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Religious wars and competition for religious supremacy that allowed feudal medieval Church to oppress people while some Church leaders were openly corrupt, led to an open call by Christians to return to original apostolic Christianity. The Roman and Byzantine Churches reacted to their critics with severe punishment, and/or forced conversion. There was a need to re-evaluate Christianity as it has evolved in the institutional Christian Church.

On the one hand, various religious movements developed independently to serve the needs for the poor and oppressed, and on another, various spiritual movements inspired by renewed interest in the interpretation of the Bible, particularly the Book of Revelation, study of the ancient Greek and Roman myths and religions, and the works of the early Church Fathers.

The literal understanding of the biblical writing, which created belief in witches, devils and all kinds of spiritual manifestations, the cruelties by the Turkish invasions, and increased antisemitisms led some intellectuals to search for a universal religion based on common human values and aspirations.

Because Jesus’ teaching is so universal, it could be applied to different situation and explained in the symbols that Jesus used, like Sun, grape-wine etc. The humanists understood Jesus’ primary concern was for people, for individuals to be able to think for themselves and find the Truth by themselves, as he did, and stand for it, so that the entire society can benefit and eventually evolve to a more just society.

The religious superstition caused by worshipping the relics and religious objects, like the wounds of Christ, did not contribute to better understanding of Jesus’ teaching. On the contrary, it was causing religious fanatism.

The medieval humanists recognized that Christianity has degenerated when the Church allied with the feudal imperialistic rulers, so that drastic reforms were needed. To do so, the humanists had to go back to the source, to examine what was wrong with the Old Testament and where Christianity had strayed away from the original teaching of Jesus. For genuine Christians, it was hard to comprehand that God, who was pure Love, would approve of forceful conversions, crusades against pagans, burning of witches and critics of the Church.  They saw the solution by writing in codded messages, so that only like-minded intellectuals could understand, and by promoting the reading of the biblical books and for this purpose, also promoting the schools, like the 10th century Bogomils and Cathars had been doing.

The Renaissance humanism started in Italy from where it spread across Western Europe in the 14^th, 15^th, and 16^th centuries. As the name suggests, humanists were the teachers and students of the humanities, which included grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy. Some teaching came from Greece, and some from the Arabs. Latin scholars began studying Greek and Arabic works on natural science, philosophy and mathematics.

As a cultural movement, the Renaissance promoted Latin and vernacular literatures. The Renaissance began in the Republic of Florence with the writing of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and Petrarch (1304-1374). Other major centres were Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, Rome, Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp.

The neo-Platonic humanists did not reject Christianity, but tried to present it in a new way.

Petrarch, who was a cleric, was first to encourage the study of pagan civilizations and classical moral virtues in order to preserve Christianity.

The Neo-Platonists were trying to reconcile Platonism with Christianity. They were followers of Saint Augustine. Neo-Platonism and Hermeticism, proponents of which were Nicholas of Kues, Giordano Bruno, Pico della Mirandola, among others, was popular trend that had great influence on Nicholas Kempf. Their ideas at times seem like a new religion.

I suppose the iconoclastic Humanism was regarded Godless. Not worshipping icons was considered not respecting God.  This does not mean that the adherents were godless, only that they worshipped what the sacramental symbols represent.

Esoteric language is one of the safeguards placed in the Bible to assure humanity that the universal values Jesus promoted, would continue in all cultures, all times and in all places, even if the Church becomes so corrupt that people stray away.

We are forgetting that many saints were persecuted by the same Church that later beatified them.  This happened to many Christian mystics.

This situation may be generalized to include any religion of any time and place. Every religious movement begins as a humanistic movement, with the wellbeing of humanity as the primary goal. Eventually the entire society gets corrupted, which can cause the fall of civilisation.

Early Slovenian Humanist

Slovenian history has been wrapped in mystery because the German historians simply counted them among Austrian (or German) scholars and dignitaries, because the political situation required that they speak German and Latin. Also, since their land was occupied by Germans, they were counted as Germans. However, their distinct Slovenian names, either Latinized or Germanized, at times even the pseudonyms, reveal their Slovenian origin, although some also originated from German noble families.

Nicholas Kempf was not Slovenian by birth, but he spent over 30 years in Slovenian speaking environment. He studied humanities at Vienna University, where at the time of his studies, at least seven professors were of Slovenian origin. Dennis Martin, who wrote Kemp’s biography, does not mention Kempf’s association with Slovenians, nor the fact that many Slovenian professors who studied at Padua University, spread humanism at the Vienna University. Martin mentions some Neo-Platonists that inspired Kempf, such as Gerson, Nicholas of Kusa.

Before Kempf came to Dolenjska and Štajerska, Glagolitic writing was used, as it is attested by Georgius de Sclavonia, native of Brežice (Slovenia). He learned glagolitic writing from Croatian priests before he went to study at Vienna University. In 1400, he wrote a book in Glagolitic and three years later, he obtained the doctoral degree. He later became profesor of Theology at the Paris Univesity. He left many theological works, among them the Mns. 95, containing several texts in Cyrilic and Glagolitic.  

