Dedicated to James A. Fox -- a remarkable epigrapher, linguist, mentor, and friend. And to the memory of Stephen Bax -- of the Voynich Manuscript, he was "the Champollion." He was the first. In Luçe Side...  A Proposal for Reading the Voynich Manuscript ©2019 Tim King PhD, Alessandra Andrisani, Bryce Beasley, and Julian Condo In this work, we provide a proposal for the transliteration and translation of the text of the Voynich Manuscript. Based upon our findings, the language of the Voynich Manuscript is a Vulgar Latin dialect, likely affected by a contemporary Italian dialect. We also provide evidence regarding the origin of the writing system of this manuscript: it appears to be a late modified subset of a once widespread shorthand known as Tironian Notes. In this work, we provide transliterations and translations of two pages of continuous text, an analysis of the language reflected in the text, and a proposal for the content and purpose of the manuscript: it is a late Medieval manual for medical practices regarding women's health matters. We also provide an epigraphic analysis of the Voynich writing system: orthographic principles of this system, punctuation, and the sound values of the Voynich writing system characters. We also provide a proposal for the location of the authorship of this manuscript, based upon iconographic and linguistic materials: the Veneto region of northern Italy, in the vicinity of the provinces of Verona, Padova, and Vicenza. In this work, we also provide prescriptive materials for future work on the translation of the Voynich Manuscript; namely, that further work on the Voynich Manuscript will require a team of individuals with advanced and specialized knowledge in Vulgar Latin, epigraphy, paleography, late Medieval northern Italian culture, Medieval medical practices, medical botany, and medical practices regarding women's health. IDENTIFICATION OF THE CHARACTER SOUND INVENTORY In the Voynich Manuscript, we identify twenty-two distinct characters (Fig.1). In Fig.1, we also propose names for the characters, based upon their sound values; although multiple systems for the transcription of the Voynich Manuscript have been proposed and have been of great value in the discussion of the texts, in this work we propose and utilize names for the characters which reflect their sound values and would thus be functionally more helpful to the reader and researcher. -2- Figure 1. -- Our proposed sound values for the Voynich Manuscript characters; the names we use in this work for each character is listed below each. Conflations/ligatures marked with *. Of the twenty-two characters we identify in this work (Fig.1), seven are conflations or ligatures (see: Fig.9 below) (composed of two characters joined to become a single unit), one character is a reduplication of /o/ to indicate a long /o/ (in this work, long vowels will be underlined); note that this long /o/ Voynich character may have been intentionally designed to appear like the miniscule Greek Omega "w" (which is reflected in its Tironian Notes counterpart [see: Fig.8, below] which represents a long /o/), two characters -- "un" and "de" -- provide sound values, but also function as punctuation, truncation, and ligature markers, and one -- "X" -- as of the publication of this article remains unsolved for our team (however, we suspect that it may reflect /m/, /b/, /tz/, or /ts/, or is a form of punctuation). In his groundbreaking publications in 2014, Stephen Bax proposes that the Voynich Manuscript text is both alphabetic and syllabic (Bax 2014a, b); Bax proposes single- phonemic (alphabetic) values for ten characters, syllabic values for five characters, and that six characters are polyvalent (having more than one sound value) (Fig.2) -- Bax attested these sound values through the successful transliteration of the names of flora and celestial bodies within the Voynich Manuscript (ibid.). In this work, we will demonstrate that most of the proposals by Bax are correct or within close proximity to what we identify as the correct sound values (Fig.2). In effect, we consider the published works of Stephen Bax as the first to provide correct readings of Voynich Manuscript writing system characters and that he is owed credit as the first scholar to -3- pioneer the transliteration of this text. Our work is based upon utilizing Bax's initial proposals for the sound values of the Voynich writing system and expanding upon them. Figure 2. -- The sound values proposed by Stephen Bax (2014a&b) [above], compared to the values we propose [below]. In applying the Bax sound values to the names of stars and constellations on pages 68r1&2, we found that the Bax values do generate coherent names of stars and constellations -- most of which are expected Medieval forms of loan words (from Arabic, Greek, and Latin) many of which European (and global) sciences still use for the names of stars and constellations in modern time. However, we found that modifying or expanding upon most of the sound values proposed by Bax produced more effective transliterations of the names of these celestial bodies (Figs.3 & 4) (see: Bax 2014b, for his readings). Furthermore, we were able to expand upon Bax's inventory and we propose that the majority of Voynich characters are polyvalent: representing not a single sound or syllable, but a set of related sounds. -4- Figure 3. -- Folio 68r1: Transliteration of names of celestial objects. Figure 4. -- Folio 68r2: Transliteration of names of celestial objects. -5- In Fig.3, the sound values adapted from Bax (2014a, b) produce readable names of stars and constellations. Fig.3a "el iadun" is likely the name for the asterism known as "the Hyades" (Gr.: Uades) in the constellation Taurus (Allen 1963: 388); Fig.3b "el çyon" is likely the constellation Canis Major (Gr.: Kuwn)(idem.: 117); Fig.3c, "asere" is likely Aschere, an archaic name for the star Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris) -- a significant navigational star and the brightest star in the heavens (note that this star is one of only two labeled with a large black center on the folio) (idem.: 371-372); Fig.3d, "ardure," may be Arture, a known archaic corruption of Arcturus, Alpha Boötis (idem.: 101); Fig.3e, "el aoades," is likely al 'Awaïd, an archaic Arabic term for the constellation Draco (idem.: 207); Fig.3f, "daseiod," may be Tasæud, an archaic Persian term for Alpha Virginis (idem.: 467); Fig.4a, "alaseis," is likely Alascha, an archaic name for Gamma Scorpii (idem.: 372); Fig.4b, "sidur," is likely associated with sidus (which is the classical Latin name for "star, constellation") which has figured into the names of several prominent stars (idem.: 526); Fig.4c "el adurus" may be Arture, an archaic corruption of Arcturus, Alpha Boötis (though Fig.3d seems more likely) -- note that Arcturus has also been used as a term for Ursa Major, both may have been named as such simultaneously (idem.: 101, 423); Fig.4d "aloere" is likely Allore/Alohore, an archaic term for the star Vega (Alpha Lyrae) (idem.: 284); Fig.4e "adouries" might be Antares, Alpha Scorpii (idem.: 364-5); Fig.4f "çinu" may be Cycnus or Cygne, similar archaic names for the prominent constellation Cygnus (idem.: 192). Figure 5. -- Folia 15r and 9v and the transliteration of the plant terms for Cichorium intybus and Viola tricolor. -6- The sound values we propose also produce effective readings of a number of plant names in the Voynich Manuscript (Fig.5), and legitimate transliteration in full prose text of the Manuscript (see below). All sound values which we provide have been attested multiple times in our work. In Fig.5, we identify the plant image on Folio 15r as Common Chicory (Cichorium intybus), used in traditional medical practices and currently under research for its notable content of inulin -- a compound which limits the uptake of blood glucose (Kim, et al. 1996); and we identify Folio 9v as Viola tricolor -- also identified as such by Kennedy & Churchill (2009), and Sherwood (2013) (see translation of Folio 9v, below). In these transliterations, Common Chicory is named as both "çicure" ("chicory," Lat. cichoreum) and another name for Common Chicory, "el escure" ("the escarole" Med. Vul. Lat. escariola) in the same text; note that a definite article or demonstrative pronoun "el" is affixed to the front of the term. The name for Viola tricolor on Folio 9v is "ion," aside from the /o/ vowel length, the Latin ion is idenfied as "a kind of violet" (Lewis & Short 1879). With further application of the sound values which we propose, on Folia 72r1 and 72v1, we identify the terms "in luçe side..." "by the light of the stars/constellations" ("luce" is Latin ablative declension of n.f. lux "light," and the Voynich "side" "starry" is likely from the Latin lemma "side--" meaning "star, constellation") and "sideure" (likely related to the Latin adj. sidereus "belonging to the constellations or to the stars") (ibid.); appropriate in text relating to stars and zodiac constellations on these folia. Figure 6. -- Transliteration of terms "in luçe side" and "sideure" on Folia 72r1 and 72v1. -7- TRANSLATION OF VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT FOLIO 1v When applied to continuous prose text of the Voynich Manuscript, the sound values we propose produce coherent text in a dialect of Vulgar Latin, including proper names, Latin declensions and conjugations. We agree with the view that Folia 1v-- 57r, 65r--v, and 87r--103v constitute a treatise of plants of pharmacological value; the works of Edith Sherwood most aptly demonstrate this (see: Sherwood 2013). Folio 1v addresses Atropa belladonna, "Deadly Nightshade." A. belladonna was of notable pharmaceutical value in Medieval Europe and elsewhere (Culpeper 1805: 252-253; Avicenna 1998: 469); it contains high concentrations of the anticholinergic (tropane) alkaloids: atropine and scopolamine -- A. belladonna contains the highest concentration of these alkaloids in its roots during the end of its life cycle (Raetsch: 2005); note that the illustration of A. belladonna on Folio 1v does not portray the early flowering stage of its life cycle, but the end of its life cycle: it is bearing fruit and the leaves are turning yellow (Fig.7). Figure 7. -- Folio 1v, a treatise on the medicinal application of Atropa belladonna. In Folio 1v, it is named as "eseselio" -- the Latin term "seselio, seselis" is applied to more than one species (Hartwort -- likely Tordylium officinale, Meadow Saxifrage -- Saxifraga granulata, and also an entire modern genus with numerous members), although it appears to most commonly apply to T. officinale (Lewis & Short 1879). A -8- likely reason for naming Atropa belladonna as eseselio is because it was used in a similar fashion as Tordylium officinale -- as an abortifacient. Regarding Harwort: "It is a warm martial plant, both heating and drying; it provokes urine and the menses, expels the birth and after-birth; and is good in disorders of the head and womb" (Culpeper 1850: 330). This might suggest that the text of Folio 1v was copied from another source, and that the authors -- either not having access to T. officinale, less familiarity with it, or preference for A. belladonna -- applied this text to A. belladonna because it is effectively used for the same purpose. In "Materia Medica (part II)", by Avicenna (Hakim Ibn-Sina, ca. AD 1000), the use of A. belladonna as such is described thus: "A suppository made from its sap promotes the discharge of menses and expels the foetus. The leaves, when taken orally depurate the uterus. A suppository prepared by mixing it with sulphur without placing on fire stops excessive bleeding from the uterus." (Avicenna 1998: 469) Often early texts referring to abortifacients and emmenagogues do not explicitly describe them as "birth control agents," but rather as a means to "remove an unwell fetus" or to "provoke delayed menstruation" (Riddle: 1999) -- such mindful and patient-centered language regarding these women's health issues existed during the Medieval period. In our translation below, the term "ionu" (Lat. "honus") "the burden" is used as the euphemism for "fetus" or "embryo"; this is not our interpretation, but a known meaning of honus: "the burden of the womb, the foetus, embryo" (Lewis and Short 1879). In the text of Folio 1v, line 6, it states "...eses in iliun..." (Lat. "...esses in ilium...") "...were you wasting in the abdomen...," -- we understand this to be what we note above, this abortifacient is presented as a means to expel a fetus which was "wasting in the abdomen." Given that we are proposing both transliteration and translation, and that multiple steps are needed in these procedures, we provide our work in each stage for the sake of transparency to the reader and future researcher: The Voynich script: (in standardized type, for sake of clarity): Direct Transliteration: the sound values of the characters of the script: a.r.e.i.n • ed.i.e se.c.a.ed.n Coalesced Transliteration: word boundaries established: arei.n ed.ie seca.ed.n Full Transliteration: intended prose and punctuation: are...&ie seca &. Latin Comparison: Classical Latin, for comparison: are seca (etc.) English Translation and Gloss: translation and gloss of text into English: you shall be dry(2,3) shall dry out(4), Footnotes: the declensions and conjugations, lemma, and notes by the authors: (3) likely pres. imper. II s. are, from v.i. act. diath. areo "to be be dry... -9- In the Direct Transliteration (DT), we separate the sound values of the Voynich characters with a period "." and we utilize a point "•" to indicate where the text is interrupted by the page illustration. In the Coalesced Transliteration (CT), we establish the word boundaries -- marked by a period "." (see: Voynich Writing System Orthography, below) and we identify where the character un is being utilized to mark punctuation or truncation, and where the character de is being utilized to indicate "and/&" as a ligature or conjunction. In the Full Transliteration (FT), we provide the words and punctuation as they were likely intended by the Manuscript authors (note that the language of the Voynich Manuscript is written phonetically -- fortunately, this provides some information about the Manuscript authors' pronunciation of the Vulgar Latin terms, and thus perhaps information about the vernacular Italian language they speak aside from the Vulgar Latin; see: Language of the Voynich Manuscript, below). Rather than utilizing the International Phonetic Alphabet in our transliteration, we use standard characters and spelling conventions for presenting Classical Latin, given that this generates a transliteration that is easier to recognize and provides future researchers with a system which fosters greater ease in identifying the Vulgar Latin terms in the Manuscript. In our transliteration, we utilize the letter "c" in instances when the sound /k/ is represented by "c" in Latin (and related languages), and we utilize the letter "ç" to indicate instances in Latin (and related languages) where the sound /s/ is represented by "c." Also, it appears that the authors of the Manuscript attempted to account for vowel length in regard to /o/ and /u/ (see: The Voynich Writing System Orthography, below), we represent long "o" and "u" as "o" and "u." We provide the Latin Comparison (LC) to present the reader with cognates in Classical Latin, thus to provide linguistic information about the Vulgar Latin of the Voynich Manuscript by its comparison to Classical Latin. Given that late Medieval Vulgar Latin was not a single, formalized language, but a range of dialects and sociolects utilized in religious, philosophical, and pre-science contexts throughout Europe, identifying the characteristics of the Vulgar Latin of the Voynich Manuscript will likely prove useful in identifying the region where the Manuscript was authored, and perhaps future works will identify associations between the Voynich Manuscript and other texts based upon this dialect of Vulgar Latin. In the English Translation and Gloss (ETG), we effort to account for the Latin declension of terms, though often Latin declensions do not easily nor directly translate into English. To account for this, we provide the declension information and the term lemma in the Footnotes below each line of text, to provide transparency for the reader and future researchers. It is also not uncommon to have terminology in Latin which do not have adequate analogs in English; in these cases, we effort to provide glosses which convey a similar meaning to the Latin term. We account for the ablative case (which is common in the Voynich text) by glossing it as "by means of...," "from...," or "in regard to...," imperative statements are glossed as "you shall...," subjunctive statements as "were you...," and - 10 - in instances where multiple consecutive verbs share the same declension, we will indicate this in the first verb of the series "you shall..., ..., ..." Utilizing the sound and punctuation values we have identified, Folio 1v -- a treatise of a medicinal use of Atropa belladonna -- reads thus: 1 æqu.i.re.n i.a.d.u.ure e.s • e.se.l.i.o.n i.u.re pi.u.re u.re+n Æquire.n i.aduure es eselio.n iure piure ure.n Æquire, i adure eseselio -- iure piure ure. Æquare, et adure seselio -- iure piare ure. You shall be balanced(1), and shall destroy(2) -- Eseselio (3,4) -- by this extract(5) you shall be cleansed(6) you shall dry up(7). (1) æquare, pres. imper. II s. of pass. diath. æquor "to level or balance," (2) pres. imper. II s. adure, from v.t. act. diath. aduro "to scorch, burn, consume with fire," (3) the initial es- is the author begining the word es-eselio, then interrupted by the plant illustration, and then continuing the term -eselio on the other side of the illustration, (4) likely Lat. seselio "hartwort" (5) ablative form iure, of n. n. ius "broth, soup" - by extension, the term for a medical extract, tincture, or liquor, (6) likely pres. imp. II s. piare, from v.t. pass. diath. pior "to cleanse, expiate" (7) pres. imper. II s. ure, of v.t. act. diath. uro "to dry up, wither, deplete, consume" 2 in.el.o.o.n i.u.re a.r.e.i.n • ed.i.e se.c.a.ed.n æ.qu.e.de.u.re i.e.de.n In.eloo.n iure arei.n ed.ie seca.ed.n æque-deure i.ede.n In elo, iure are... &ie seca &. æque-deure i ede... In illo, iure are seca etc. æque-deure et ede... In regard to this(1), from the extract you shall be dry(2,3) you shall break it apart, etc.(4), shall evenly eradicate it(5) and shall issue it(6)... (1) This expression appears to be from prep. in "about, for, in, in the course of, concerning, during, etc." and ablative m./n. illo, from dem. pron. ille "that, this, he, it" and could be glossed as "regarding that, concerning it, during it" (2) the text is interrupted by the illiustration, the author appears to start and then truncate the word on the left side of the illustration with -.n, and then resumes writing the remainder of the word on the right side with ed- "...and," (3) likely pres. imper. II s. are, from v.i. act. diath. areo "to be be dry, to be parched" (4) unfortunately, this term may be: pres. imper. II s. seca, v.t. act. diath. seco "to cut, sever, chop up, detach, to halve," or perhaps related to the n.m. sectus "parts of the body operated upon" (perf. pass. part. of seco, meaning "having been cut up,") -- due to the potentially grim connotation of this term, we gloss it as "to break apart," rather than "to dismember," (5) this compound is likely the adv. æque- "equally, justly" combined with pres. imper. II s. -deure, from v.t. act. diath. deuro "to burn up, to consume, to wither" (6) pres. imp. II s. ede, from v.t act. diath. edo "to generate, produce, issue." 3 ed.e aqui.n aqui.e.aqui.n si.n • ed.æqua.çi.o.o.n ili.n æqu.e.el.i.e.de.n d.u.çe ede aqui.n aqui.e.aqui.n si.n ed.æquaçioon iliun æqueeliede.n duçe ede aqui, aqui e aqui. si. ...æquaçion iliun æque-eliede, duçe ede aquis, aquis et aquis. Sic, æquatione ilium æque-elide, duce you shall issue it by waters(1), waters and waters. Thus(2), by an equalizing (3,4) the abdomen(5) you shall evenly expel it(6), shall draw it out(7) (1) likely pl. ablative aquis, from n. f. aqua "water, fluid, urine," (2) written as çi.n/si.n, the -.n may function a truncation marker at times: it is likely that this si.