The Voynich Manuscript/F1r

Transcription, comments, theories, links to do with VMs page f1r to be added here... :-)

Description:
This page contains four paragraphs (with 4.6, 2.4, 9.5, 5.5 lines, respectively), each followed by a short right-justified "title". '' Paragraphs 2 and 3 begin with big "weirdo" doodles, very unlike normal Voynichese letters. The first (EVA &252) looks like a capital K lying on it side, with the vertical bar at the bottom; it could be said to resemble a bird with its wings outspread. The second (EVA &253) looks similar to the first, with an extra squiggly line rising from between the two "horns". The two symbols are drawn or painted with flaring strokes ending in swallowtail serifs.

A 1-inch band along the right margin is heavily stained. There seem to be two or three columns of letters ("key like sequences" in that band, which are barely visible in the reproductions

There is a faint unreadable text at the top of the page, apparently in cursive handwriting.

Comments:
This page starts both Quire 1 and the whole manuscript. Many of the VMs' mysterious features - such as right-justified "titles", mysterious marginalia, deliberate (yet curious) page-structure, rare one-off characters, etc - are to be found here.

The page layout suggests four quotes with attributions, or signed endorsements, or perhaps descriptive summaries of sections that follow.

The faint scribbling at the top is the signature of Jacobus de Tepenecz, as asserted in many references.

Jim Reeds writes [15 Jul 94]: "The erased key on f1r is discussed by Brumbaugh. It seems to have 3 vertical columns of letters. The leftmost is the ordinary alphabet, lower case italic hand, a through z. I could not check for the presence of every letter (I'm not sure about j, for instance) but a, b, c, ... o, p, q, r, s, ... y, z are pretty clear. Next to those are very spotty frags of Voynich letters. I could make out <8> next to a,  next to c, <6> next to y, and one of the gallows letters somewhere near the q, r, s range. [...] The 3d column seems to be 1 off from the first: italic miniscules, r next to s, and so on. More is visible in UV shots than Petersen shows."

Brumbaugh reportedly claims that there was a date in the upper right corner of f1r before it was obliterated by the application of chemicals (intended to reveal faded writing).

D'Imperio says that the "weirdo" characters EVA &252/&253 are in bright red ink; confirmed by Glen Claston [20 Feb 1998] and Jim Reeds [03 Mar 1998].

Rene [28 Jul 1997] found a medieval astrological diagram [1], in Greek, where EVA &252 is used as a symbol for Aries, which is "kruos" or "kryos" in Greek.

Stolfi suggested [07 Aug 1998] that the symbols may be abbreviations for "Koenig" and "KoenigiN" --- i.e. "K" and "K"-with-squiggle. (How desperate can you get?)

References:
[1] Codex Taurinensis C VII 15 (author anonymous, no date available). http://www.ficom.net/members/ditch/secret.htm

[2] John Grove http://members.tripod.com/~VoynichMs/Prefix.htm

Images:
From [Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]:


 * http://highway55.library.yale.edu/VOYNICHIMG/size1/D0001/1006076.jpg

[4x JPG] [8x JPG] [Full-Size SID]