From his writing, it is also clear how religion played into politics. In a similar way the Germans used religion to Germanize Slovenians, the Croatians used Glagolitza and Croatian language in liturgy. Although both Slovenians and Croatians were part of the Patriarhate of Aquileia, Croatians claimed regions using Glagolitic as their territory. Gregorius’s statement Istria eadem patria Chrawati (Istria is a homeland of the Croats) was used by the Croats to obtain the entire Istria after WW2.

The Croatians proudly claim Georgius de Sclavonia for their scholar, although he was born in Brežice, which at the time was Slovenian teritorry (within a walking distance to Pleterje Charterhouse). Slovenians at the time had no king of their own; their territory was divided among Austria, Hungary and Italy. The designation ‘Slovenian’ did not include the citizens of the Kingdom of Croatia, but people who spoke Slovenian language, and who were called Winds or Wends by Germans. Even those territories where Slovenians lived under Habsburgs, were divided  into different duchies, like Carinthia, Carniola, and marches, like Windish Mark, and Mark of Soune.

Although the Latin word for Wends/Winds was Slauone, the regional designations were used, like Carniolan, Carinthian. In 1415, when Carthusians formed the Fraternity of four Slovenian Charterhouses, they included Žiče and Jurklošter in the Duchy of Styria, Pleterje and Kostanjevica  in the Duchy of Carniola.

No Carthusian Charterhouses from Croatia were included (they did not even exist), which is suggestive that the Carthusians were well aware of the distinction between Slovenians and Croatians.

In the pre-Roman times, the inhabitants of Illyria, Pannonia and Dalmatia, spoke similar language which later became known as ‘sclavonic’, after Jordanes pointed out that Veneti, Antes and Sclaveni were the same people. In the mid-15th century, the Counts of Celje were the bans (rulers) of Sclavonia and large part of present day Croatia. The Kajkavian language, registered as one of the Croatian languages, is recognized by the linguists to have closer affinity to Slovenian, than to Croatian language. This can explain the similarity of Slovenian and Croatian language in the mid-15th century.

The Bosnian Bogomils used Glagolica, like Croatians. A lot of apocriphal and gnostic books were only translated in Glagolitic script, and they would naturaly be of interest of the humanists.

The above picture is a page from his Glagolitic book in which Georgius explains the letters of the alphabet. It illustrates how close Slovenian and Croatian were at the time and how little those basic words changed since the 15^th century.

These Glagolitic notes were written while he was studying at the Vienna University, that is, before 1400, when he obtained the doctoral degree. This means that he would still be remembered at the University at the time Kempf was a student there, even if he was teaching in Paris at the time. There is also a question why he needed to write a Glagolitic book at the German speaking university, which had no designation for Slavic students.

Georgius would have learned Glagolitic at the time of Emperor Charles IV, who was very tolerant of Slavonic liturgy and Glagolitic script; he even promoted the re-introduction of Glagolitic in Bohemia, and in his proclamation, he ordered Princes Palatine to learn Slavonic language.

Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that Slovenians close to Croatia would use Glagolitic script to write down OCS language.

Finding this information was very helpful to me, because it enabled me to better understand the language of the VM, which contains much more Croatian words than the language of the Protestant writers 100 years later.

This serves as a proof that there was a great interest for Slovenian language in the 15^th century Europe.

It is also worth noting that Croatians managed to convince the Roman popes that St. Jerome invented Glagolitza. Empire Charles IV used the same argument to promote it also in Bohemia, and for this reason, six Glagolitic priests from the island of Pašman were invited to Bohemia to revitalize the Old Church Slavonic language.

Another prevailing view among some scholars was that Sclaveni, Antes and Veneti had common origin from the ancient Veneti. This theory was introduced by Jordanes in his History of the Goths, who, like Tacitus in Germania, claimed that the Slavs are the descendants of the ancient Veneti, who lived in democracy, and were described by earlier sources, such a s Pliny the Elder, Ptolemy. This idea had sparked great interest in the 18^th century, and has again resurfaced in the 20^th century.

The fact remains that Slovenians in Carinthia had a special status within the Austrian Empire. Up to 1414, when Ernest the Iron became Duke of Carinthia, Carinthian dukes were installed according to the ancient Slovenian ritual in Slovenian language. His son, Frederick, who was destined for the emperor, refused to be installed according to that ancient peasant custom, when he became the Duke of Carinthia.

According to the Slavic law, Carinthians also enjoyed some privileges that allowed women to inherit property, which made them very desirable brides.

I have not been able to find out what the purpose of the formation of the Fraternity of four Slovenian Charterhouses in 1415 was, but developing written Slovenian language might not be a far-fetched idea at the time when the Counts of Celje were preparing to form a Slavic Empire.