- is a truncation of sic "so, thus, as such" (3) the initial ed is likely the conjunction ed, Lat. et "and, also"; likely not to be read in the text, but marks continuation of the line of text (having been interrupted by the plant illustration) (4) likely Lat. abl. n.f.s. aequation "an equal division, equalizing" (5) Lat. ilium "pelvis, guts, lower abdomen," (6) this compound is composed of the adv. æque- "equally, justly" combined with the pres. imper. II s. elide, from v.t. act. diath. elido "to strike out, expel," Note the Ladino (Val Badia) term v. t. aledié "to free, to liberate," (7) pres. imper. II s. duce, from v. t. act. diath. duco "to lead, to command, to draw, to regard, to prolong," or from the same root: pres. imper. II s. adduce, from v.t. act. diath. adduco "to lead away, to induce." - 11 - 4 d.u.çe i.æ.qu.o.a d.u.ura de.u.re+n • us.e.i.o.nu i.æ.que.e.de.n duçe i.æquoa duura deure.n use ionu i.æqueede.n duçe i æquoa dura deure...use ionu i æque-ede. duce et æqua dura deure-use honus et æque-ede. you shall draw out(1) and balance(2) hardnesses(3) from having eradicated(4) the burden(5) and you shall evenly issue it(6). (1) pres. imper. II s. duce, from v.t. act. diath. duco "to lead, to command, to draw, to regard, to prolong," or from the same root: pres. imper. II s. adduce, from v. t. act. diath. adduco "to lead away, to induce," (2) pres. imper. II s. æqua, from v.t. act. diath. æquo "to level or balance," (3). acc. dura of pl. n. dura "fatigues, pains, worries, hardships" -- we read this term to also indicate physically hard materials: gall stones, blood clots, etc., (4) this compound is likely pres. imper. II s. deure, from v.t. act. diath. deuro "to burn up, to consume, to wither," and adj. m. ablative use, of perf. part. usus of v.tr./i. utor "to use, to make use of," (5) ionu is nom. n.n. honus "load, burden, difficulty, excrements, and (poetic) 'the burden of the womb, the fetus/embryo'"; note that the Voynich initial i is a likely reflex of Latin initial h (Lat. /h/ > Voy. /i/), which is not an unexpected or uncommon shift; also note that the Latin terminal -s of honus is lost in Voynich ionu (also, Line 3 -- Lat. aquis > Voy. aqui) (6) this compound is likely the adv. æque- "equally, justly" combined with pres. imp. II s. ede, from v.t. act. diath. edo "to generate, produce, issue," 5 per.e.l.e.n çi.e.s d.u.ura pi.a.u.s • de.u.re i.o.nu el.e.de.n e.l.e.u.ure çi.e.ç.n Per.ele.n çies duura piaus deure ionu elede.n eleuure çieç.n Per ele, çies dura piaus deure ionu elede, eleure çies... Per ille, cies dura pias deure honus elide, eluere cies... By this,(1) you discharge(2) hardness you cleanse(3) you shall eradicate(4) the burden(5) you shall strike it out(6), you are cleansed(7) you discharge... (1) this expression appears to be prep. per "by, by means of" and dem. pron. m. ille "that, this, he, it," and could be glossed as "through using this, by means of it," etc. (2) pres. ind. II s. cies, from v.t. act. diath cieo "to move, to produce, to discharge," (3) likely pres. ind. II s. pias, from act. diath. pio "to cleanse, expiate," (4) imper. pres. II s. deure, from deuro "to burn up, to consume, to wither" (5) see: Line 4, note 4 (6) likely pres. imper. II s. elide, from v.t. act. diath. elido "to strike out, expel"; Note the Ladino (Val Badia) term v. t. aledié "to free, to liberate" (7) likely pres. ind. II s. eluere, or pres. imper. II s. eluere, from v.t. pass. diath. eluor "to wash clean, wash away, clear oneself of," or pres. inf. eluere, from v.t. act. diath. of the same verb. 6 i.a.qu.n i.e.s eli.e.çe çi.e.s æ.q.u.es • ed.e.s.i.o.nu i.e.d.e es.e.s i.n ili.un i.aqu.n ies elieçe çies æques edes-ionu i.ede eses i.n iliun ...aqu. ies elieçe çies æques edes-ionu i ede eses in iliun ...aqu. iis elice cies æquas edes-honus et ede esses in ilium .waters. By these means(1), you shall draw out(2) you discharge(3), balance(4), will issue the burden(5) and you shall issue(6) were you wasting(7) in the abdomen(8) (1) abl. pl. iis, of pers. pron. iis, meaning "they" -- in this case and declension, we read this a "by the means of these" (2) pres. imper. II s. elice, from v.t. act. diath. elicio "to draw out, to elicit," (3) pres. ind. II s. cies, from v.t. act. diath cieo "to move, to produce, to discharge," (4) pres. ind. æquas, from v.t. act. diath. æquo "to level, make even, or balance," (5) this compound is likely fut. imp. II s. edes, from v.t act. diath. edo "to generate, produce, issue," and nom. n.n. honus "load, burden, difficulty, excrements, and (poetic) 'the burden of the womb, the fetus/embryo'"; see: Line 4, Note 4 (6) pres. imp. II s. ede, from v.t act. diath. edo "to generate, produce, issue" (7) subjunct. imperf. II s. esses, from v.t. edo "to eat up, consume, to waste, destroy," we gloss this term as "were you destroying/wasting." (8) likely accusative, which take prepositions, but this would then means "into the abdomen"; we suspect, that given that the ablative and accusative were in the process of merger in Vulgar Latin, that this could have held a meaning closer to the abalative "within the abdomen." 7con.e a.s.i.e.o.o.us i.o.e.s ed.e.s ili.o.n • in.æqu.a.s ed.e.s ed.e.s.e in.æqu.a.s ed.e.s i.e.de.n con.e --------- ioes edes ilio.n inæquas edes edes.e inæquas edes i ede.n - 12 -  Con e ---- ies edes ilio... inæquas edes edes e inæquas edes i ede... Cum e ??? iis edes ilio... inæquas edes edes et inæquas edes i ede... With these means(1), ??? (2) by these means(3) you will issue(4) from the abdomen(5) you make level(6) you will issue, issue, and make level and issue, and issue... (1) this expression is likely Lat. prep. cum "with, together, having, by means of, using" combined with prep. e "out of, from, by reason of, because of" and abl. pl. iis, of pers. pron. is, meaning "they"; we gloss this expression as "with the means of these," (2) we are currently unable to identify this term, (3) abl. pl. iis, of pers. pron. is, "by the means of these"; we suspect the -o- in this term is scribal error: this ies+verb construction appears multiple times on this page and others, (4) likely fut. ind. II s. edes, from v.t act. diath. edo "to generate, produce, issue," (5) albative ilio, from n.n. ilium "pelvis, lower abdomen, guts," (6) pres. imper. II s. inæquas, from v.t. act. diath. inæquo "to make equal, to make even" 8 æ.qu.a.s ci.e.s æqu.a.s aqu.o.i.n i.e.s æqu.n • i.a.s eli.e.çe i.e.de.n i.e.s d.u.ura æquas çies æquas aquoi.n ies æqu.n i.as elieçe i.ede.n ies dura æquas çies æquas aquoi, ies æqu...as elieçe i ede, ies dura æquas cies æquas aquis, iis æquas elice et ede, iis dura you level(1) discharge(2) make level by the waters(3), by these means(4) you make level(5) you shall draw out(6) and shall issue(7) by these, the hardships (1) pres. ind. II s. aequas, from v.t act. diath. aequo "to level, make even, to make straight" (2) pres. ind. II s. cies, from v.t. act. diath cieo "to move, to produce, to discharge," (3) likely pl. ablative form aquis of n.f. aqua "water, fluid, urine" (4) abl. pl. iis, of pers. pron. is, "by the means of these" (5) text interrupted by the illustration; first part of the word, aqu-, ends with the truncation marker --n, and then continues on the other side of the illiustration with i-- "..and"; aquis, ablative form of n. f. aqua "water, urine," (6) likely pres. imper. II s. elice, from v.t. act. diath. elicio "to draw out, to elicit," (7) likely pres. imper. II s. ede, from v.t. act. diath. edo "to generate, produce, issue," 9 çi.e.re æ.qu.a.s i.e.s ed.e.s æqu.n de.u.re • çi.e.s de.i.u.re e.l.i.e de.u.re çi.e.ed.n çiere æquas ies edes æqu.n deure çies de.iure elie deure çie.ed.n çiere æquas ies edes æqu--deure çies de iure elie deure çie &. ciere æquas iis edes æque--deure cies de iure ille deure cie etc. you will be discharged of(1), you level, by these means you will issue(2), shall evenly burn away(3), discharge(4), from this extract this(5) you shall eradicate and shall discharge(6) etc. (1) pres. imper. II s. ciere, from v.t. pass. diath. cieor "to move, to produce, to discharge," (2) fut. ind. II s. edes, from v.t act. diath. edo "to generate, produce, issue," (3) this compound is likely the adv. æque- "equally, justly" combined with imper. pres. II s. deure, from deuro "to burn up, to consume, to destroy, to wither" (4) pres. ind. II s. cies, from v.t. pass. diath. cieor "to move, to produce, to discharge," (5) likely dem. pron. ille "that, this, he, it" (6) pres. imper. II s. cie, from v.t. act. diath. cieo "to produce, dishcharge." 10 el.e.u.re i.e.l.i.o.n d.u.çe i.e.de.n ar.i.e.ed.n per.e.s i.a.d.u.re Eleure i.elio.n duçe i.ede, arie.ed.n per-es i.adure Eleure i elio -- duçe i ede, arie &. per-es i adure Eluere et illo -- duce et ede, are etc. per-es et adure You are cleansed and from there(1) -- you shall draw out(2) and shall issue(3) you shall be dry, etc. (4) you shall destroy(5) and shall dessicate. (1) either ablative m.n. illo, from dem. pron. ille "that, this, he, it" or adv. illo "there, to that place" (2) pres. imper. II s. duce, from v. t. act. diath. duco "to lead, to command, to draw, to regard, to prolong," or from the same root: pres. imper. II s. adduce, from v. t. act. diath. adduco "to lead away, to induce" (3) likely pres. imper. II s. ede, from v.t. act. diath. edo "to generate, produce, issue," (4) llikely pres. imper. II s. are, from v.i. act. diath. areo "to be be dry, to be parched" (5) likely from v.t. act. diath. per-edo "to eat up, consume, to waste, destroy"; the pres. imper. II s. of this term is per-ede, they use the pres. imper. II s. conjugation -es, as if they are only conjugating the verb root from v.t. act. diath. -edo "to eat, to consume, devour, destroy." - 13 - TRANSLATION OF VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT FOLIO 9v Folio 9v of the Voynich Manuscript is a treatise of the medicinal use of Viola tricolor. The species portrayed is likely Viola tricolor (see: Fig.5), based upon the form of the leaves, the yellow lower petals, and its known use in traditional medicinal practices. In "Materia Medica", by Ibn Sina (Avicenna), ca. AD 1000, the use of viola is described thus: “Syrup of bana∫saj (viola) is useful in nephralgia. It is diuretic. When taken dry, it expels bile. Its syrup relaxes the physis gently and it is beneficial for prolapsus ani." (Avicenna 1998: 111) It is known to function as a diuretic (Toiu, et al. 2009: 