Re: Voynich was: Re: Unknown Language Identifier!

On Tue, 30 Jan 2001, Patrick Dunn wrote:

> Aruably, Pepys wrote in a conlang: a mixture of Latin, English, Greek, and
> all written in shorthand.  It doesn't seem unlikely that the Voynich Ms.
> Author might not have done something similar.
>
> But why?  If it is indeed an herbal, as the illustrations seem to
> indicate, or even an alchemical text, why such amazing convolutions to
> ensure secrecy?  Perhaps it is driven not so much by secrecy as by
> aesthetic concerns.
I seem to recall reading in some book--it might have been Poundstone's
book on paradoxes and puzzles, but don't quote me on that!--that the
Voynich ms. sure looked like an herbal but no one had ever managed to
match the plant-illustrations with any known plants that existed or had
existed.  Whatever book it was, was at least 10-15 years old, though, so
I have no clue whether that's still true.

(Oh, right--the Poundstone is called _Labyrinths of Reason_.  But I'm
still not entirely sure that was the book in which I saw the mention....)

YHL