According to modern Slovenian historians, Primož Trubar was the author of the first Slovenian book, and he is credited to be the first to use expressions Slovenci and Slovenian for the people speaking Slovenian language, regardless in which political entity they lived in. The fact is, that the Carthusians used it over hundred years earlier, as attested on the document from 1415, as well as in other sources.  Janez Hofler, in his book Trubarjevi ‘Lubi Slovenci’ mentions the frescoes from Strasbourg, or a miniature from the Ottonian Bible.

Because Slovenian language was not official language, Slovenian intellectuals had to write German, French, or Latin, and their national identity was almost lost, except for their Germanized Slovenian names.

The number of Slovenian students at the Vienna university, and their position at various institutions, reflects their love of learning.

Vienna University

Nicholas Kempf started as a student at the Vienna University, and after graduating, taught for a few years, then entered the Carthusian order. Many of his friends from the University joined him. He kept in touch with the University even after he entered the monastery.

The Vienna University was founded by the Habsburg Rudolf IV in 1365, a month after he founded the town of Novo mesto (Rudolfswert in Windish Mark) and is the oldest university in the German speaking lands. The students and the faculty were divided into four nations: Austrian, Saxon, Czech and Hungarian. Slovenians from the Patriachate of Aquileia were counted among the Austrian nation. Slovenians from the regions annexed to Hungary, counted among Hungarians, and the ones for the regions annexed to the Republic of Venice, counted among Venetians. The condition for the study at Vienna University was also the use of German language.

From the Slovenian-Austrian lands, a total of 2.271 students were registered at Vienna university between 1377-1518, which represented 6 % of all students.

By the second half of the 15^th century, the Vienna University experienced decline. The situation was very bad under Hungarian Mathias Corvinus (1485-1490), so that the number of students fell from a few thousand to a few hundreds. Academically, it also fell behind other universities, which embraced humanistic studies, while Vienna University was focused on scholastic.

This information gives us some inside at the study, and later, of the work environment at the university, while Kempf was there. He had openly complained against scholastic teaching, which was oppressing young creative minds, particularly poets.

Before the end of the 15^th century, several new universities were founded (Trier, Freiburg, Basel, Ingolstadt, Mainz, Tubingen) where the spirit of humanism and classical literature prevailed over dry scholastic. Slovenian academic Brikcij Preprost (Briccius Preprost) from Celje was credited for reforming the Vienna University (it is most likely that Briccius was influenced by Nicholas Kempf, who is regarded as one of the great humanist and monastic reformer of his time). Kempf would have been prior at Jurklošter (within walking distance from Celje) Charterhouse while Brikcij was preparing for the university study.

Nicholas Kempf was as critical of Vienna University scholastic teaching as was Preprost who was a faculty member years after Kempf left.  After the Basel council was suppressed, the conservatism prevailed, which was in part the reason Kempf left the University and entered the Carthusian order. He adhered to the Church Reforms introduced by the Council of Basel. He seems to be supportive of Hussites, although he did not fully agree with them, because Jan Hus interpreted the biblical writing literally, not symbolically. Kampf remained true to his convictions, unlike Piccolomini, who was humanist and supporter of Basel Council at first, but switched his loyalty and became a bishop of Trieste, then a cardinal and eventually a pope, who installed his own nephew as his successor. As Pope Pius II, he sent Crusades to suppress Hussite war.

Because of the spread of Protestantism, renounced as heretical by the Catholic Church, most Slovenian students opted for study on German universities. First Slovenian books were printed in Tubingen. To stop the spread of Protestantism, the Vienna University would not even accept students, nor professors, from the lands where Protestantism was spread.

Among the most famous Slovenian contemporaries of Nicholas Kempf, two individuals from Celje should be mentioned.

Slovenian Bernard Perger was one of the most distinguished mid-15^th century academics in Vienna. He registered at Vienna university in 1459, studied philosophy and until 1481, lectured geometry, mathematics, astronomy, and classical literature. He also studied medicine and Law. In 1471, he became rector of the Vienna University. He also taught Latin Grammar and wrote a Grammar book (Grammatica nova) Venetiis, 1479, in association with Nikolay from Novo mesto and Preprost from Celje. Between 1492 and 1501, Perger was the imperial superintendent at the University (representative of Emperor Frederick III, and later Maximilian I). 

Tomaž Prelokar, also known as Thomas de Cilia, Thomas Berlower or Thomas Prelager, was born around 1430 most likely in a lower class family. He attended art faculty at the Vienna University (after Kempf left, and after Kempf spent several years as a prior at nearby Jurklošter).

Prelokar studied at the Arts Faculty and became Magister. Afterwards, he went to Padua, Italy, where he became Doctor of Law in 1466. In 1470, he was employed at the court of Emperor Frederick III, where he became Emperor’s trusted secretary and teacher of his son, Maximillian who was destined to succeed Frederick. It is known fact that the Emperor spoke Slovenian. Thomas was first humanist at the court of the German Emperor, which became the gathering place of humanistic intellectuals. Eventually, he became a bishop of Constance, and prince of the Holy Roman Empire. He died in 1496.