264-267) and to manage respiratory matters such as bronchitis and asthma (Rimkiene 2003: 411-416). These abilities may be due to anti-inflammatory properties of one or more of the multiple chemical agents in Viola tricolor; it has been found to have anti-inflammatory properties in laboratory studies (Toiu, et al. 2007: 525-529). The text on Folio 9v appears to discuss Viola tricolor as a treament for "expelling hardnesses" -- the term dura is a plural noun, which is often translated as "fatigues, pains, hardships" (related to the word duro "to make hard, to harden") (Lewis & Short 1879), we read it to mean "pains, ailments, etc." but we view that it also indicates actual physical masses: blood clots, kidney and gall stones, etc. Folio 9v may in fact address V. tricolor as a treament for expelling dura such as gall stones (cholelithiasis). Complications with gall stones can generate inflammation of the gall bladder, and inflammation of the bile duct can prevent passing of gall stones (Ansaloni 2016); an anti-inflammatory agent may relieve the inflammation of the bile duct (cholangitis), and thus allow the passing of galls stones which V. tricolor, as an anti-inflammatory, may have relieved; note in the Avicenna quote above, he states, "When taken dry, it expels bile." Utilizing the sound and punctuation values we have identified, Folio 9v -- a treatise of a medicinal use of Viola tricolor -- reads thus: 1 par.e.i.e.re e.p.e.r.e.de.n e.pe/fe.n çi.e.re d.u.ura co.e.p.i.n.p.i.a co.e.pe.s çi.e.s pi.a.s d.u.ura pareiere eperede.n ----- çiere duura coepi.n.pia coepes çies pias dura Pareiere e per-ede, ------ çiere dura coepi--pia coepes çies pias dura Pariere et per-ede, ??? ciere dura coepis--pia coepies cies pias dura You will be developed(1) and shall raise up(2), ????(3) -- you are discharged(4) of hardness, you shall begin to purify(5) you will begin(6), discharge(7), purify(8) the hardness (1) likely fut. ind. II s. pariere, from v.t. pass. diath. parior "to bear, to create, to bring forth," (2) pres. imper. II s. per-ede, from v.t. act. diath. per-edo "to bear, to generate, raise, produce" (3) this term remains unidentified (4) pres. ind. II s. ciere, from v.t pass. diath. cieor, "to move, produce, discharge" (5) this compound appears to be pres. ind. II s. coepis, of v. t./i. act. diath., coepio "to begin" (the -.n here appears to provide hyphenation) and pres. imper. II s. pia, from v.t. act. diath. pio "to purify," (6) likely fut. ind. II s. coepies, from v. t./i. act. diath. coepio "to begin" (7) pres. ind. II s. cies, from v.t. act. diath. cieo "to move, produce, discharge" (8) pres. ind. II s. pias, of v.t. act. diath. pio "to cleanse, expiate, purify." - 14 - 2 ed.i.e.ra con.e.u.ure i.æqu.u.ure li.a.re i.e.s i.e.ra pi.a.s ed.n • e.le.n co.æ.qu.u.ure ed.n ed.iera coneuure i.æquure liare ies iera pias ed.n ele.n coæquure ed.n ...iera coneure i æqure liare ies iera pias &. ele... coæqure &. ...hiera coniugare et æquare liare iis hiera pias etc. ille... coæquare etc. by this antidote(1) you shall be united(2) and made level(3) made smooth(4), by these means(5) by this antidote you purify etc. (6) this... you balance(7) etc. (1) likely abl. n.f. hiera "antidote against poison"; in this context, it likely refers to a curative agent, (2) possibly pres. imper. II s. coniugare, from v.t. pass. diath coniugor "to join together, unite"; this may exemplify the absence of /g/ in the language or the writing system of the Voynich Manuscript (3) likely pres. imper. II s. æquare, from v.t. pass. diath æquor "to make level, equal, balance" (4) likely pres. imper. II s. liare, from v.t. pass. diath. lior "to make smooth" (5) abl. pl. iis, of pers. pron. is, "by the means of these" (6) this ed.n construction is either a truncation of et cetera, or ed.un as etian "and, also" -- it is in this location due to the illustration interrupting the text (7) pres. imp. II s. coæquare, from coæquor "to balance, equalize." 3 in.el.o.n i.e.ra in.æqu.u.ure d.u.ura ili.un e.le.u.ure æ.qu.n • e.o.o.o.su d.u.ura in.elo.n iera inæquure duura iliun eleuure æqu.n eooosu duura In elo, iera inæqure dura iliun eleure æqu... eous dura In illo, hiera inæquare dura ilium eluere æqu... eos dura Regarding this(1), by this antidote(2) you are made level(3) of the hardness of the abdomen, you are cleansed of(4) these burdens(5) (1) This expression appears to be from prep. in "about, for, in, in the course of, concerning, during, etc." and ablative m./n. illo, from dem. pron. ille "that, this, he, it" and could be glossed as "regarding that, concerning it, during it" (2) likely abl. n.f. hiera "antidote against poison"; in this context, it likely refers to a curative agent, (3) pres. ind. inæquare, from v.t. pass. diath. inæquor "to make equal, to make even" (4) likely pres. ind. II s. eluere, or pres. imper. II s. eluere, from v.t. pass. diath. eluor "to wash clean, wash away, clear oneself of," or pres. inf. eluere, from v.t. act. diath. of the same verb, (5) this construction appears to be eos, pron. m. pl. eos "these," and likely nom. pl. n.n. dura "hardships"; we gloss this term as "hardness" and " 4 in.el.o.n le.i.un el.u.ure li.e.re e.l.e.çe e.le.n el.e.çe.ed.n in.elo.n iliun eluure liare eleçe ele.n eleçe.ed.n in elo -- iliun elure liare eleçe ele, eleçe &. in illo -- ilium eluere liare elice ille, elice etc. in regard to(1) the abdomen you shall be cleansed(2) shall be made smooth(3) you shall draw this out(4), you shall draw out etc. (1) This expression appears to be from prep. in "about, for, in, in the course of, concerning, during, etc." and ablative m./n. illo, from dem. pron. ille "that, this, he, it" and could be glossed as "regarding that, concerning it, during it" (2) likely pres. imper. II s. eluere, from v.t. pass. diath. eluor "to wash clean, wash away, clear oneself of," (3) likely pres. imper. II s. liare, from v.t. pass. diath. lior "to make smooth" (4) likely pres. imper. II s. elice, from v.t. act. diath. elicio "to draw out, to elicit," or nom. sing. elisio, of n. f. elisio "a striking out, forcing out" followed by dem. pron. ille "that, this, he, it" -- we gloss this as "you shall/must draw it/this out," 5 par.e.i.e.re in.e.pe/fe? i.o.o.n co.e.l.a.re in.pe/fe.i.n e.s.pi.e.s.un el.o • u.re i.l.un d.u.ura pareiere in ---- ion coelare in.------.n espiesun eloure iliun duura Pareiere in ---- ion coelare in -----, espiesun, eloure iliun dura Pariere in ??? ion colare in ??? spissum, eluere ilium dura You will be developed(1) within? ???, Viola(2) to purify(3) within ??? thick(ness)(4), you shall be cleansed of(5) the abdomen hardships, (1) likely fut. ind. II s. pariere, from v.t. pass. diath. parior "to bear, to create, to bring forth," (2) n.n. ion "Viola sp.," note the long "o" -- distinguishing this - 15 -  term from ionu "burden, fetus" from page 1v, (3) pres. inf. colare, from v.t act. diath. colo "to strain, filter, purify, remove solids by filter" (4) adj. nom. spissum "dense, thick," Ital. spesso "dense, thick" (5) pres. imper. II s. eluere, from v.t. pass. diath. eluor "to wash clean, wash away, clear oneself of." 6 e.d.e.s i.e.n ec.çi.o.e.ed.n i.e.de.n • d.u.ura • e.l.i.n • ili.e.ed • in.æqu.a edes i.e.n ecçioe.ed.n i.ede.n duura eli.n ili.ed inæqua edes i e, excioe &... i ede... dura eli... ili...& inæqua edes et e, excieo &... et ede... dura illi... ilium...& inæqua you will issue(1) and from this(2) you shall produce(3) and shall issue(4) hardness therein(5), the abdomen(6) you shall level(7) (1) likely fut. ind. II s. edes, from v.t. act. diath. edo "to generate, produce, issue," (2) likely prep. e "out of, from, because of" (3) likely pres. imper. II s. excie, from v.t. act. diath. excieo "to call out, summon, produce"; note this is an example of the absence of the letter "x" in Voynich, this phoneme is written phonetically as "eq/ek" + "çi" = "exçi" (/ek/+/si/), (4) pres. imper. II s. ede, from edo "to generate, produce, issue," (5) likely adv. illi "there, on that side, therein" (6) this term ili- is likely truncated iliun, due to interruption by the plant illustration, (7) pres. imper. II s. inæqua, from v.t. act. diath. inæquo "to make equal, to make even" 7 con.e i.e.s i.e.s i.l.i.un d.u.ura • e.l.u.s • ed.e.re • d.u.ura+n con.e ies ies iliun duura elus edere duura.n con e ies ies iliun dura elus edere dura... cum e iis iis ilium dura elues edere dura... from these means(1) by these means(2) the abdomen(3) hardness you will cleanse away(4), you will have consumed(5) the hardness. (1) this expression is likely Lat. prep. cum "with, together, having, by means of, using" combined with prep. e "out of , from, by reason of, because of" and we gloss this expression as "from these means," (2) abl. pl. iis, of pers. pron. is, "by the means of these,"; we cuurently cannot offer an explanation for the reduplication of this term in this line (3) this entry shows an example of an uncommon "partial i" charatcer attached to the Voynich ele character; it is unclear if this is merely a scribal error or a permitted stylistic variation of the character, (4) likely fut. ind. II s. elues, from v.t. act. diath. eluo (5) fut. ind. edere, from anom. v.t. pass. diath. edo "to eat, to consume, to devour, to destroy" 8 us.u.ure d.u.ura co.æ.qu.i.a r.e.c.un.d • ed.u.çe.n • usure duura coæquia recund.ed.uçe.n usure dura coæquia recund--uçe... usure dura coæqua reconduce for the used up hardness(1) you shall make even(2) you shall cure(3) (1) likely abl. m. adj. fut. part. usure, from utor "to use, to make use of," describing the "hardness" as "that which will be used" (2) likely pres. imper. II s. coæqua, from v.t. act. diath. coæquo "to make level, to make equal, to equalize" (3) this term was interrupted by the plant illustration, the middle ed functions as a ligature to connect the two halves of the term; pres. imper. II s. reconduce, from v.t. act. diath. reconduco "to bring back, restore, cure" 9 d.u.ura i.n ele.u.re i.n.ele.n de.u.re.n • n.el.e.