Turkish

Turkish, or Turkic, Old Turkish, Ottoman Turkish? – remains a candidate for the Voynich text among natural languages. Detailed studies of the structures of Voynich words (vords) shows the text to be suggestive of an agglutinating language, if anything. The first conclusion such studies reach is that is not like any typical Indo-European language. Stolfi thought it behaved a bit like Chinese. Others have considered Turkish, since it is agglutinating and outside the Indo-European family. By reason of word structure, and perhaps other reasons, it is a good contender.

The difficulty is that the manuscript is undoubtedly European, and the illustrations are European – the blonde nymphs, the costumes, the architecture – so we would need to explain a Turkish (Turkoid) text in that distinctly European context. What is the relationship between this Turkish text and these strongly European illustrations? And why in such a script?

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Given the hypothesis I propose on these pages, Turkish only emerges as a possibility through the extensive exposure to the Turks of Nicholas of Cusa. Indeed, Cusanus was one of the foremost scholars of Islam of his times and led papal overtures to Sultan Mehmet.

Moreover, Cusanus took the view that intelligent Muslims and Islamic scholars were open to dialogue. His approach to the Turkish threat was marked by engagement with the Turkish intelligentsia. His extensive commentary on the Koran was dedicated to Muslim scholars, who he felt would be open to his critique (and ultimately conversion). He was a devout Catholic cardinal, to be sure, but – for his times – he held an enlightened universalist perspective, sharing a neo-Platonist background with the Muslim divines and scholars. Hence his deep interest in the philosophy and methods of Ramon Llull, too, who pioneered intellectual engagement with the Muslims (in his own unique way).

In any case, the Turkish language is within the range of a scenario involving Nicholas of Cusa. I have previously overlooked it. Cusanus had a command of a good range of tongues, most obviously a deep knowledge of Latin. And the languages necessary for his high level diplomatic work in the Greek East. We should always remember his close links with Cardinal Bessarion. Within the relevant period – first half of the 1400s – Cusanus is outstanding as an orientalist scholar who – just because of the dire geopolitical circumstances of Turkish advancement – was the premiere Islamicist of his day.

Given this, Cusanus has an unusually good position to be in receipt of, knowledge of, delivery of – some access to – Turkish texts. By interests, profession and biography he is European intellectual who could supply a Turkish text. Again: the illustrations are European. The text, if Turkish, is exotic. Amongst European intellectuals Nicholas of Cusa has a better-than-usual prospect of knowing such exotica.

For all of that, I cannot imagine any obvious scenario – within the range of my hypothesis – where Cusanus (or anyone) would import an exotic language. By my account, the manuscipt concerns the Ladin herbal tradition of the Dolomites in alpine Italy. Why bring an exotic text – Turkish – to that? Turkish doesn’t fit the context, or the illustrations. It is a possibility, but not an obvious match in any way.

It is a possibility because it is possible the Voynich text is a natural language. If it is, then it does not look like an Indo-European language, whereas it does resemble an agglutinating language, of which Turkish is an example – and a pressing near-by example in the broad historical context of the conquest of Byzantium by the advancing Turkish armies. Certainly, our text is not Turkish in a direct way, but there are resemblances. Some linguists suspect some Central Asian Turkic language or dialect, in any case. (And not Persian. It’s Indo-European.)

It doesn’t fit my hypothesis well. Although, Nicholas of Cusa could certainly bring an exotic language, an eastern language, to the landscape depicted in the manuscript. He is one of the very few Europeans of that era who might conceivably render a text from Turkish, a Turkish text rendered in a Latinate script made for that purpose? He was a man dedicated to inter-faith understanding and deep cultural east/west exchange. He is preeminent in this respect.