According to Slovenian sources from the 19^th century, Thomas Prelokar wrote Slovenian grammar book and Slovenian dictionary.

Conclusion

We tend to think of Carthusians as monks spending their time in solitude. While this might be the case for the monks, a prior had to communicate with the monks and with the outside word. He also had to teach the monks and lay brothers how to read and write. He attended court sessions, lectured at the universities. This is how I imagine the life of Nicholas Kempf who is known to keep in touch with the Vienna University, its former students and fellow faculty members. This would give him plenty of opportunities to meet at least some professors from the present day Štajerska, if he did not meet them before.

Because Perger was much younger than Kampf, he most likely did not meet Kempf as a student at Vienna. It is possible that he met him, since they had common interest in philosophy, and since Kempf kept in touch with the university. Perger wrote his Latin Grammar book with the help of Preprost, who also came from Styria, and Nicholas from Novo mesto. Preprost and Perger were both from the vicinity of Celje, so they could have been prepared for the university study by Kempf at the Jurklošter Charterhouse, which was within a walking distance of their homes. The monasteries were the places where young boys were prepared for the university studies, for which the knowledge of Latin and German was required.

I was not able to get any information about Nikolaj from Novo mesto. At the time, Novo mesto was a small newly founded town, some 20 kilometres from Charterhouse Pleterje. It is possible that Nicholas Kempf identified himself as Nicholas from Rudolfswert, since Pleterje Charterhouse was within a walking distance from Novo mesto, and perhaps not that well known.

Brikcij Preprost (Briccius Preprost de Cilia) was born around 1440 and was registered at the Art Faculty at the Vienna University in 1457. Eventually, he became the dean of Arts Faculty. It looks like he encountered some problems there when in 1486, he refused to testify against his countryman, George from Cilli, a medical doctor who was accused of heretical writing by the University.

Heretical writing could be anything the Roman Church did not approve, since by then, any ideas prior accepted by the Basel Council, were no longer acceptable, after Frederic III allied with the Roman pope Eugene. Kempf was a Catholic, but he still adhered to the ideas of the Basel Council.

Since Nicholas Kempf is also mentioned by Martin for his contribution to Latin grammar at Vienna University, we can safely assume that Kempf, Perger and Praprost knew each other, and  that they work at least on one project together. 

Perger was also known as astrologer and he might contribute some ideas for the astronomical pages in the VM.

Another Slovenian, Kempf might have met, was Thomas Prelokar from Celje.

It is less likely that Thomas was the author of the VM, because that would place its creation after 1470. This would be too far outside the date determined by the carbon dating, and because the book is not arranged as a grammar book, nor as a dictionary, but rather the mixture of different things, alluding to be a personal book of a poet, who also had other interests, but most likely the spiritual notes and perhaps the ideas for sermons or for teaching Slovenian language.

Assuming that the author of the VM was Nicholas Kempf, who was known for promoting vernacular language in liturgy, this would explain why the first Slovenian books – a grammar and a dictionary were written by Thomas of Celje, and some 70 years later by Trubar, native of Dolenjska region.

It is possible that there was greater effort made for the learning and use of Slovenian language, however when the Catholic Church failed to accept the reforms to introduce the vernacular languages, the use of Slovenian books for liturgy was probably regarded as Protestant. This could also explain why only five out of 30 books written by Nicholas Kempf have been preserved (in copies only), and why even those saved, were never translated into Slovenian language. Some of his ideas had to wait 600 years to be accepted by the Catholic Church at the Second Vatican Council. However, like other Protestant literature, his ideas were transmitted underground, by way of literature, in symbolic language that only other like-minded mystical artists understood and transmitted in culturally acceptable forms.

Slovenian or Carniolan language

Although I believe the VM is written in Slovenian language of the 15^th century, this is hard to accept by the contemporary Slovenian scholars, who had already determined that the first book written in Slovenian language was Trubar’s Cathehismus and Abecedarium from 1550. This is understandable, because the internet enabled much more material to be available, not only to academics, but to amateurs as well. If there were any books perserved, they were lost in foreing libraries. Slovenians are very excited about the few Slovenian words used by German poet Ulrich von Liechtenstein in the 13th century. Recently, a discovery of the numbers of one to ten, written in Slovenian in a 13th century German manuscript, caused great sensation.

Alternative theories and explanations are offered as the history is being re-examined in view of the wealth of information, offered on line in original languages and in English.

Unlike the Protestant writers of the mid-16th century, who dedicated their book to Slovenians in order that all those who spoke different Slovenian dialects (Carinthian, Carniolan, Istrian, Slovenian and Bezjak) can read them, the VM had no introduction, no dedication, and no name of its author.

The VM is different from other medieval manuscripts, although it shows some likeness to the German genre of Medical Housebuchs. It included the pages with zodiac signs, but it does not include calendars, nor the pictures of saints. The largest part is devoted to flowers, yet the flowers look weird and the text next to the individual flowers look like poems.