çe ed.n duura in eleure in ele.n deure.n n.eleçe ed.n dura in eleure in ele -- deure... ...eleçe &. dura in eluere in ille -- deure... ...elicie etc. the hardness within you are cleansed of(1), within it(2) -- you shall eradicate(3)...you shall draw out(4) etc. (1) likely pres. ind. II s. eluere, or pres. imper. II s. eluere, from v.t. pass. diath. eluor "to wash clean, wash away, clear oneself of," or pres. inf. eluere, from - 16 -  v.t. act. diath. of the same verb, (2) this expression is likely prep. in "in, on, at, into" and pron. ille "that" or adv. illa "in that way, from that part" (3) pres. imper. II s. deure, from deuro "to burn up, to consume, to wither" (4) likely pres. imper. II s. elice, from v.t. act. diath. elicio "to draw out, to elicit," 10 e.le.n æqu.i.a.s i.e.s i.n æqu.n.ele.n • ele.n æquias ies in æqu...ele... ele... æquias ies in æqu... ele... ille... æquas iis in æqu... ille... this you make level(1) by these means(2) within, you make this level(3) (1) likely pres. ind. æquas, from v.t. act. diath. æquo "to make level, equal, balance," (2) abl. pl. iis, of pers. pron. is, "by the means of these" (3) it appears that the author of this page chose to abbreviate the last two terms of this line, likely to avoid printing atop the plant illustration; these terms are likely a repetition of æquias ele. 11 n.i.e.ra i.çi.e.ele.n ele.n æqu.u.ure n.iera i.çie.ele.n ele.n æquure ...iera i çie ele. Ele -- æqure ...hiera et cie ille. Ille -- æquare ...by this antidote(1) and you shall discharge(2) this(3). This... shall be balanced(4) (1) likely n.f. abl. hiera "antidote against poison"; in this context, it likely refers to a curative agent, (2) likely pres. imper. II s. aequare, from v.t. pass. diath aequor "to make level, equal, balance," (3) dem. pron. ille "that, this, he, it," (4) likely pres. imper. II s. aequare, from v.t. pass. diath aequor "to make level, equal, balance" 12 i.æ.qu.u.ure ili.un i.era i.æquure iliun iera i æqure iliun iera et æquare ilium hiera and you make level(1) the abdomen from this antidote. (1) pres. ind. II s. æquare, from v.t. act. diath æquor "to make level, equal, balance" THE VOYNICH WRITING SYSTEM ORTHOGRAPHY The writing system of the Voynich manuscript, compared to all known writing systems, appears to be most closely related to Tironian Notes (notæ Tironianæ) (Fig.8). When compared, the Voynich writing system shares similar character forms and has similar or the same sound value as Tironian Notes. Tironian Notes were reportedly developed by Tiro (94 -- 4 BC) -- the personal secretary of Marcus Tullius Cicero (DiRenzo 2000). This system was utilized and further developed in the Medieval Period in European monasteries; by this time, this shorthand system reportedly maintained 13,000 signs (Guénin & Guénin 1908). Their popularity eventually - 17 - declined, though they still remained in use until the 17th Century (Mitzschke et al. 1882). Figure 8. -- Comparison of Voynich characters [bottom of each row] to those of Tironian Notes [top of each row] alphabetic and syllabic characters; Tironian sound values written phonetically. We propose that the Voynich Manuscript writing system is a small alphabetic and syllabic subset of Tironian Notes in late use, in which its developers expanded the sound values of most of the characters for efficiency and ease of learning, rendering, and for communicating the Vulgar Latin dialect of the region. The reason for using this writing system was not to encrypt nor cipher the content of the text, but for the sake of efficiency: this system is ideal for writing Vulgar Latin and with brevity. The original Voynich scholars/readers -- fluent in the language -- could easily determine if the sound value of Voynich character e represents /e/ or /a/ in a given word (just as English speakers naturally understand that the letter "a" represents the sound /æ/ in "cat" /kæt/, but also represents the sound /eɪ/ in "fate" /feɪt/ and /ô/ in "ball" /bôl/) and perhaps just as easily determine whether the Voynich character de - 18 - represents the sound /ed/ or /de/ in a given written word. The small character inventory would have enabled a shorter time to learn this system -- not just learning to identify the characters and their values, but to learn the proper scribal art to write such characters as prose text in a manuscript. Considering the expense of such writing media -- parchment and vellum, etc. -- a writing system which can make efficient use of space would have been viewed as advantageous. In this system, a Vulgar Latin term such as pareiere "to be created, developed" would require only five of the Voynich characters (par.e.i.e.re), while Latin script would require eight (p.a.r.e.i.e.r.e). Fig. 9 -- The likely process of the generation of Voynich compounds/conflations (absent in Tironian Notes). The creation of ligatures or conflations of the Voynich character i with other syllablic characters (see: Fig. 9) also generates space efficiency: rather than writing Voynich el and i to produce eli, the characters are merged into one single character to further save space. When compared to Tironian Notes, it appears that the Voynich writing system developed the innovations we identify in Fig. 9 independent of the original Tironian system. There is a latent pattern of development in the Voynich writing system regarding sound values: the majority of (non-vowel) characters possess a single consonantal value (e.g. -- le has /l/, de has /d/, se has /s/ etc.); and then each character has an additional basic syllabic value (e.g. -- le has /le/, de has /de/, se has /se/, etc.) -- note how the added vowel is /-e/ (conveniently the most common - 19 - vowel in the language, this has now significantly reduced the volume of the written "e" in the system); given that /u/ is also very common in the language, the developers of the Voynich system elected to use independent characters for /u/ paired with the most common consonants that appear with it in the language, namely /n/, /s/, and /r/, thus the existence of the Voynich characters un, us, and ur; the Voynich character i evolved to be low and horizontal in form, (perhaps historically) this made it convenient to superimpose atop other characters for the sake of conserving space -- this led to the generation of ligature/conflation syllabic forms for the most common syllables that utilize /i/ (e.g. -- le + i = li, que + i = qui, us + i = si); the natural extension of the system would be that each syllabic value could be transposed, thus le would have the syllabic value /le/ and its inverse /el/, de would have /de/ and the inverse /ed/, etc.; via vowel harmony, each syllabic character would also represent the same vowel before and after the consonant (e.g. -- le can represent /le/, /el/, and then /ele/, ili can represent /li/, /il/, and /ili/, de can represent /de/, /ed/, and /ede/, etc.); and finally, use of this system would naturally generate "shortcut" forms among its users, such as the character ili would be used to represent /eli/ also. The use of Voynich un to represent a virgula suspensiva -- a punctuation mark to indicate pause in speech or the end of a sentence -- may find its origins in the complex Tironian Note system, or may have been a local innovation addressing the need to indicate the natural pace (and pauses) of speech; this will be the work of future Medieval paleographers to determine. The Voynich character un also appears to serve as a truncation marker (folio 1v, line 2: arei.n ed.ie producing "arei... &ie," or "areie" which had been written in two parts because of the interruption by the page illustration). The use of Voynich character de as a conjunction mark may find its origins in the syllabic value of the character itself: ed meaning "and" ("et" in Classical Latin) -- even though the authors of the Manuscript appear to favor the Italian vernacular i and e to mean "and" in the majority of the text. There are examples in the Manuscript where ed.n likely represents the term et cetera or etc., or something of similar function; the Voynich ed meaning "and" and the -.n being a truncation marker, producing "&." or perhaps the Voynich term ediun (Classical Latin etiam), meaning "and, also." However, there are examples within the Manuscript in which its use more closely resembles "etc." (et cetera): on folio 14v, line 6 there is a continuous trio of ed.n, and could be read as "etc. etc. etc.," (Fig.10, below), however this trio of "et, et, et," was common to Latin inscriptions, to indicate "both this and this" or "just this and this." Common to Medieval shorthands, regularly used terms (such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles, etc.) were often abbreviated; in the Voynich writing system, the character co is also used to represent the conjunction con (Classical Latin cum) "with, by means of," and the Voynich character pe is used to represent per "through, by." However, these abbreviated values were then also - 20 - utilized as phonetic values, thus co can represent the conjunction con and the syllable /con/ and pe can represent the preposition per and the syllable /per/. Figure 10. -- The use of "ed.n" in repetition on Folio 14v, line 6. Finally, there are ligatures/conflations of common word final syllables and the virgula suspensiva character -un: the characters which we name re-punct and de-punct, which appear to exist for the sake of economy -- to once again save space in an environment in which two characters commonly appear. The Voynich system and language appears to preserve long /o/ and long /u/ of Latin in a few instances (written as /o/ and /u/ in this work); this is done by reduplication of the characters o or u, or by combining u with a syllabic character which has u as its vowel (e.g. -- u + ure = ure, u + us = us, etc.). This can be seen on Folio 1v, line 1: i.a.d.u.ure = adure, and on line 8: d.u.ura = dura. On Folio 1v, lines 4, 5, and 6, the term ionu (i.o.nu) "burden" is written with a short vowel, however Folio 9v, line 5 has ion (i.o.o.n) "viola" written with a long vowel (though in Classical Latin, ion has a short vowel), this may be the product of the dialect of Vulgar Latin, or perhaps it is a measure taken to distinguish between these two terms which have similar spelling. Given that /-e/ is the default vowel in the syllabic value of most of the Voynich characters, it may not be possible at this time to determine if the Voynich authors represented or preserved long /e/ of Latin. Note that Folio 9v, line 6 demonstrates the lack of the letter "x" in the Voynich system, but instead spells /ks/ phonetically; i.e. -- ec.