Run · Voynich Manuscript

T39 round 1: which period-cipher settings fit the herbal training pages (2,000 prior draws)

The length and vocabulary misfit led to round 1b: positional sign forms (word-start, inside and word-end variants of each sign), which bring Herbal A to mean length 4.0, TTR 0.45, hapax 0.77 in a test draw, at the cost of the edge dependency (0.09 against 0.21).

Exploratory: signs written inside words (stream or word spacing), sticky homophones, a large nomenclator and copied nulls are favoured; one sign per written word is excluded. All draws still write words too long and too varied (Herbal A best 5 %: mean length 5.8 against 4.3, TTR 0.64 against 0.40, glyph h2 3.1 against 2.37) and too few common word openings (top-4 share 0.48 against 0.60)spacing stream 0.66 (0.35) / 0.48 (0.32), word 0.34 / 0.52, sign-as-word 0.00 / 0.00; nomenclator 400 words 0.44 (0.26) / 0.40 (0.26); no syllable signs 0.58 (0.34) / 0.48 (0.34); homophone column kept 98 % 0.32 (0.18) / 0.24 (0.18); copying nulls 30 % 0.56 (0.26) / 0.28 (0.24); vowels dropped 0.34 (0.24) / 0.54 (0.25)0

Result

Run	Measured	Result	Against	Decision	Date
Run	Posterior share among the best 5 % (prior share in brackets), Herbal A / Herbal B	spacing stream 0.66 (0.35) / 0.48 (0.32), word 0.34 / 0.52, sign-as-word 0.00 / 0.00; nomenclator 400 words 0.44 (0.26) / 0.40 (0.26); no syllable signs 0.58 (0.34) / 0.48 (0.34); homophone column kept 98 % 0.32 (0.18) / 0.24 (0.18); copying nulls 30 % 0.56 (0.26) / 0.28 (0.24); vowels dropped 0.34 (0.24) / 0.54 (0.25)	Prior shares · best distance 1.45 (Herbal A), 1.36 (Herbal B), median 2.2	Exploratory: signs written inside words (stream or word spacing), sticky homophones, a large nomenclator and copied nulls are favoured; one sign per written word is excluded. All draws still write words too long and too varied (Herbal A best 5 %: mean length 5.8 against 4.3, TTR 0.64 against 0.40, glyph h2 3.1 against 2.37) and too few common word openings (top-4 share 0.48 against 0.60)

What it used and found

Fifteenth-century cipher practices as one fitted family, per section

Method

MTH

Latin genre texts

Dataset

DAT

ZL3b transcription

Dataset

DAT

Latin as a re-spaced homophonic stream (period practices)

Answer it tests

ANS

Parameters

draws = 1,000 per section from the prior, sections = ['Herbal A training pages', 'Herbal B training pages'], posterior = settings' share among the best 5 % (50 draws) against their share among all draws, positional = 0

Cite it

Mysteries Department. (2026). T39 round 1: which period-cipher settings fit the herbal training pages (2,000 prior draws) [Run RUN0DCB61357W4V]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/RUN0DCB61357W4V

@misc{mysteriesdept_run0dcb61357w4v,
  title     = {T39 round 1: which period-cipher settings fit the herbal training pages (2,000 prior draws)},
  author    = {{Mysteries Department}},
  year      = {2026},
  note      = {Run, catalog key RUN0DCB61357W4V},
  url       = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/RUN0DCB61357W4V}
}