I believe the VM is written for a personal interest, for teaching oneself (and perhaps the fellow monks) Slovenian language and Slovenian writing. Since labels (individual words) have no Latin or German translation, it is most likely that the book was meant for somebody who knew how to speak and could recognize the written words. This means that the author had created pages of written words as a teaching aid for spelling and grammar. The full pages of text could be notes for sermons, personal reflections, or various instructions.

The pictures, although of inferior quality, could be the expression of authors’ philosophy, expressed mostly in floral symbolism, or in abstract art, to satisfy author’s inner need for expression of his higher wisdom, something he could not share with people who hardly new how to read basic words.

The word ‘flower’ was used by humanistic writers to mean the superlative of phylosophical sayings in the book of Rosary of Philosophers (12th century). The work of Picolo of Mirendolo was regarded ‘flowers of heresy’ by the pope. In Slovenian language, the symbolism of flower goes even further; the best of home made brandy is called ‘cvet’ (flower, blossom), the youth is called ‘cvet mladosti’ (flower of youth). In general, the word ‘flower’ was used for ‘flowers’ and for ‘poetry’.

I noticed the high frequency of the word ‘(r)oza in the VM. At times, it is hard to tell when it is used in a real or in symbolic sense.

Main sources:

Ožinger, Anton: Študenti iz slovenskih dežel na dunajski univerzi v poznem srednjem veku (1365-1518)

Prosen, Marijan: Astronom iz Slovenskih Goric, 1993

Höfler, Janez: Trubarjevi »Lubi Slovenci« ali Slovenija pred 650 leti v Strasbourgu, 2009

The two VM tall letters, so-called gallows, are the only four letters that do not have a similar shaped letter in other 15^th century manuscripts. The EVA-k and -t have been identified as such by other transcription alphabets, and this is also how I read them, since there is no likeness for German K or T. The transformation could be rationalized with the assumption that the VM K and T could be written with one stroke, which was important for the cursive writing.

The other two tall VM glyphs were identified as EVA-p and EVA-f.

Letter F was very seldom used in Slovenian medieval writing. I noticed that in Swabian writing, like in other German, the V was often used for F. In Some Slovenian words and dialects, particularly Prekmurje dialect, V was often pronounced as F. This accounts for the missing F in my transliteration Voynich alphabet.

EVA-P needed to be replaced for Slovenian reading. Since there is no Q in Slovenian alphabet, and the P is one of the most frequent initial letters in Slovenian words, especially in the prefix PO, I use EVA-q for P, and EVA-p for the Slovenian sound SV.

I believe it was the author’s intention to differentiate the sounds SV and CV/ZV/ZW, but since they sound so similar, he had a lot of difficulty and used them most time interchangeably. The foreigners still have difficulty spelling Slovenian words containing CV as SV. My name CVETKA is most often being spelled as SUEDKA, but also as Quetka, Sueta, Svita etc. Even my own grandchildren cannot pronouce it properly.

Those sounds and letter combinations were also confusing to Slovenians.

It is not enough to determine which Latin letters and letter combinations were used for Slovenian language, because the priests from different linguistic background who first put Slovenian language in writing used their own writing conventions. This is how Slovenian language was written in three main writing conventions – German, Latin and Hungarian. This does not mean that one region used one writing convention, the other region the other, because the borders were often changing and so did the spelling influence.

In the comparative 15th century manuscripts I used for my analysis, various spellings for SW sound could be found.

In all these combinations (sv, zv, cv, su, zu, zv, sw, zw, cv) u, v and w were used for the sound ‘u’, pronounced slightly different in different dialects.

SV inserted into CH stands for Slovenian sound SVČ.

I had already proven that EVA-p does not stand for the letter or for the sound p, but rather for the sound ‘sv’ (Slovenian) or SU in Latin or SW in German. In Slovenian language, there are also ZV and CV sounds, which in Slovenian are distinct, like ZV in the word ZVON sounds different than ZW sounds in the German word ZWANZIG.

The spelling of the medieval Slavic prince SVATOPLUK is an example of various letter combinations being used for the Slavic sound SV: Svatopluk, Zuentepulc, Zuentibald, Sventopulch, Zvataplug, Svętopъłkъ, Świętopełk.

The table below offers some ideas how complicated Slovenian medieval language was.

It is my belief  that the two tall VM glyphs were intended to standardize the spelling of these unique Slovenian sounds across the entire Slovenian speaking territory.

Because the two gallows are used interchangeably, it is hard to get a distinct spelling. Also, there was some confussion about the sound of the letter ‘z’, which in Slovenian was used for c and for z (it also has similar shape in a cursive writing). In the VM, ‘z’ is frequently used in the word (r)oza (flower) and other words. The German cursive ‘z’ with a tail is not used in the VM.

From the Slovenian Etymology Dictionary, I have collected about 250 differently spelled words that start with SV, OSV, and POSV. Most of the variations are caused by different grammatical forms (which a foreigner might take for different words), however, for most of those words, there are about five different spelling variations of the root words.  I would therefore not be surprised if the spelling in the VM is also somewhat different, however, from the context, the words could be better understood.