çi.o.e... /eksioe/ "excioe." Regarding prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, and adverbs in the Voynich writing system, they often appear affixed to the front of nouns and verbs; in Fig.16, note that in the line "...ele are que..." the conjunction que "and, also" was affixed to the back of the verb. It appears that the Voynich orthography permits affixing prepositions, - 21 - pronouns, conjunctions, and adverbs to nouns and verbs, but does not make it obligatory. We see this practice in a number of modern Romance languages, wherein an article is affixed to a noun under certain conditions Engl. "the orange" = Fr. "l'orange," Ital. "l'arancia"; Engl. "the hour" = Fr. "l'heure," Ital. "l'ora." We find similar behaviors with articles in modern languages; in Italian, we find the compound prepositions "a+la" ("at/to the") affixed to the noun in such terms as "all'ora" "at the hour." THE LANGUAGE OF THE VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT PHONOLOGY The sound inventory and word morphology of the language of the Voynich Manuscript are not unexpected for a Medieval Vulgar Latin. We find a sound inventory of /e/, /e/, /a/, /a/, /i/, /i/[rare], /o/, /o/, /u/, /u/, /d/, /f/, /k/, /kw/, /l/, /n/, /p/, /r/, /s/, /ks/ ["x"], and possibly /m/. In our transliteration and translations, we provide the Classical Latin cognate for puposes of comparison for the reader; one can identify a number of phonological changes from Classical Latin to the Vulgar Latin of the Voynich Manuscript. Among vowel changes, we see shifts of /e/ > /i/ and /i/ > /e/ (short Lat. /i/ in particular often became Vul. /e/) which are typical of Medieval Vulgar Latin (Grandgent 1907: 61, 85, 92, 94--95, 104). In the Voynich Manuscript, we find examples of these shifts: Voy. elo < Lat. illo; Voy. elede < Lat. elide; Voy. ies < Lat. iis; Voy. eleçe < Lat. elice. We also see Voy. /ie/ < Lat. /e/ and /i/: Voy. espiesun < Lat. spissum; Voy. arie < Lat. are; Voy. elieçe < Lat. elice; Voy. pareiere < Lat. pariere. Note to the reader: although we utilize "æ" in our transliteration, this phoneme is /e/, and we have written it as "æ" for ease of the future researcher (and ourselves) in identifying Classical Latin cognates -- the phoneme /æ/ shift to /e/ began happening even before the emergence of Vulgar Latin (idem.: 76, 88). Classical Latin long /u/ has been maintained in only some examples of Voynich Vulgar Latin: Voy. adure < Lat. adure; Voy. dura < Lat. dura; and more often than not, it is not represented in the language of the Manuscript: Voy. ure < Lat. ure; Voy. duçe < Lat. duce; the representation of /u/ appears inconsistent at best in the Manuscript. Also typical of Vulgar Latin dialects is the confusion between /o/ and /u/ (idem.: 92): Voy. odun < Lat. udum; Voy. ode < Lat. ude; Voy. odure < Lat. udore. In Voynich Vulgar Latin, we see the generation of /o/ or /u/ in the environment of the other: Voy. æquoa < Lat. æqua; Voy. eloure < Lat. eluere; Voy. eous < Lat. eos; and at times we also see the loss of front vowels in these environments: Voy. æqure < Lat. æquare; Voy. elus < Lat. elues. We also find examples in which Classical Latin /a/ falls in the context of /u/ or is shifted farther - 22 - back to become /u/ in Voynich Vulgar Latin: Voy. piure < Lat. piare; Voy. æqure < Lat. æquare; Voy. coæqure < Lat. coæquare. We find one example of Voy. /o/ to represent /w/: Voy. el aoades < Arab. al awaid. Although we find /n/ in use, we cannot currently commit to the statement that Voynich Vulgar Latin is devoid of /m/. Either the character we name as un also represents /m/, or perhaps the rare character we name as X represents /m/. Classical Latin /m/ before vowels and word final was weak and nasalized, as was /n/, and the loss of /m/ in Romance Languages was common, other than in monosyllabic terms (idem.: 74, 127, 130); although by the emergence of Romance Languages, the distinction between /n/ and /m/ became more formalized and reinforced (idem.: 128). We currently cannot determine if /g/ exists in Voynich Vulgar Latin. Under certain conditions Lat. /g/ > /k/ or /y/ (and /y/ would fuse with nearby /i/ or /e/) and intervocalic /g/ was often dropped altogether (idem.: 107, 110, 112). We see some examples of the loss of /g/ in Voynich Vulgar Latin: Voy. çinu < Lat. cygnus; Voy. coneure < Lat. coniugare; Voy. usepi < Ital. giuseppi. However, if /g/ does exist in the language, it is likely represented by the character we name que. Already common in Classical Latin, the phoneme /h/ was notably weak and often articulated as a weak aspiration; it commonly fell from spoken Romance Languages, even if it survives in their written languages (idem.: 106); we see this in Voynich Vulgar Latin: Voy. iadun < Gr. hyades; Voy. ionu < Lat. honus; Voy. iera < Lat. hiera. The phoneme /b/ does not appear in our work to date. It may have shifted /b/ > /v/ in Voynich Vulgar Latin; its lack of appearance may be due to low frequency in the language, it has shifted to /v/ (likely represented as the character u in the Voynich writing system) or that the Voynich character we name pe accounted for /p/ and its voiced relative /b/. We also find a few examples of word initial /s--/ > /es--/, which is common to some Vulgar Latin dialects, and above the La Spezia--Rimini Line (idem.: 98): Voy. eseselio < Lat. seselio; Voy. espiesun < Lat. spissum. We currently cannot determine if /t/ exists in Voynich Vulgar Latin; we have yet to encounter an example where a term would undeniably require /t/; this may be due, in part, to common sound shifts in Vulgar Latin above the La Spezia--Rimini Line, where often word-medial /-t-/ > /-d-/ (Fig.11) and the general interchangeability and loss of word-final /-t/ and /-d/ in Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin dialects (idem.: 119- -120). - 23 - Given that the Manuscript is written phonetically, this provides some information regarding the region of where it was authored. The sound changes from Classical Latin to Voynich Vulgar Latin we observe indicate that this text was likely authored above the La Spezia--Rimini Line (Fig.11). We note a lack of geminate consonants in Voynich Vulgar Latin, and this may again be a product of this dialect existing above the La Speiza--Rimini Line: Voy. elo < Lat. illo; Voy. eses < Lat. esses; Voy. espiesun < Lat. spissum; Voy. efiousis < Lat. effusis; Voy. aduçe < Lat. adduce. This lack of preservation of Classical Latin geminate consonants does not appear to be the product of the writing system -- this system represents long vowels through reduplication (e.g. -- "o.o" = /o/). It may also be of general note that we identify several examples of metathesis In Voynich Vulgar Latin, which is not uncommon in Vulgar Latin dialects (idem.: 124): Voy. sideure < Lat. sidereus; Voy. eleure < Lat. eluere; Voy. exçioe < Lat. excieo; Voy. odure < Lat. udore. Figure 11. -- The phonological shifts in Latin which occur above the La Spezia-Rimini Line; geminate consonants become singular consonants (e.g. -- /nn/>/n/) above this approximate boundary, and some unvoiced word-medial consonants become voiced (e.g. -- /-t-/>/-d-/); languages represented are Classical Latin (Lat.), Italian (Ital.), Spanish (Sp.), Venetian (Ven.), and Catalan (Cat.). - 24 - GRAMMAR Near the end of the Vulgar Latin Era, only two of the original Classical Latin cases remained (idem.: 48): Nominative and Accusative-Ablative. We find that Voynich Vulgar Latin utilizes the Nominative, Ablative, and Accusative almost exclusively (with one exception, which appears to be Genitive). In Vulgar Latin, the Ablative is often companioned with prepositions (ibid.: 45) -- commonly de, in, and per -- which we also see in Voynich Vulgar Latin. The majority of the conjugations in the Manuscript are Present Imperative Second Person Singular (in Vulgar Latin dialects, the Imperative had become restricted to Present Imperative Second Person Singular or Plural) (idem:. 52). We also see conjugations in Present Indicative Second Person Singular, Present Infinitive, Future Indicative Second Person Singular, Subjunctive Imperfect Second Person Singular. These are consistent with Vulgar Latin dialects (idem.: 50--54). THE LOCATION OF THE VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT We propose that the location of authorship of the Voynich Manuscript is in the Veneto region of northern Italy, likely within the province of Verona, Padova, or Vicenza. The identification by Zyats, et al., of the "swallowtail merlon" (Ghibellini merli) (2016: 27) architectural features on the battlements of the castles of the Folio 86r "map" would suggest northern Italy (Fig.12) (ibid.). We propose that the castle portrayed on Folio 86r is either Castello Scaligero di Soave (Verona) or Castello Marostica (Vicenza) (Fig.12). Both Castello Scaligero di Soave and Castello Marostica are atop hills (as is the castle portrayed in the Manuscript) and have walls along the sides of their respective hills; the Voynich Manuscript illustration of the castle only portrays one side of the castle/hill, though a wall on the other side of may have existed at the time of the illustration. Also note that the conical rooftops were likely made of timbers and organic materials and do not survive today. Castello Scaligero di Soave has a central tower which is left of center, as is the castle tower portrayed in the Manuscript; unfortunately, Castello Marostica faced significant destruction of the back wall of the castle courtyard and significant damage to the front. The prior presence or absence of towers on this castle cannot yet be determined by our team. Note in Fig.12 that the wall of the castle terminates in a building with a tower at one side. Note that behind the castle is the phrase efeure el usepi, which may mean "they had been (perf. ind. III plur. of Lat. 