Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Voynich
Most recents (7)
Around 1920, #Voynich had a chemical agent applied to the lower margin of f. 1r of the VMS to see if the erased inscription could be read. The chemicals left a permanent stain on the manuscript, noticeable by comparing the "before" image with the manuscript's current condition:
Due to the chemical agent, Voynich was able to make out the inscription, barely. Recent imaging under U/V light makes the signature clearly visible: Jacobus Tepenecz, a Prague alchemist who seems to have owned the manuscript in the early 17th century:
The point: manuscript provenance includes the study of the physical changes undergone by a manuscript over the years as well as the history of its imaging in the modern period. It is always worth reviewing old images to see what changes in condition they record.
Spending the afternoon @BeineckeLibrary photographing Wilfrid #Voynich 's scrapbook of press clippings heralding the "news" of the manuscript's decoding and attribution to Roger Bacon, and found this marvelous bit of editorial snark from the Providence Tribune, April 22, 1921: 
Am now looking for an excuse to use the expression "I don't give two whoops in a rain barrel!"
Here's another good one, from the New York Evening Post, May 3, 1921. Apparently it is bad form to snort with laughter in the Beinecke Library reading room.
OK, people, you worked hard to get me to 10K followers, so here is your reward! An epic 62-Tweet thread about the #Voynich manuscript coming your way, starting NOW!
1. First things first. The #Voynich manuscript (VMS from now on) is a real object. Please always keep that in mind! It is a medieval manuscript (more on that in a minute) that belongs to the @BeineckeLibrary at Yale University, where it has been MS 408 since it was given in 1969.
2. I have seen it on multiple occasions and can confirm this. It is not imaginary. It is not fake. It is not a gift from aliens. But what IS it?
So I thought about going to a museum in Boston today before Omicron shuts them all down but it's damp and foggy and cold and so I think I'll spend the day thinking about interesting paleographical features of the #Voynich manuscript instead. Here comes a Voynich paleography 🧵
Among the most unusual symbols in the manuscript are these, known to Voynichologists as “gallows.” There are four, classified by the number of legs and the number of loops. For convenience, we call them (l-r, t-b) f, p, k, t.
Gallows behave in interesting and not-yet-understood ways. They appear to be able to be ligated, like these specimens:
That's all, folks. Here comes a thread on the Vinland Map, one of the OTHER controversial objects at the Beinecke (and here you thought it was all about the #Voynich)...
The story of the map's time in New Haven is fascinating. In the 1960s, the Italian-American community was furious that the map, when thought to be authentic, "proved" that other explorers from Europe had crossed the Atlantic before Columbus (gasp!) (nvm that we knew that already)
Here are some images of political cartoons and letters that Yale received in the '60s from angry alums and members of the Italian-American community:
I don’t know if this is a serious question or not, but I’m going to give it a serious answer. Here’s a thread on “So, you think you’ve solved the #Voynich Manuscript. What next?”
1) Have you done the reading? If not, you’d better. There are actual factual things known about this manuscript, and if you’re solution isn’t consistent with those facts, then forget it. Here come some facts:
a) Materials testing has shown that the parchment dates from the early 15th century and that the pigments and inks are consistent with medieval techniques and recipes. beinecke.library.yale.edu/sites/default/…
OK so are you ready for a live-tweeted reading of the new #Voynich MS article?
Not that it particularly matters, but the paper is written in very curious English: "...following his death, the manuscript’s custodian became his wife Ethel #Voynich (1864–1960)". I see what is meant, but this is not perspicuous prose. /1
"One scholar even produced a transcription of the manuscript that is entirely incorrect". Did s/he indeed? That's what you call chutzpah, my chums. #Voynich
