaven ikiuavà dakà
Pihuavihà ven ihuu senven ihan envà
àihuuus iukià kuaves akiuan kailia
luas iliuà ihavà kauuuukà s iavà vero
vero ihan ikuà aluan iuas aluua vero
ihas iuan iuas iliuà sero dailiuan vero
àquuas ihuan viuuan
The last line may simply mean: water of youth and life.
What makes the Voynich manuscript exiting for me is the drawing on 77r, an amateurish but highly philosophical illustration of an early idea of evolution from microbes, a stack of paramecia on the left margin, to plants; the woman Akaneroà below, standing next to a tree trunk on a river bank, the trunk hollowed, filled with the deep blue water of life; and animals: the woman Akivà in the middle, next to her a strange animal composed of tubes and vents, evoking an armadillo (see also the real armadillo in the Voynich), its legs again symbolizing the four classical elements, its head aether, the irregular shape indicating change over time, the primeval animal evolving into all the various animals we know today, and the woman at the top representing the human world rooted in the animal kingdom. The woman named Vasives has her main root in the animal kingdom, plus four lateral roots in the spiritual world, while the man named Vakuvà has two strong roots in the spiritual world, probably symbolizing experimental and theoretical reasoning. The elements earth and water are on the female side, and the elements fire and air on the male side, according to the alchemistic understanding. We have a lot of old superstition, on the other hand we see biological science emerge from alchemy, a first idea of evolution that may even be reflected in the ever mutating pseudo-Polynesian idiom ... The page-filling automatic writing could well be an experiment in paleo-linguistics: how do words change and evolve when repeated over and over and over again?