r/voynich

I came across a video which applied Zipf's law as a test on the voynich manuscript and wanted to replicate it. So then I went down a successive path of looking at the next most obvious hypotheses, e.g. checking whether this was an actual language, or a cypher, or some sort of algorithmically generated gibberish.

So there are two statistics where the manuscript seems to significantly differ from a real language: 1. it's characters are far more predictable than in any real script that I looked at, and 2. it's word lengths are unusually uniform. so working through possible explanations for this (for example including specialised list/catalogue-type language) seemed to rule out most things (e.g. the language entropy seemed to move in the wrong direction when we applied technical/botanical latin for example into a catalogue style, running it through the same tests). Another candidate was an invented language, but this seems to fail because it still does not behave gramatically like an unknown language.

The conclusion after all this seems to be what Timm & Schinner found in 2019 that there is that each word in the manuscript is a copy of a previous word, mutated by some algorithm. With the seed for each page being a label or word either related or unrelated to the image on the page. To test this built text-generation code that would produce text that replicates the statistical atributes of the manuscript, and this seemed to hold up very well. A four-parameter generator built on that mechanism reproduces essentially every statistic in the manuscript, including ones it was never fitted to, so no meaning is required to explain the text's internal properties.

I've created a github repo with a summary page and the code that I used (yes, language models were used to assist writing the code and analyzing and presenting the results. ) https://whitehatnetizen.github.io/voynich-investigation/

I'm currently working on the "still open" questions in the conclusion section at the bottom of the page.

Hopefully I haven't broken any sub rules by posting this.

I haven't looked back at all the posts here since ChatGPT dropped in 2023 (or was it 2022?), and I am sure tons of people have tried this and failed, or had shitty results with a helping of AI-psychosis...but as LLMs are getting much more powerful now (see Claude Mythos), I feel like a sober, intentional effort to learn more about the nature of the Voynich manuscript, led by non-crackpot experts in history, linguistics, bibliology, encryption etc. and leveraging Mythos-level LLM could be fruitful, particularly if the text is not gibberish but has some underlying meaning. I suppose if it is gibberish (glossolalia or a hoax etc) maybe there would be fewer insights possible but even then we could learn something new

Ok so I started looking into VM, hoping to find anything useful. My first idea was to try and find correlation between words on the page and the presented imagery. For that I've used qwen3 vl to generate two datasets (one based on strict schema following common patterns in the imagery) and also a simple keyword based list of visual objects.

Ran the correlation test, aand nothing survived the permutation checks. So seemingly there is zero correlation between text and the imagery which is our clue #1.

So next step was runnning statistical analysis for character entropy, mean word length etc.
Here some things are clearly visible:
2. Text from all five identified scribes have exact same artificial fingerprint (suggesting shared methodology).
3. Structure is sequential not positional.

So this led to a clear candidate for text generating method -> a simple markov chain. But pure markov chain characteristics turned out to be slightly different. After adding just ~0.15 chance of self citation within last 25 words the results matched perfectly.

Code, vl datasets, detailed findings can be found here: https://github.com/karolrybak/voynichese/tree/master

As for the question from the title. You'll have to answer that yourself, here's just my 2 cents.

I'm not a professional researcher

just someone who stumbled into this rabbit hole and noticed some things I haven't seen discussed together before. Happy to be corrected.

Background

I recently looked at the Voynich Manuscript for the first time with no prior deep knowledge of existing theories. What I noticed led me down a chain of observations that I want to share, because when I checked the literature, some pieces are supported by existing researchers — but a few seem to be new angles, especially the Socotra connection.

I'll lay it out as a chain of observations, not conclusions.

Observation 1 : The plants look like they're from Socotra Island

The first thing that struck me was that the botanical illustrations don't look like invented plants. They look like real plants drawn badly from memory . specifically, plants with swollen caudex bases, minimal upper foliage, and unusual succulent proportions that don't exist in European or Mediterranean flora.

The closest match I could find anywhere: Socotra Island (Yemen), which has 37% endemic plant species found nowhere else on Earth. Specifically:

Dorstenia gigas : swollen base, small leafy crown, flowers directly on the stem. This exact silhouette (large base, narrow top) is the most repeated plant shape in the Voynich botanical section, and it doesn't exist in European flora of the period.

Jatropha unicostata : similar swollen trunk, lobed leaves matching several Voynich illustrations

Nirarathamnos asarifolius : low cushion-like globular form, appears in high-altitude Socotra, similar rounded shapes appear in Voynich

Important note: The author didn't need to visit Socotra to know these plants. Socotra was documented in Arabic medical literature . Ibn al-Baytar (an Andalusian botanist) and Ibn Sina both referenced plants from the Arabian Sea trade routes. A learned Andalusian or Arab scholar could know Socotra's flora through manuscripts and trade contacts without ever leaving Spain.

Observation 2 : The drawing style is Islamic, not European

The human figures in the manuscript look like someone tried to draw Europeans using an Islamic miniature painting training.

