The Voynich Manuscript - Aztec Herbal from New Spain by John D Comegys (2013).pdf

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The Voynich Manuscript: Aztec Herbal from New Spain

By John D. Comegys

Scholars have yet to decipher the mysterious Voynich Manuscript. The common

assumptions are that it is written in an unknown script, an unknown language, by

an unknown author on an unknown subject and is of European provenance. Some

have even argued it is a hoax. This article breaks new ground by presenting

evidence that much of the art work is Mesoamerican in style or heritage.

Examples of the Voynich script are similar or identical to Courtesan script used

in codices from New Spain, Early Colonial Mexico.

Based on the internal

evidence the provenance may be inferred to be Mexico and the language a

combination of Nahuatl--the language of the Aztecs, and Spanish. The Voynich

Manuscript is thus one of the largest and most detailed surviving indigenous

Mesoamerican medical texts.

Introduction

It is time for a fresh approach to the Voynich Manuscript. Despite multiple

attempts over the past century, the enigmatic document remains unread. This article will

present ethnohistorical evidence that the provenance of the manuscript lies in early

colonial Mexico and that many of the mysteries in the art work and script can be shown

to be either traditionally Mesoamerican or part of the process of the acculturation of

Mesoamerica to the Spanish presence following the Conquest of Mexico. From this

perspective the Voynich MS (manuscript) ceases to be an odd European mystery, and

becomes a rather typical documentary example of the acculturation of indigenous

America to European ways and may be easily and clearly identified as an herbal, a book

on medicinal plants and their application, from the Early Colonial Period of New Spain.

Before we begin an examination of the illustrations and script in the Voynich

manuscript, let us briefly summarize what is known and what is assumed. The Voynich

MS is a small handwritten and illustrated book of 116 double sided folios, some of which

fold out into multiple pages for a total of 235 pages. It is housed in the Beinecke Library

at Yale University. It is written on vellum, a kind of parchment probably made of

calfskin, and measures approximately six by nine inches (16 cm x 23.2 cm). Somewhat

more than half consists of script and colored illustrations of plants or flowers, many of

which have strange roots or other objects associated with them. This section is

traditionally called the Herbal or Botanical section. The Herbal Section is one of six

sections, all but one identified by its illustrations and all written in the distinctive

Voynich script. The Pharmaceutical section has smaller drawings of all or parts of

various plants in the Herbal section. The Astronomical section has astrological zodiacs

and drawings of the sun, moon, and stars and what may be spiral galaxies. The

Cosmological section is a large fold-out with nine circular drawings, some resembling

islands with causeways connecting them, overseen by a volcano, among other things.

The Biological section has illustrations of rotund naked women and recognizable human

anatomical organs

. The Recipe section is the last section and is text only with no

illustrations other than stars.

For example, fallopian tubes and a penis on folio 77 verso, and placentas on folio 84

verso were identified by Gayle Sutcliffe, MD. Personal communication, 2012.

The information above is generally agreed upon and may be found in the following

sources: Kennedy, Gerry and Churchill, Rob. (2004) The Voynich Manuscript. Orion,

London; Pelling, Nick. Cipher Mysteries. http://www.ciphermysteries.com/ Last

Accessed 6/25/2012; D'Imperio, Mary E. (1981) The Voynich Manuscript: An Elegant

According to a letter found with the Voynich MS

, it was owned by Holy Roman

Emperor Rudolph II, who had earlier spent his youth from 1563 to 1571 at the Spanish

Habsburg court of his uncle Phillip II.

King Phillip’s personal physician was the

incomparable herbalist Doctor Francisco Hernandez who traveled to Mexico in 1571 and

catalogued of over 3,000 plants.

The Voynich Manuscript was signed by Rudolf’s

botanical garden keeper, who was ennobled with the title ‘de

Tepenecz’

by Emperor

Rudolf. The title

de Tepenecz

is suspiciously similar to

Tepanec,

the name of former

rulers and later allies of the Aztecs at the time of Spain’s conquest of Mexico in 1521.

During his long stay at the Spanish court Rudolf would have had ample opportunity to

become acquainted with Doctor Hernandez

and the heirs of the last Aztec Emperor

Moctezuma who were also members of the court

. Rudolf’s biographer reports he

retained a fascination with Spain his entire life

Enigma. Aegean Park Press: Laguna Hills, CA; Wikipedia. The Voynich Manuscript,

Illustrations 1.1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript#Illustrations Last

accessed 6/27/2012)

Newbold, W. R and Kent, R. G. (1928) The Roger Bacon Cipher. Philadelphia:

University of Pennsylvania Press.

Evans, R.J.W. (1973:1997) Rudolf II and His World. Thames and London: Spain.

