Voynich MS - Note from the author

Dear visitor

If you want to contact me, you may find my contact information here.

I am not reflecting all updates to the site on this page, but I maintain the site quite regularly.

I prefer not to give undue attention to the ever increasing stream of proposed text solutions.

Latest news

A recent publication has finally shed light on where the Voynich MS was hidden until the time that Voynich was given the opportunity to acquire it. It was not Villa Mondragone. Full details are included here. Also the history page has been updated correspondingly.

Voynich MS Conference 2022

The University of Malta has organised an online Voynich MS conference on 30 Nov. and 1 Dec. 2022. The >>proceedings are available on-line. The original conference web site is >>here. For further information see also here. Material from the conference is gradually being incorporated in this web site. The notable new information about the sale of the Voynich MS to Rudolf is reflected in the history page.

On-going work

• There is considerable on-going work related to transliteration of the Voynich MS, especially concerning the existing transliteration files. These have been compared, and all have been converted into a single, common format, which allows processing of all files by the same tools. A superset of all transliteration alphabets has been defined, and is now introduced on a dedicated page. A new software tool (bitrans) is presented. The basics are explained on this page, which also has links to more detailed descriptions, mostly on this page. Links to all transliteration files are provided near the bottom of the first page. The terminology has been changed to use the more correct term 'transliteration' rather than 'transcription'.
• The new results of the palaeographic analysis of Lisa Fagin Davis are being integrated into the site, for example in handwriting of the MS. Her main papers appeared on 7 May 2020 and 1 December 2022.
• The biographies of the main players in the history of the MS are undergoing some revision. Karl Widemann has been added, while Barschius and Marci were already updated significantly before.
• The oldest known reference to the Voynich MS, namely the 1639 letter from Kircher to Moretus, was already digitised and published on this page in May 2016. A transcription and translation of the letter have been added.

Recently added pages

• A reasonably detailed explanation of the recent definition of a superset of all previous transliteration alphabets.
• Some initial results of Hidden Markov Modelling (HMM) applied to the Voynich MS text. This is still experimental and will be extended. An improved explanation of the HMM technique has been provided.
• Transcription of the complete correspondence between Wilfrid Voynich and the Prague archives in 1921, with some additional later thoughts by ELV about this.
• Information about archives containing material related to the Voynich MS.