Answer · Voynich Manuscript
A published mechanical procedure produced it
One of the mechanical procedures proposed for the text - independent slot-grammar sampling, Timm-Schinner self-copying, Rugg's table and grille, a Naibbe-type affix-table cipher of Latin (plain or vowel-less), a Tranchedino-type homophonic cipher with nulls and re-spacing, a Trithemius-type word-for-letter table - reproduces the manuscript's held-out statistics once its free parameters are fitted on the training quires.
Where it stands
Ruled outNone pieces of evidence for, one against.
What it predicts
- for the true procedure
- the manuscript's value of each held-out statistic (word-order gain
- held-out bigram gain
- glyph context gain
- form-function coupling
- repeated 3- and 4-grams
- near-twin rates
- page locality
- edge-glyph mutual information
- line-initial divergence) falls inside the spread of 20 simulated corpora written into the manuscript's own layout
Evidence none for · 1 against
No simulated procedure reproduces the statistics
AGAINSTEstablished · weighs heavily · F-025
Tested by 4 runs
| Run | Measured | Result | Against | Decision | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RUN-035 | held-out statistics failed per generator (|z|>2) | slot: 12/12; autocopy: 10/12; grille: 12/12; naibbe: 11/12; naibbe_novowel: 11/12; homonull: 10/12; wordletter: 12/12 | 20 simulations each, parameters fitted on training quires | See note | 22 Oct |
| RUN-039 | held-out statistics failed per generator (|z|>2) | slot: 12/12; autocopy: 10/12; grille: 11/12; naibbe: 12/12; naibbe_novowel: 12/12; homonull: 10/12; wordletter: 12/12 | 20 simulations each, parameters fitted on training quires | See note | 22 Oct |
| RUN-034 | nearest generator to the manuscript in standardised held-out space | homonull | Homonull 5.74 · grille 6.19 · autocopy 6.35 · slot 6.41 · naibbe 7.45 · naibbe_novowel 7.46 · wordletter 7.50 | See note | 22 Oct |
| RUN-038 | nearest generator to the manuscript in standardised held-out space | naibbe | Naibbe 6.64 · naibbe_novowel 6.65 · autocopy 6.90 · grille 6.91 · homonull 7.12 · slot 7.22 · wordletter 8.54 | See note | 22 Oct |
The questions it answers
Most likelyEach scribe ran the procedure in his own way
Cite it
Mysteries Department. (2026). A published mechanical procedure produced it [Answer ANS0D8FZZ4C2TD3]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0D8FZZ4C2TD3
@misc{mysteriesdept_ans0d8fzz4c2td3,
title = {A published mechanical procedure produced it},
author = {{Mysteries Department}},
year = {2026},
note = {Answer, catalog key ANS0D8FZZ4C2TD3},
url = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0D8FZZ4C2TD3}
}