Specifically:

Faces are flat, frontal, with large almond eyes and neutral expression . consistent with Islamic manuscript tradition, NOT Italian Renaissance style (which dominated Europe in 1404–1438, the carbon-dated period)

Figures are arranged in horizontal registers, not in perspectival space

There is no shading, no depth, no anatomical detail . again, inconsistent with contemporary European art

The clothing is absent or generic . and this seems deliberate. Clothing would immediately identify cultural origin. Faces and body arrangement betray Islamic artistic training; the clothing was neutralized.

This isn't someone imitating Islamic style. This is someone trained in Islamic visual tradition trying to pass as European , and their hand betrayed them.

Observation 3 : The script looks like phonetic transcription, not a cipher

Most decipherment attempts treat the Voynich script as an encryption of a known language a substitution cipher, anagram, etc.

But what if it's not a cipher at all?

What I noticed: the script has the rhythm and flow of a natural language written phonetically in an invented alphabet. It feels familiar but modified like watching someone write Arabic sounds using invented letterforms.

This matches what researcher Robert Edwards (2025) found: Arabic is an abjad where short vowels are often omitted in medieval manuscripts, leaving only consonants and a reader fills in pronunciation from memory and context. The Voynich text follows statistical patterns (Zipf's law) consistent with natural language, not random generation.

My hypothesis: The script is not a cipher. It's a phonetic notation system an invented alphabet used to write a real Semitic language (likely Arabic or Andalusian Arabic dialect) as it was pronounced. The reader needed to already know the spoken text; the script was a memory aid, not a standalone readable document.

This would explain why professional codebreakers failed for a century they were looking for a substitution key that doesn't exist.

Observation 4 : The book may have been designed for oral recitation, not silent reading

Following from above: if the script is phonetic notation for a spoken text, then the illustrations are not diagrams for a reader they are cues for a speaker.

Each plant image = a reminder of which remedy to recite

Each astronomical diagram = a timing cue (when to apply the treatment)

Each bathing scene = a method of application

The knowledge lived in human memory. The book was a performance script, not an encyclopedia.

This matches a well-documented tradition in Islamic medicine and Sufi transmission where a master transmitted knowledge orally, and written notes served only as mnemonics for initiates who already knew the system.

Observation 5 : The Andalusian context makes all of this coherent

Carbon dating places the manuscript at 1404–1438. Stylistic analysis suggests northern Italy.

This period coincides exactly with:

The progressive fall of Andalusian cities to Christian forces (Reconquista reaching its final stages)

The Spanish Inquisition beginning to target Muslims and Jews with forced conversion or expulsion

A documented wave of Andalusian scholars fleeing to North Africa, Egypt, and Italy

An Andalusian scholar arriving in northern Italy in this period would:

Have Islamic artistic training (explaining the drawing style)

Know Arabic botanical literature including Socotra plants (explaining the flora)

Have strong motivation to hide the content from Inquisition authorities (explaining the script system)

Not have fully absorbed European artistic conventions (explaining why the "European" disguise failed)

Supporting evidence already in the literature:

Researcher Fletcher Crowe argues the manuscript is written in Arabic using invented characters, to hide content from the Inquisition

A paper on ResearchGate identifies the word "qadi" (Arabic/Andalusian for "judge") in the text a term specific to Andalusian Arabic usage

German Egyptologist Rainer Hannig (2020) concluded the language structure is Semitic, not Indo-European

Observation 6 : The manuscript shows signs of being written in haste

The handwriting is fast and confident no hesitation marks or corrections typical of someone inventing a cipher in real time. This suggests the author was writing from memory or copying quickly from a source under time pressure.

The illustrations are unpolished relative to what a careful scholar would produce. Some plants are incomplete.

A person fleeing persecution, preserving knowledge before it was destroyed, would write exactly like this.

But this is just what i think

I am not claiming this is a definitive decipherment

I am not claiming the author was definitely Andalusian

I am not claiming Socotra is proven , only that the plant morphology is the closest real-world match I've found, and that an Andalusian scholar could plausibly have known these plants through Arabic botanical literature

So I have decoded, deciphered, solved or whatever you want to call it. Voynich was solved by myself in about 3 nights. I have thought about it for years but I felt current technology might be able to help finally. I was correct.

I don’t want to reveal the method I used as of now. I can however replicate it and have translated 4 entire pages. I stopped at 4 for several reasons.

1. While it’s not gibberish, as many assume, it is still gibberish! The subject matter is boring, outdated and just dumb.

2. I contacted Yale and was told they don’t care lol. They just curate the book. They told me to post it online! They don’t care if it’s ever solved or not they said. Amazing!

I do understand they must get thousands of emails a month with people claiming they solved it.

Any suggestions? I don’t feel I should just post it on Reddit for free. I will also say that if I just listed one or two translated sentences then anyone can translate the entire manuscript.

Please help.

I’m 100% sure someone in the 15 century pretending to be a doctor used this in a place where people were illiterate to pretend to read or claim to be from a foreign place and speak a foreign language that doesn’t exist…. All for financial gain….or something along those lines