Dating

Carbon-14 dating done on small representative samples of the vellum of the Voynich manuscript dates it to the first half of the 1400s. To be exact, the dates supplied range from 1404 to 1438. This is an approximate date for when the beast that supplied the skin perished. It is counted as about 95% accurate, which means there is some leeway either side of the initial and terminus dates.

This range of dates is supported by the general presentation of the manuscript and by internal evidence such as clothing worn by figures depicted.

My hypothesis drifts from this dating window by ten years or so. I want to place the manuscript somewhat later, but not much later, than the dates supplied by the lab.

As it happens, I believe I have located an historical scenario that so closely matches what we find in the manuscript that it warrants stepping outside the strict boundaries of the carbon dating. With factors such as the length of time vellum could be stored, and the inherent limitations of carbon dating methods, the scenario I nominate is within an acceptable margin. I don't believe the carbon dating is fatal to the hypothesis.

As for clothing, the figures in the manuscript are likely to be copied from or allude to older works - zodiacal treatises or almanacs, for instance - rather than being drawn from contemporary life. Such things only give us a rough guide to dating this work.

We can dismiss all dates in the 1500s, and so eliminate all hypotheses that suppose there are references to the New World. Thankfully, the idea that it was Leonardo da Vinci goes too.

Instead, we need a genius of the right calibre, a mind of the right capabilities, from the 1400s, and not the later 1400s. My hypothesis, in fact, is merely that the work is Cusean. Nicholas of Cusa was a major and very active thinker from the 1420s onwards. I could place him, and his students and followers, well within the forensic time frame and still make a case. But I think the historical circumstances from 1448 to about 1456 present a compelling scenario.

R. B.