Varey, S., Chabrán, R., Weiner, & Dora B (Eds.) . (2000) Searching for the Secrets of

Nature: The Life and Works of Dr. Francisco Hernández. Stanford University Press:

Stanford, California.

Landini, Gabriel and Zandbergen, Rene (1998) A Well-kept Secret of Mediaeval

Science: The Voynich Manuscript. Aesculapius, July, 1998. Downloaded on 6/27/2009

from http://www.voynich.nu/extra/aes.html

Meyer, Michael C. & Beezley, William H. (2000) The Oxford History of Mexico.

Oxford University Press: Oxford, New York.

Somolinos D’Adois, German (1960) Vida y Obra de Francisco Hernandez, Obras

Completas, Tomo I, Universidad Nacional de Mexico, México, D.F.

Chipman, Donald E. (2005) Moctezuma’s Children: Aztec Royalty Under Spanish Rule,

520-1700. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Evans, R.J.W. (1973:1997) Rudolf II and his World. Thames and Hudson: London

The key to identifying an unknown ethnohistorical document, according to Barber

and Berdan, is to understand the perspective of the author(s).

Using their reality

mediation model, one should look at a document as a model of the author’s reality and as

a communication from one member of that society to another. If a document seems

strange or mysterious, it is because we do not understand the time or culture from which

it came. The symbols, artistic styles and pre-Columbian gods of ancient Mexico and the

rest of Mesoamerica may seem odd or frightening to us, while we easily, even happily,

accept the presence of pre-Christian gargoyles on our cathedrals because they are familiar

and part of our culture. The more comfortable and familiar we are with Mesoamerican art

and culture the more familiar and comfortable we will be with the Voynich manuscript,

and the less mysterious it will become.

To identify the provenance, the origin and source, of a document, ethnohistorians

rely on different types of evidence and techniques. These include visual interpretation,

paleography, calendrics, linguistic analysis, name interpretation, map interpretations,

source analysis, and quantitative analysis

. This article will focus on visual

interpretation, paleographical evidence, and surmised source analysis of the illustrations

and script. Attempts to decipher or translate and ‘read’ the Voynich Manuscript (VMS)

are beyond the scope of this article.

Because the manuscript is so large and so encyclopedic, this article must be a

preliminary survey to present evidence that the provenance of the VMS lies in New Spain

and that the document is thus both Spanish and part of the legacy of the indigenous high

Barber, R. J. & Berdan, F. F. (1998) The Emperor’s Mirror: Understanding Cultures

through Primary Sources. University of Arizona Press: Tucson.

Barber and Berdan, 1998.

civilization that predated the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico, namely the Aztecs, or as

they called themselves—the Mexica.

By examining three sorts of evidence within the manuscript we may support the

hypothesis that the Voynich MS is Mesoamerican without reading the text.

First, the art

work in general is closely related both to traditional Mesoamerican art in addition to

Renaissance or earlier European art. Secondly, the VMS contains specific Mesoamerican

content that can be identified by time and place or that appears to be the result of

acculturation, a mixture and melding of Spanish and Mesoamerican techniques or subject

matter. Finally, the script is from Spain and is written in a style that is specific to

indigenous Mexican scribes in New Spain.

The Voynich MS is often claimed to be written about an unknown subject. There

have been more than 10 claimed decipherments of the Voynich manuscripts with

explanations of its content that range from a cipher by Roger Bacon

to a Cathar Prayer

Manual

. The Voynich manuscript is also claimed to be written in an unknown script, in

an unknown language, and to be written in cipher.

This assumption was made because

Apparently the assumption that the Voynich manuscript is a cipher was made as early

as the 17

century, probably because the alphabet was previously unknown. (Newbold

and Kent, 1928) I know of no serious attempt to ‘read’ or decipher the manuscript using

Nahuatl to date.

Newbold, W. R. and Kent, R. G. (1928) The Cipher of Roger Bacon. University of

Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia

Levitov, L.L. (1987). Solution of the Voynich manuscript: A Liturgical Manual for the

Enduring Rite of the Cathari Heresy, The Cult of Isis. Laguna Park, California: Aegean

Park Press.

See for example: Rugg, Gordon. (2004) The Mystery of the Voynich Manuscript.

Scientific American. June, 2004. Posted at

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-mystery-of-the-voynic-2004-07

Last accessed 6-25-2012, Kennedy and Churchill (2004) and Schinner, Andreas. (2007)

The Voynich Manuscript: Evidence of the Hoax Hypothesis. Criptologia, 31:95-107,

The Voynich Manuscript - Aztec Herbal from New Spain by John D Comegys (2013).pdf

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