Zodiac maps were included because ancient and medieval doctors believed that certain cures worked better under specific astrological signs. Baths were often prescribed as medicine, and the Romans were particularly fond of the idea that a nice dip could cure all ills. Pictures of plants referred to herbal medicines, and all the images of bathing women marked it out as a gynecological manual. Once he realized that the Voynich Manuscript was a medical textbook, Gibbs explained, it helped him understand the odd images in it. The text would have been very familiar to anyone at the time who was interested in medicine. "The abbreviations correspond to the standard pattern of words used in the Herbarium Apuleius Platonicus – aq = aqua (water), dq = decoque / decoctio (decoction), con = confundo (mix), ris = radacis / radix (root), s aiij = seminis ana iij (3 grains each), etc." So this wasn't a code at all it was just shorthand. "From the herbarium incorporated into the Voynich manuscript, a standard pattern of abbreviations and ligatures emerged from each plant entry," he wrote. His experience with medieval Latin and familiarity with ancient medical guides allowed him to uncover the first clues.Īfter looking at the so-called code for a while, Gibbs realized he was seeing a common form of medieval Latin abbreviations, often used in medical treatises about herbs. Because the manuscript has been entirely digitized by Yale's Beinecke Library, he could see tiny details in each page and pore over them at his leisure. Further Reading So much for that Voynich manuscript “solution” Gibbs writes in the Times Literary Supplement that he was commissioned by a television network to analyze the Voynich Manuscript three years ago.
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