My studies suggest: T, K, P and F indicate the cardinal form of the four elements, and the benched gallows represent the fixed form of the four elements.
I ascribe them as follows.
Let us consider these attributions as they apply to the text overall, also noting the distinction between Text A and Text B.
Here is a table of the distribution of the glyphs with the first number Text A and the second Text B.
Observations:
The two dominant elements in the text are Earth and Water. This conforms to what we might expect from the nature of the book, namely a text concerned with herbs and botany.
There are no depictions of any fire or flames in the illustrations whatsoever. It is not about Fire, as are so many alchemical texts. In elemental terms, it is about Earth and Water, the two lower, denser, terrestrial elements.
In this general way the attributions conform to expectations: a book about herbalism is likely to be about the elements Water and Earth.
Of the two, Water dominates over-all. This also conforms to what we see in the illustrations. The text features an entire section on bathing nymphs and depicts streams and pools and various waterways, as well as depictions of rain cycles.
If, on first inspection, we were asked which of the four elements is the work concerned with, the answer must surely be Water.
Water is the abundant element in the illustrations.
And if the glyph [k] indicates cardinal Water (Cancer, the summer solstice) then Water is abundant in the text as well, by far.
Again: Water and Earth are the two dominant elements. Of these, Water is the most abundant, by far.
This conforms - closely, I think - with the observable nature of the manuscript.
A manuscript about herbalism and botany is likely to concern the (horticultural) elements Water and Earth.
A manuscript featuring bathing nymphs and rain cycles is likely to concern Water, aboive all.
The distribution of the gallows glyphs, and their attributions as I would have it, reflects this. [t] and [k] predominate, with [k] the most prolific by far.
* * *
The under-representation of the element Air might be considered anomolous. Parts of the text are clearly meteorological in nature and concern clouds and winds. We would expect a much stronger account of Air in the text. We would expect Air to be more prolific than Fire.
In fact, from the illustrations, I suggest the order of the elements, in terms of representation, is:
Water
Earth
Air
Fire
or even:
Water
Air
Earth
Fire
But in fact, Air is the least represented in the text (if [f] is cardinal Air and [cfh] is fixed Air.)
Air, we should say, is severely under-represented among the elements, by my attributions. There is no apparent reason for why the text would address the element Air so seldom.
* * *
On the other hand, where we do find the glyph [f] - the element Air - we very often find it in the close company of the glyph [p].
I do not have stats on it but it is observable that glyphs [f] and [p] tend to cluster together in lines, most notably in the first lines of paragraphs.
This is astrologically cogent. Air and Fire, the two upper or more subtle elements, are grouped together. In the cycle of the year they correspond to the equinoxes, Aries and Libra, Fire and Air.
* * *
In the main, it is only towards the first (top) lines of paragraphs that we are likely to encounter all four elements together in the text. A few example lines chromated by element:
<24v.P.1;H>
tchodar.chocfhhg.opom.shod.chcphy.opshody.ocphoraiin.okokom-
<41v.P.1;H>
pcheody.qofcheepy.ofchdy.cfhekchdy-ypchedy.chepchefy.shdchdy.qotal.dar-
<89v1.P1.1;H>
koldal.sfal.cfhoy.ofcheol.opolsy.daiin.qopol.oldaiin.octhody-
<107v.P.11;H>
tshedy.okal.shedy.qokchey.chky.qokeey.qotaiin.otol.qoteedy.qopchcfhy-
* * *
While elemental attributions might conform to the nature of the work, the seasonal or calendrical correspondences do not, on the face of it.
The glyph [k] is, by my account, the summer solstice, and the glyph [t] the winter solstice.
The equinoxes, and so Spring and Autumn, are under-represented.
But Spring is the time of planting and growth, and Autumn is the time of harvest.
Would not these be key times of the year's cycle in a manuscript on botanty and herbalism?
The summer solstice is an active time of the cycle, but the winter solstice is a time of fallow.
Yet the text, by my attributions, is solstitial rather than equinoctal. We might expect a herbal to be equinoctal rather than solstitial. Spring and Autumn are more important than Summer and Winter.
Although, Summer and Winter mark the maturity and the incipience of a plant - maximum and minimum growth.
In Summer a plant is in full flower.
In Winter it returns to the seed state, or retires into bulbs or roots.
This, arguably, is what we encounter in the botantical illustrations. We see a stark divide between plants in full flower and studies of their root systems.
Arguably, we are seeing each plant at midsummer and at midwinter. The upper portion of the illustrations shows the specimen at midsummer, while the lower portion shows the root systems below ground at midwinter.
In that case, we can provide an account for why Summer (Cancer) - that is, glyph [k[ - and Winter (Capricornus) - that is, glyph [t] - predominate in the text.
Namely, this particular botany (herbalism) concerns (or records) plants at midsummer (full flower) and midwinter (incipience, hibernation.)
(Such a specifically solstitial account of botany might be unusual, but am not sure - I'm not up with the entire late medieval herbal literature! Nevertheless, it is botanically cogent.)
Note, in any case, that astrological symbolism has the apparent anomoly:the summer solstice (Cancer) is attributed to cardinal Water.
We might expect Summer = Fire. But astrologically Summer = Water.
Therefore, in a work that concerns the element Water more than the other elements the astrological reference will be to the Summer Solstice. This is quite in order.
* * *
The only intriguing twist in the distribution of the glyphs is this:
It is one of the curious symmetries we find in the text. These two benched gallows are represented in Text A and Text B inversely. The proportions are very nearly exactly inversed.
In Text A, (fixed) Earth predominates.
In Text B, (fixed) Water predominates.
In the text over-all, and in Text B, it is the other way around.
The inverse symmetry is so close we might suspect it is caused by some deliberate mechanism or some basic binary choice made by the author.
In any case, it conforms to my general account of the text, namely that Text A is terrestrial in nature compared to Text B which is celestial. (Matching Text A and B to the illustrations they accompany.)
It would follow that the terrestrial Text A shows a stronger representation of the (Earth) glyph [cth] than it does the (Water) glyph [ckh].
Earth is more dense than Water. There is more Earth in Text A than in Text B. That is to say: there is more Earth in the herbal sections than in the cosmological, zodiac, stellar and nymph sections.
That, I contend, matches elemental symbolism.
* * *
As for closer inspection of the text, it will need to be the subject of further studies.
There are concentrations and clusters of these glyphs in various places. Are the elemental attributions I have given them cogent or meaningful in those more specific cases?
Throwing caution to the wind, I also have to wonder at this point: is Voynichese no more than a record of elements and their measures? The gallows glyphs are elements. and all the other glyphs are a counting system.
That would be the simplest and most straightforward, but most radical, explanation. The only complexity is in working out the counting system.
R.B.
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