'sum') the Giuseppi" -- likely a familial and territorial name. Castello Marostica does indeed have a building (downhill) that looks similar and does exist at the termination of the wall, it is currently called the Castello Inferiore. Another castle portrayed on Folio 86r (Fig.13) has three towers, the central one being the largest. There appears to be an effort to show that the central - 25 - tower has four walls, instead of being cylindrical, and that the central tower is offset 45º from the wall below it -- an edge of the tower is shown facing the front of the castle. Of all castles in the vicinity of Castello Scaligero di Soave and/or Castello Marostica, we have only been able to identify one which has all of these traits: Castello Scaligero Valeggio sul Mincio, in Verona (Fig.13) Figure 12. -- The walled castle portrayed on Folio 86r (left; enhancement of the illustration -- inset: the text "efeure el usepi..."); detail of the" Ghibellini merlons" (top right); Castello Scaligero di Soave (middle right); Castello Marostica (bottom right); Castello Inferiore of Castello Marostica (bottom right; inset)[photos courtesy of: castellodisoave.it, and istockphoto(©)] Figure 13. -- Folio 86r three-towered castle [left]; enhanced illustration [center]; Castello Scaligero Valeggio sul Mincio (Verona). [photo courtesy of: Franco Lanfredi, Valeggio.com] - 26 - In the center of the Folio 86r "map" is what may be yet another set of buildings: these appear to be six elaborate "domed" towers (Fig.14); we interpret the blue material at the tops of these towers as mist, rain, or humidity, the undulating blue perimiter as vapor, clouds, and water, the pipes along the perimeter may represent air and its drying effects (see: Fig.15, below). Below, we provide a preliminary reading of the text surrounding this collection of "towers": deure-use afuer efiousis (etc.) aduçe ??? ele odun -- "you shall eradicate, you shall remove that which is discharged, etc., you shall lead away ??? (we cannot identify this term) this mosture..."; esus infuse efedis usi ed edes de ele ode (etc.) ??? ??? (etc.) ed deure, ele odun deure (etc.) use (etc.) - - "having issued, having poured out, you drain away that which has been expended, and you will issue away this moisture, etc. ??? ??? etc. and shall eradicate this moisture, eradicate etc. of that which has been expended etc.." In and among the "towers," a brief text (which may be a continuation of the perimeter text) reads thus: ele ed aduse odun usesimeus ureure ele odure ele odun in ele odure ure -- "...this and you shall bring out moisture we had dried up, to dry up of this humor, this moisture in this humor you shall dry out." Figure 14. -- The center of the Folio 86r "map" (right); and annotated for the transliteration and translation of the text, below. de.u.re.u.se a.f.u.er e.f.i.o.o.us is.ed.n a.d.u.çe e.fe.n e.le.o.o.d.un deure-use afuer efioous-- --is ed.n aduçe ??? ele.oodun deure-use afuer efiousis & aduçe ---- ele odun deure-use aufer effusis etc. adduce ---- ille udum you shall eradicate(1) remove(3) that which is discharged, etc.(3) you shall lead away(4) ??? this moisture - 27 - . (1) this compound is likely pres. imper. II s. deure, from v.t. act. diath. deuro "to burn up, to consume, to wither," and adj. m. ablative use, of perf. part. usus of v.t./i. utor "to use, to make use of," (2) possibly pres. imper. II s. aufer, from v.t. act. diath. aufero "to bear, to carry, to remove, withdraw," (3) likely abl. effusis, of adj. perf. inf. effusus, of v.t. effundo "to pour out, to pour away, to stream forth, (vomit and urine) to discharge," in this conjugation, we read it as adj. "of being discharged/poured out"; note that the scribe finished this term on the next line, to avoid writing atop the illustration, (4) pres. imper. II s. adduce, from v.t. act. diath. adduco "to lead away, to induce" e.s.us in.f.u.se e.f.ed.is us.si.n ed.ed.es de.el.o.d.e.d+n e.fe.n e.f.ed.u.ed+n ed.de.u.re.n e.l.o.d.un de.u.u.re ed.n us.e.ed.n esus infuse efedis usi ed.edes de.el.ode.ed.n ----- -------- ed.n ed.deure.n ele.odun deure ed.n use.ed.n esus infuse efedis usi ed edes de ele ode &. ---- ------ &. ed deure, ele odun deure &. use &. esus infuse effundis usi et edes de ille uda etc. ??? ??? et deure, ille udum deure etc. use etc. having issued(1) having poured out(2) you drain away(3) the expended(4) and you will issue(5) away (6) this moisture(7), etc. ??? and shall eradicate, this moisture eradicate etc. of the expended(8) (1) adj. perf. part. esus, of v.t. act. diath. edo "to bear, generate, come out, produce," (2) abl. sing. masc. infuse, of adj. perf. part. or adj. perf. inf. infusus, of v.t infundo "to pour in, to pour on, to pour out" (3) likely pres. ind. II s. effundis, from v.t. act. diath effundo "to pour out, to pour away, to drain, to shower" (4) genative m./n. usi of adj. perf. part. usus, of v.t. utor "to use, to make use of, to enjoy," -- we read this adj. as "that which has been used" and gloss as "the expended" (5) fut. ind. II s. edes, from v.t. act. diath. edo "to bear, generate, produce, come out," (6) prep. de "down, away from, from, of"; in the phrase edes de ille uda, we read it as "away this moisture" (7) likely nom. pl. uda, from n.n. udum, "humidity" (8) abl. use of adj. perf. part. usus, from v.t./i. utor "to use, make use of" -- we gloss this ablative as "of the expended" el.ed.a.d.u.us e.o.d.un • us.e.si.m.e.us u.re.u.re • e.le.o.d.u.ure e.l.o.d.un • in.e.le.o.d.u.re u.re.n el.ed.aduus -e.odun • usesimeus ureure • ele.oduure el.odun • in.ele.odure ure.n ele ed aduse odun usesimeus ureure ele odure ele odun in ele odure ure, ille et adduce udum ussissemus urere ille udore ille udum in ille udore ure, this and you shall bring out(1) moisture(2) we had dried up(3) to dry up(4) of this humor(5) this moisture in this humor you shall dry up(6) (1) pres. imper. II s. adduc(e), from v.t. adduco "to lead away, to induce" (2) this term begins with e-, we read this as being part of the prior term, which was interrupted by the crease in the page -- the scribe continued the final letter of the term on the other side of the crease; nom. udum "humidity" (3) possibly subj. pluperf. I pl. ussissemus, from v.t. act. diath. uro "to dry up"; this transliteration is preliminary -- this is the only example we have found so far that would indicate that chracter "X" may have the value of /m/, (4) inf. of v.t. act. diath. uro "to dry up, to destroy" (5) abl. sing. udore, from n.m. udor "rain, precipitation, humidity, humor," (6) pres. imper. II s. ure, from v.t. act. diath. uro, to dry up. Figure 15. --- "pipe/chimney" from Folio 86r reading "aer ures" -- "the air you shall dry." - 28 - Voynich Manuscript Folia 75r -- 84v appear to be a treatise on thermal baths ("hot springs"). Likely the 86r map is associated with this treatise: it appears to be an effort to trace the watershed and hydraulic cycle of the region, showing running water, water vapor, and clouds. This is perhaps an effort to identify the origins and properties of the waters of the hot springs in the region -- it may be noted that Verona, Vicenza, and Padova have numerous hot springs (see: Fig.18, below). From Ventura Minardo daEste's (1571) treatise on the curative properties of the mineral content and mud of the thermal baths of Terme di Giunone "Thermal Baths of Juno," in Verona Province (approximately 5 km from Castello Scaligero di Soave), here is selected text and his list of some of the health benefits he states (our translation and gloss): "The goodness of these waters is such, that it benefits almost any other creature. Where an irrational animal, like oxen, that used to drink these noted waters, are always healthy, fresh, and fat. And found many exhausted (bolsi) horses, and hazarding with the use of the bath, of the mud, and of the drinking of the water to be made healthy. And many times they were brought from Mantova, and from other cities and nearby area...(daEste 1571: Ch. 4) "...when there is a conjunction or opposition of the Moon and the Sun, or any other malign aspect of planets; do not do this stated medical practice in any location: to be the general rule for the abstaining in this these stated times by medical practice, and also maybe for some alteration of these mineral waters..." (daEste 1571: Ch. 7) "1 for each humid infermity with some frigidity (frigiditá) like the pain in the joints 2 for humid gout (gotta), and coldness (frigide)... 11 for dropsy (hidropisia), especially for those who have water in the abdomen 20 for the matters of the humidity of the uterus (matrice) of women 21 for removing the impediment of the women who cannot get pregnant 30 for the pain of the breasts of women, they benefit from the bath... 33 for women who would miscarry children: they retain childbirth... 47 for the illness of the stone, purging of sand (arena), stoniness (petrositá) and similar, prohibiting the generation of stones in the bladder 48 [menstrual] flow... 54 to dry out strong humidity in the limbs 55 for the sterile women, making them fecund... 66 for the itch of the bladder... 69 for the blood of the uterus (matrice)... 