In the table above, I only focused on the root-word, the list of various grammatical endings would be too long. In the VM, there is approximatelly 1600 words that start with SV, SVČ, POSV, POSVČ, OSV, OSVČ (that also include CV and ZV words). This includes words in different grammatical forms, as well as multiple uses of the exactly the same words.

This might be hard to understand to those VM researchers who tend to think about medieval writing with a present grammatical mind-set.

This indicated that it is hardly possible that the words in the VM would be spelled exactly the same as in the Protestant writing 100 years later, when the writing was somewhat standardized in two writing conventions, German and Hungarian. The Hungarian spelling convention was used in Vramec’s Kronika, and German by almost all other 16th century writers.

What happened with the four unique VM glyps?

 My identification of those four glyphs is based on the assumption that the Slovenian alphabet was created with great care by somebody who was well aquainted with Slovenian language, as well as with Latin and German. To my surprise, very few German or Latin words are used in the VM, except those who are shared and sound the same in Latin and Slovenian. To avoid foreign words, the author had to create many new Slovenian words, using the pattern he detected in the language. For example, there is a word SYAIIR in the first page, which I identified as a noun of the verb SYATI (to sow). The ending -ir indicates nouns of a male gender profession. I came from a peasant family and I never heard the Slovenian equivalent of SOWER, mainly because the Slovenian farmers did not use the noun, but only the verb. In literary Slovenian, the noun ‘sjajir’ changed to ‘sejalec’, so that the contemporary word is spelled as SEJALEC.

In a similar way, many SV- words had changed, like SVEČAR to SVEČENIK or to SVETNIK (a saint).

There is no written record that the four tall VM glyphs were actually used anywhere else, since there are no written documents in Slovenian, except for a few one- or two-page documents, containing Catholic prayer.  I have identified them from the rest of the text, and because I could not find any other VM letters that could stand for the sounds K, T, SV, CV, ZV.

Slovenian was the first written Slavic language, and the Freising Manuscript is the first Slovenian (and Slavic) document written in Latin Letters. It was discovered in 1803 in Freising.

For all practical purposes, all Slovenian documents written in Latin letters were hidden in various monastery archives, or maybe in a copies that have not been preserved.

Primož Trubar is credited to write and publish first Slovenian book in 1550, that is, about hundred years after the VM was created.

Are there any clues that the Slovenian language existed in a written form hundred years earlier?

While the large part of Slovenia was under the Church authority of the Patriarchate of Aquileia, the use of glagolitza, known as Old Chruch Slavonic script, was used in liturgy. Glagolitza was also used by the Bogomils, a ‘heretical’ Slavic religious movement, which eventually gave raise to the Bosnian state religion, separated from Rome, until the mid-15th century.

The proof that the Glagolitza was also used by Slovenians are many inscriptions, including the one on the frescoe of Hrastovlje from the 1490, as well as the book by Georgius de Sclavonia, native of Brežice, while he was studying at the University of Vienna in 1400.

If the VM was the first longer Slovenian text in Latin letters, what was it used for? Assuming the author was Nicholas Kempf, he might have used it to practice writing in Slovenian, from the basic words needed for his religious work, in different Slovenian grammatical forms, to written spiritual notes and poetry. His humanistic, philosophical and political ideas are expressed mostly with illustration.

 If the VM were the work of five authors, the monastic environment would be most likely place where such collaborative work could take place.

We can only imagine why the four tall VM glyphs did not make it into the Slovenian alphabet. While they were very practical for the cursive writing (requiring only one stroke), they were not practical for printing, because of their uniqueness. A German style of writing was adopted by the Slovenian writers of the 16th century.

The proof that the VM special letters went out of style is on the last page of the VM, believed to be added sometime later by a different scribe.  This is suggestive that for a certain period, the VM glyphs were used, becaise the word OROR is written exactly the way as in the VM, while other letters are typical of Tyrolian/Slovenian use of Latin letters. Even if the text on the last page were to be written by the same author, he would have switched to the common letters in use, or he would have reverted to the writing he first learned, remembering only the way he used to spel the word OROR (prayer). 

If there was more documents written in Slovenian, they would have been destroyed by the Counter-Reformation, if not by Turkish invasions.

Some Examples of the SV/CV in VM words

The above table is showing various prefixes (and what looks like a prefixes) of the VM root word SV/ZV.

The grammatical endings are more versitile, because the Slovenian language is highly inflective. Due to the dropped vowels, the length of the vowels, and accent, the spelling of different words often overlaps, which accounts for a different translation of seemingly the same words. (They differ in pronunciation, if not in spelling.)

I believe the author’s intention was to distinguish the similar sounding words with a strike-through marking, or with EVA ch/sh differentiation, which is even for the Slovenian speaker very difficult to distinguish, mainly because of the sound-changes over time, and palatization.

