3 ms·

This looks like the same text on the Voynich Manuscript [0] — only without the illustrations. [0]:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript https://en

by max_ 6y ago

This looks like the same text on the Voynich Manuscript [0] — only without the illustrations. [0]:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript

sterlind 6y ago
No gallows letters in this text, everything is a lot swoopier, I don't think they're related. Really wish Derek Vogt hadn't pulled his videos on Voynich and how to identify obscure writing systems.
- dane-pgp 6y ago
  I too miss those videos, as his analysis was the most compelling I've seen. For those who never saw them, there is a good summary of them here: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/27/open-thread-85-25/#comment-551200 https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/27/open-thread-85-25/#com...
Lammy 6y ago
Obviously total speculation but the illustrations and chosen subjects there make me wonder if the document(s) might be Druidic of some sort, since "ancient Druids considered it profane to record their teachings in writing": https://llewellyn.com/encyclopedia/article/186 https://llewellyn.com/encyclopedia/article/186 My impression of intense focus on oral tradition isn't that such groups had no form of writing but as something analogous to modern-day Sensitive Compartmentalized Information systems to prevent anyone in the out-group from learning in-group knowledge, like how the US government has "UNCLASSIFIED / CLASSIFIED / SECRET / TOP-SECRET / TOP-SECRET-COSMIC" etc. It would be hard to describe the exact physical properties of things like plants, animals, and space without writing and illustrating them, so maybe these are documents from one such group who didn't want the fruit of their scientific studies to proliferate?
retrac 6y ago
Voynich, whatever it is, is internally consistent in its glyphs. There's only a small overlap between the glyphs (at least what I can make out as distinct glyphs... always tricky when you don't know what you're looking at) in this sample compared to Voynich. Probably just coincidental, like how they all have a glyph that looks like Latin lowercase 'b'.

by max_ 6y ago

sterlind 6y ago

No gallows letters in this text, everything is a lot swoopier, I don't think they're related. Really wish Derek Vogt hadn't pulled his videos on Voynich and how to identify obscure writing systems.

dane-pgp 6y ago
I too miss those videos, as his analysis was the most compelling I've seen. For those who never saw them, there is a good summary of them here: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/27/open-thread-85-25/#comment-551200 https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/27/open-thread-85-25/#com...

Lammy 6y ago

Obviously total speculation but the illustrations and chosen subjects there make me wonder if the document(s) might be Druidic of some sort, since "ancient Druids considered it profane to record their teachings in writing": https://llewellyn.com/encyclopedia/article/186 https://llewellyn.com/encyclopedia/article/186 My impression of intense focus on oral tradition isn't that such groups had no form of writing but as something analogous to modern-day Sensitive Compartmentalized Information systems to prevent anyone in the out-group from learning in-group knowledge, like how the US government has "UNCLASSIFIED / CLASSIFIED / SECRET / TOP-SECRET / TOP-SECRET-COSMIC" etc. It would be hard to describe the exact physical properties of things like plants, animals, and space without writing and illustrating them, so maybe these are documents from one such group who didn't want the fruit of their scientific studies to proliferate?

retrac 6y ago

Voynich, whatever it is, is internally consistent in its glyphs. There's only a small overlap between the glyphs (at least what I can make out as distinct glyphs... always tricky when you don't know what you're looking at) in this sample compared to Voynich. Probably just coincidental, like how they all have a glyph that looks like Latin lowercase 'b'.