78 for the French illness (mal francese), one wants it to be an excellent remedy..." (daEste 1571: Ch. 5) Note that above, da Este states that the thermal baths are used to treat "humid infermity...humid gout...coldness...strong humidity in the limbs..." and are used for numerous matters regarding female fecundity, menstruation, and childbirth. On Folio 77r of this apparent thermal baths treatise, we find similar terms (Fig. 16). We read the text as "deure i deure ese aquis ele odun ele are que ele ese edi &. sua areus de - 29 - ele odun" -- "You shall dry out and shall dry out, you shall consume of the waters, this moisture you shall be dried of, and shall consume, you give birth etc., maiden/wife you are dried of this moisture." We understand odun "moisture" to be synonymous to the term "humidity" used by da Este above. And in second-person-singular, present imperative, "you shall consume waters..." we understand to mean the waters of the thermal bath. The term edi(s) -- from edo -- "to bear generate, produce, give birth to" -- we suspect to mean "to give birth" in this context. Also note that the term usa "girlfriend, wife, lover, friend" names the subject of these commands and actions -- we gloss it as "maiden," given that we lack sufficient context to determine a more specific translation. Figure 16. -- Folio 77r: women partaking of mineral water thermal baths as a medical treatment. The text around the water pipe reads thus: de.u.re.i.de.u.re e.se.aqu.i.s e.le.o.d.un e.le.a.re.que e.le.e.se ed.i.ed.n sua.are.u.s de.e.le.o.d.un deure.i.deure ese.aquis ele.odun ele.are.que ele.ese edi.ed.n sua.areus de.ele.odun deure i deure ese aquis ele odun ele are que ele ese edi &. sua areus de ele odun deure et deure ese aquis ille udum ille are que ille ese edis etc. sua ares de ille udum You shall dry out & dry out(1) consume(2) waters(3) this moisture(4) you shall be dried of and(5) consume, you give birth(6) etc. maiden(7) you are dried of this moisture. (1) pres. imper. II s. deure, from v.t. act. diath. deuro "to burn down, consume, wither, dry out," (2) pres. imper. II s. ese, from v.t. act. diath. edo "to eat, consume," (3) dat. or abl. pl. aquis, from n.f. aqua "water"; given that it is ablative, we read it as "of/by the waters," (4) nom. udum, of n..n. udum "moisture," (5) pres. imper. II s. are, from v.i. act. diath. areo "to be dry, parched, thirsty, withered," the que at the end of this term we read as conj. que "and, also" (6) likely pres. ind. II s. edis, from v.t. act. diath. edo "to bear, generate, produce, to give birth to," (7) nom. or abl. s. sua, from n.f. sua "girlfriend, wife, lover, friend" -- we cannot commit which specificity of this term, and thus gloss it as "maiden." - 30 - Figure 17. -- Images of thermal baths in the Voynich Manuscript; a.Folio 81v, b.Folio 77v, c.Folio 79v, d.Folio 82r, e.Folio 82v, f.Folio 84r. The illustrations on these folia portray women, many of whom appear to be pregnant, partaking of thermal baths; note the representation of steam (Figs.17e & f) as a texture of semicircles, or layers of wavy lines, with intermittent blue areas; Fig.17e may actually portray a rainbow in the vapor. Fig.17d portrays a personal bath, or perhaps a mudbath; the star over the figure's head may be related to concepts stated by daEste (above) regarding the relationship between celestial phenomena, and proper (and improper) times for using thermal waters: "...when there is a conjunction or opposition of the Moon and the Sun, or any other malign aspect of planets; do not do this stated medical practice in any location..." (daEste 1571: Ch. 7) - 31 - Note that some illustrations of these thermal baths (Fig.17b) likely portray the baths themselves as internal organs; perhaps as an artistic allegory regarding the use of baths to treat the different organs of the female body; Fig.17b may be a portrayal of a uterus and ovaries. Fig.17c portrays a woman in a thermal bath, with the tail of a mermaid -- The animals accompanying her in these waters reminds one of da Este's (above) statement regarding the health benefits to animals: "The goodness of these waters is such, that it benefits almost any other creature. Where an irrational animal, like oxen, that used to drink these noted waters, are always healthy, fresh, and fat. And found many exhausted (bolsi) horses, and hazarding with the use of the bath, of the mud, and of the drinking of the water to be made healthy." (daEste 1571: Ch. 4) It may be worth proposing or speculating, if indeed the Voynich Manuscript is from the area we propose, that the thermal waters and their reputation for restorative abilities were used in the medical extracts addressed in the treatise of medical plants at the beginning of the Manuscript, and perhaps the plants themselves were considered to be of more powerful quality if they grew in the regions where these waters exist. Figure 18. -- The locations of castles we identify in this work, and the current nearby thermal baths (this list may not be exhaustive). - 32 - RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH We advise the reader that although our work here may provide a means for future transliteration and translation of the entire Voynich Manuscript, we strongly suggest that future research and works enlist those who have expertise and education in: paleography, epigraphy, Medieval Italian culture studies and history, Medieval medical practice, ethnopharmacology, women's health and medicine (obstetrics, gynecology, and internal medicine), linguistics, Vulgar Latin, Italian languages, Romance philology, lexicography, and Medieval iconography. We view that artificial intelligence and machine learning (applied to language) could be successful in further works of transliteration and translation; however, without the utilization of appropriate linguists, lexicographers, paleographers, and epigraphers, such works will likely prove ineffective and counter-productive. And we would like to remind the reader that we qualify our work presented here as "preliminary" -- just as we had utilized the proposals by Stephen Bax and further developed them to produce this work, we expect others who use our work here to improve upon it also. When a problem of unknown bounds and subjects presents itself, any who attempt to solve it could be deemed as equally qualified. But as the bounds and subjects of the problem come into resolution, it becomes equally clear who would be best suited to address these matters; this is why above we make the recommendations of whom we deem as the most apt future researchers for this endeavor above. During the labor and time developing our materials presented here -- nearly two years -- I (Tim King) have had taped upon the edge of my laptop screen a fortune from a "fortune cookie," which reads "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that amateurs built the Ark." As we began to resolve and identify what we propose as the orthography and language of the Voynich Manuscript, we also came to realize the limitations of our own abilities -- our team is composed of an archaeologist, linguist, and epigrapher of ancient Mesoamerian cultures (Tim King, PhD); a polyglot of several Romance languages (two of which are Italian languages) who is familiar with the regional dialects of Italy and who has a notable intuitive ability in identifying Romance lemma and word roots -- who brought about the initial recognition and continued identification of terms and the language of the Voynich Manuscript (Alessandra Andrisani); a student of anthropology and archaeology who has committed years to learning about the Voynich Manuscript, its history and the history of research of it, and whose notable research abilities produced much of the context for understanding the translations our team has generated (Bryce Beasley); and a professional educator who, having a formal education in Classical Latin among other subjects, was both able to clarify the grammar and declensions of the language of the Manuscript, and was also having the talent to patiently teach this in clear and - 33 - intelligible terms to the lay student -- namely, his team members (Julian Condo). Having hopefully furthered the progress of the transliteration and translation of the Voynich Manuscript, we also acknowledge that further works should be in the hands of those better qualified than ourselves. We identify ourselves as not the ideal team to undertake further progress in this work, but the team who was able enough to bring progress to this endeavor. We are "The Other Team" -- the ones who have the abilities to "set up the Basecamp at Mt. Everest," but we are not the adept sherpas to to summit the mountain. To the future researcher, we suggest that when a sufficient number of terms have been translated and attested to be correct, a full analysis of this dialect of Vulgar Latin is warranted. We hope that it may be found to be an already known Medieval dialect, or perhaps that other texts of this time having the same or similar dialect can be identified. We recommend that further investigation into the history and form of Tironian Notes in the Medieval Era would further clarify this form of script, and its use of a virgula suspensiva, in the Voynich Manuscript. We also recommend further investigation into Castello Scaligero di Soave, Castello Marostica, and Castello Scaligero Valeggio sul Mincio and the surrounding thermal baths -- the archaeologists, historians, and populace of this region may unknowingly hold the keys to understanding the relationship between the Voynich Manuscript and this region. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We first and foremost wish to thank our friends, families, and loved-ones for their support and tolerance of us while undertaking this project. The Voynich Manuscript invokes a passion in many that can lie somewhere between favorite hobby and obnoxious obsession. We would also like to acknowledge and thank Medievalist David Lummus, PhD, for his time and his advice; he helped us to understand that we were not going crazy, but that we were indeed reading Medieval Latin. We wish to thank the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University; the high resolution images of the Voynich Manuscript that you have provided to the public have fostered so much scholarship, passion, and interest in this wonderous book (https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highlights/voynich-manuscript). In much appreciation to castellodisoave.it, valeggio.com, and Franco Lanfredi for use of their photographs in our work and for their generousity and enthusiasm. And we would like to express our great appreciation to Stephen Bax: we are indebted to him and his work on the Voynich Manuscript, and his role in generating an online Voynich Manuscript community -- sharing his works and the works of many others; we wish to thank his family for keeping his online site going. In Luçe Side... - 34 - REFERENCES Allen, Richard Hinckley 1963 Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning. Dover Publications, New York. Ansaloni, L. 2016 2016 WSES guideline on actue calculous choecycstitis. World Journal of Emergency Surgery (WJES). Vol.11, Issue 25. Avicenna (Hakim Ibn-Sina), and Oskar Cameron Gruner (transl.) 1930 The Canon of Medicine of Avicenna. AMS Press (1973 reprint), New York. Avicenna (Hakim Ibn-Sina) 1998 The Canon of Medicine of Avicenna: Book II Materia Medica. Dept. of Islamic Studies, Hamdard University, New Delhi. Bax, Stephen 2014a A proposed partial decoding of the Voynich script. 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