The table above illustrates the use of prefixes O and PO. The prefix O is usually used to make the oppposite – such as SVEČAL – OSVEČAL (from the nous: OSVETA – blessing – revenge), or DATI – ODATI (give – give away). This is one Slovenian word that retained a double D, but in the VM it is spelled with only one D. It can also be used for a finished activity, such as SVETITI – OSVETITI (shine – make (something) shinny and visible),  or the word pair DATI – O(B)DATI (give – give (put) around).

Because of the variety of Slovenian grammatical ending, a word can be a verb in one case (SVEČO- I was blessing), or noun in other (SVEČO – candle, accus. case).

The table above shows some examples of the SV-words. Because some sounds have morphed over time, it requires a lot of effort to get a proper meaning, like SVEČOST (in VM) evolved into SVETOST (holiness). Often, the SV words related to holiness are marked with embelished initial SV.

The words containing VM glyph would require further study and reading in the context, separating different sounds, such as SV, CV, ZV, and different spelling (ch, sh, strike-through). The intention of this article was to show that the two unique VM glyphs are used throughout the for either one of the three sounds, most of the time interchangeably (due to the similarity of the sounds), and that they conform to similar grammatical rules as the other tall glyphs – K, T. The other two tall glyphs are related to the words holy, world, light, blosson, star, bell, chosen, advice, criticism, warning etc., which accounts for their equal distribution throughout the manuscript. Some of the glyphs related to ‘holy’, are embellished by the loop being stretched over the entire word, or a string of words.

If the handwriting was more clear, it would be easier to transcribe properly, particularly ‘oz’ and ‘ch’. Because of the similarity of the sounds, it is also very hard to properly translate into Slovenian, even for a Slovenian speaking person, because the author used the words in different grammatical forms that have never been used before and was confronted by another problem, namely the way the sound often change with the grammatical form. For example: He used POSVEČI, but the ‘č’ eventually changed to T (posveti).

Although most VM researchers and enthusiasts would like to see the translated sentences and perhaps the entire text, I have decided to take a slow road to enable anyone wishing to replicate my theory, to do so. Therefore, I will start with a simple vocabulary of the VM words that are still in use in Slovenian language, and what is most important, they are spelled exactly the same (letter-to-letter transliteration) as they are in the VM. The letter ‘y’ is usually translitterated as ‘j’ after or before the vowel, since the dipthongs are no longer used in Slovenian language, except in some foreign words.

For the replication to work, the minim ‘i’ could never be in the beggining or in the end of the word if transliterating from Slovenian to Voyniches, but when transliterating from Voyniches to Slovenian, the ‘y’ could be written as ‘i’ or as ‘j’. In my table below, I included an intermediery step by transliterating the Voyniches first into Latin and then to Slovenian (in the next column). The reason I left both is that in the 16th century, when the first Slovenian books were written, the ‘y’ was still frequently used.

I also included the words in different grammatical forms. Because the Slovenian language is highly inflective, it is hard to get words that are spelled the exactly the same way, with the same grammatical ending. I collected them from the 16th century text. Because of the unique topics, and different phonetic pronunciation, and hard-to-read handwriting, the correct translation would be a challenging work.

In a separate colum, the number of words in the entire text are listed. They are only an approxiamtion to give the readers an idea of frequency, because I have not totally separate the words yet. I suppose the frequency of certain words, and word-families gives us pretty good idea about the subject the matter and the grammatical style of writing.

Replicating these words is a helpful exercise and a good start to proceed to the more complicated words I will introduce in my future posts.

****UVODNI PRISPEVEK O PROJEKTU SLOVENIJA/SLOVENŠČINA: https://voynichslovenianmystery.com/?page_id=56

******SEE INTRODUCTION ARTICLE OF THE PROJECT VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT SLOVENIAN MYSTERY EXPLAINED AT: https://voynichslovenianmystery.com/?page_id=9

********BASICS: https://voynichslovenianmystery.com/

About Voynich Manuscript Letters

We have been conditioned to believe the VM is written in a code that most of the researchers ignored the possibility that the same letters were used in the European manuscripts, and that different nations adopted Latin letters for their sounds differently. Also, the idea of VM being a mysterious code has prompted all kinds of speculations, so that the more exotic theories gained more attention, simply because people wanted to see the mystery where there is none, and at the same time, most interpreters ignored the mystery in the VM, hidden in the images, by desperately trying to identify the flowers, the ‘castle’, or ‘the public baths’.

Assuming the researchers before me followed the logical way of thinking and developed their transliteration alphabet by comparing the letters to the medieval European scripts, I tried to transliterate some short words with EVA alphabet. To my surprise, I was able to recognize many Slovenian words, but there were some EVA-letters that did not suit Slovenian language, such as EVA ‘q’ which does not exist in Slovenian. After examining the documents written in the region of Slovenia in the 15^th century, I developed an improved transliteration alphabet I call Slovenian Voynich Alphabet.

