I recently decided to dive into the Voynich Manuscript. While I think it's easy to get lost in the mysticism of the text, I decided to approach this by attempting to answer fundamental questions- who, what, when, where, and why?

***\*Who\****

The million dollar question. Obviously, shooting in the dark in the tree of historical cartographers isn't sound logic. So, I narrowed my cartographic search to the 1300s. Given that dating on the ink and vellum, I was operating under the assumption that despite the ink not being introduced until the 1400s, the abundance of knowledge that seems to be represented in the text surely would have taken an exponentially longer time than it would by modern conventions, and explored the idea that the manuscript is a transcription or cumulative work of prior explorers.

From there, I cross referenced time-appropriate cartography, which ultimately came down to the Catalan Atlas (right fold, top right corner)\[**image 1** on this post\], was released in 1375, a short time before the manuscript is said to have been penned. It was the only image that integrated floral imagery of any sort in association with a specific location- it is in fact, the only floral representation in the entirety of the Catalan Atlas, and foliage patterns seem to be consistent with some in the Voynich Manuscript. It is interesting, given that consistency, that the region associated with this floral depiction is subsequently equivocated to Hell.

Having felt this might be a promising lead, I began to look at individuals who contributed to the Catalan's creation, which was mostly by Majorcan scribes and cartographers. While there seem to have been multiple contributing expeditions, one of the primary contributors was most notoriously the Polo family. Given the script's seemingly Latin & Asian contributing linguistics, I thought this might be worth further exploration, as not only would the Polo's have had the ability, they would have had a very good reason to encrypt their text; not only did they hold the knowledge of Rulers throughout the entire hemisphere, including the infamous & feared Genghis Khan, they were close with Italy's highest chairs, through the Papacy.

It is then worth noting, that there exists no real literature about Polo's time in the Khan Empire- leaving a 17 year gap of knowledge is what we, the public, know.

**\*Where\***

Removed from the Polo theory, I had already had the fleeting idea that some of the images were reminiscent of poppies- most of which are regionally locked to the Levant and Southwest Asia. Since this is a purely speculative avenue, it was not something I invested in, but was something I noted.

In my other post, '['The Nordic Connection?'](https://www.reddit.com/r/voynich/comments/1ridqva/the_nordic_connection/) , I highlighted the correspondence of imagery in the Voynich Manuscript to real world locations- notably those that rest within the Arctic circle. While the Arctic circle does not include Mongolia, it does include bordering Russia- a region the Polo family is known to have traveled to in their first expedition, and may have been a region he traveled to again under the employ of Khan.

The Nordic Connection became far more interesting as I began to search for additional literature and material produced by the Polos. While the information is mostly uniform, scant, or speculative, this is when I came across ['Map with Ship- Marco Polo'](https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2023/06/who-drew-the-map-with-ship/) \[**image 2** in this post\]. Immediately upon seeing this image, several things jumped out at me; those regions have been highlighted and annotated in **image 2.**

The first fascinating thing about *'Map with Ship'*, is the fold and irritant/staining present in the lower right hand side. If you were to fold that line, and line up the the pages with the edge of the folio 68r & 68v, you are left with an almost identical match \[**image 3** shows a comparative overlay\], with some seemingly corresponding superficial lines. Why is this fascinating? The *'Ship'* depicted in the map appears to be of Nordic origin with a single horned goat\*, which is fascinating given the context it would exist within if placed in the folio at that exact location.

The second fascinating feature of the *'Map with Ship'* that jumped out at me, was the appearance of a high 'P' feature in the writing, which as I analyzed in my post ['Does a syntactic approach to the Voynich work?'](https://www.reddit.com/r/codes/comments/1rk1we3/does_a_syntactic_approach_to_the_voynich_work/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), appears to also be a consistent feature of the Voynich Manuscript; my proposed method of composition does not impact the 'P's appearance in both. Next to the writing, also seems to be a floral design, which does not seem to be a constant feature of Polo's writing- although the introduction of a chapter does include a flamboyant, extended, 'P' that features a blue florette in its center \[**image 4**\]. Is it the same blue as used in the Voynich? I obviously can't conclude without chemical testing, but it was another consistency that may or may not be of value.

Lastly, I will point to the appearance of both Latin & Asian script (I am not a linguist, I dare not try to identify which one specifically) on 'Map with Ship'. These are the two lingual structures that have been debated about for as long as the Voynich Manuscript has remained in the public, and both appear on '*Map with Ship'.* Does it have additional value? Again, I cannot say for certain, but it is fascinating.

For additional location-based context, I think it is important where both of these documents were found. The Voynich was found in Italy (1914) and the 'Map With Ship' appeared some time later in 1943 in the United States, although it originally belonged to the Marcian Rossi, also a native of Italy. The story passed down in the Rossi family was that the document had originated with Marco Polo, or his trusted friend Admiral Sanserverinus. If true, this would give us a definitive author for one of the documents- and if the the 'Map with Ship' does in fact align with the positioning of the Voynich folio, the possibility that Marco Polo or "his friend" authored both gains additional credibility.

While Polo's life ended significantly (\~75 years) before the penning of the Voynich, it is possible the Majorican scribes transcribed it closer to 1400 based on a pre-existing work, or simply a reproduction someone made at the start of the 1400s. In either scenario, given the evidence above, I am inclined to believe that both pieces belonged to the same author or at one time were in the possession of the same individual at a bare minimum.

\***What\***

To not veer too far into the speculative lane, I kept this rather simple based on what The Nordic Connection implied- this was an amalgam of cartographic (temporal & spatial) and taxonomic knowledge from various regions. As for the artwork of people, until decryption I am going to choose to view these as nothing more than embellished versions of reality as viewed through the bewildered lens of the author- maybe with the aid of opium if the poppy portion is right.

**\*Why\***

As I covered briefly earlier, I think the knowledge was written in this format simply for privacy and security purposes. There were a lot of powerful societal figures involved in the funding of the Polos' expedition and other expeditions contributing to the Catalan and absolutely none of that deep knowledge was meant to be made public. I'm sure the imagery also did nothing to soothe the fears of those in charge of the information, especially the church at the height of its power- hell, many are still afraid of it in an age of complicated technologies.

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Before I sign off the Voynich mystery, as quickly as I arrived, I just thought it would be fun to share this. Whether any of my solutions to the Voynich amount to anything is still to be seen, but given what I do know for a fact, I am inclined to believe some version of the above events.

The Voynich Manuscript- A Lost Artifact of the Polos' Journey