🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mar 29, 6:30 pm, lackpurity <lackpur...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Elizabeth is a staunch Baconian.

She might be interested in my interpretation of the Voynich,
then, which I ascribe to Bacon (this is also an experiment,
I'd like to see how long lines are handled by the Google
interface to sci.lang)

Francis Bacon, author of the Voynich manuscript ?

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?