The first step in decoding the VM is to figure out where the author got the ideas for the shapes of the letters, and for what sounds he used them. This could be done by the process of comparison. For example, most German manuscripts use different shape of ‘z’ for Latin ‘c’, and for the sound ‘c’. They also combine ‘cz’ for the sound ‘c’. Although my first step was the recognition of Slovenian words when VM text was transcribed with EVA alphabet, I imagine this could not be the first step for those who want to replicate my theory and have no knowledge of Slovenian language, nor its dialects. Most German manuscripts use combination of letters ‘sw’, ‘su’, or ‘zw’, while these combinations are totally absent in the VM. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the author of the VM invented two tall letters to replace those German combinations for the sounds ‘SV’, ‘CV’, ‘ZV’ (SW, CW, ZW). Because those letter combinations in the VM show some properties as the other two letters, the author of the VM invented (‘t’ and ‘k’) further supports transliteration of those glyphs. Also, those letter combinations are frequently used in Slovenian language and have a high symbolic value, since they can be found in words, such as ‘holy’, ‘divine’, ‘world’, ‘advice’, ‘criticism’, ‘flower’, ‘bell’, ‘star’, ‘light’, ‘enlightenment’ … These words which are most often found at the beginning of the VM paragraph, at times also embellished, must have been important to the author of the VM, as they would have been for any medieval spiritual writer.  

Most VM researchers believe the VM letters are like Latin letters, yet nobody can read the text. A lot of distrust was created when it was suggested that the VM is written in a code, or in abbreviations, or shorthand. Also, the authors of EVA-alphabet never claimed that some of their transliteration letters are in fact Latin letters, leaving the would-be researchers to imagine any kind of script could be interpreted as VM letters, while EVA script was just there as a common denominator used for research and analysis. As it turns out, the computer analysis was of little help, because so far it was not able to detect the particulars of any language.

Like many VM researchers before me, I notice the similarity of some VM glyphs with the Latin letters, however the EVA-daiin word, probably the most frequently used word in the VM, seems to turn the attention from other possible readings. I instinctively read it as DAM. By then, Dr. Bax had also pointed out that the various combination of minims can be read as 14 different letters, producing different sounds. For me, it seemed natural to read the word DAIIN as DAM, and AIIN as AM. Changing EVA-m into IL (ILJ) produced another Slavic ending.

Based on the words I was able to recognize with the EVA alphabet alone, I used my knowledge of Slovenian language, and my intuition to develop my own translation alphabet which I validated by comparing the letters to the Stična Codex, written in Slovenian between 1428 and 1440, transcribed and translated by professional linguists. I also compared the shapes of the letters with various other 15^th century documents written in Latin, or German in the region of the present-day Slovenia.

Since every writer has his own way of shaping the letters, I was only looking for a general shape, like ‘d’ looking like 8, ‘l’ with a loop, ‘i’ without a dot … I believe that many VM reserchers are too focused on finding the script that matches exactly the VM glyphs, that they miss what is most obvious. Not only the shapes of the letters, but the writing style (no capitalisation, no punctuation) conformed to the style of the comparative documents.

The modified alphabet I developed worked very well for Slovenian language, however, the VM is still hard to read because of unclear handwriting and complicated medieval Slovenian language.

The last row in above table was transliterated mostly on my common sense and the way the ligatures sounded when pronounced.

It did not bother me that the letters ‘f’ and ‘g’ seem to be missing in the VM. Dr. Timothy King, in his Venetic theory has also pointed out the missing G, which for him was an important clue that the VM might have been written in the Veneto region, since only that part of Italy did not use the letter G, just like some regions in present-day Slovenia and Croatia. The absence of the letter F could be explained with two VM letters that sound like F – SV and V. While in Latin, the letter V stood for the sound U, in German writing, it often stands for the sound F.

Although my transliteration alphabet worked very well for the Slovenian language; convincing the experts is another story. I had offered the VM experts my explanation of grammatical peculiarities that could only be comparable to Slovenian language, such as various grammatical endings for different conjugations and declinations, tenses, numbers, and genders, but I was totally ignored. I realized that even if I presented total transcription and translation of the VM, I would not be able to convince any experts, because they already have a preconceived idea that the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript cannot be solved by ‘a grandma’, since many academics have tried and failed.

I suppose, my age gives me advantage many young scholars do not have: I learned how to write with a still ‘fedder’ (a little improvement from a goose fedder) that had to be dipped into ink, and I know how this can produce unintentional thick or thin lines. I also know how writing by a dim candlelight in a freezing cold room can effect handwriting. And, yes, living in a village where compulsory school was not introduced until the mid-19^th century, I spoke a peasant Slovenian dialect which in the past half-century had been forcefully eliminated in an effort to make people use common literary language.

On another hand, my immigration to Canada opened new possibilities for me. I studied psychology at the university level and later researched on my own the interconnectedness between art, religion, and psychology, which have common mystical religious denominator. In my creative writing, I focused mainly on life-stories of Slovenian immigrants in Canada, and in the process, I learned a lot about various Slovenian dialects they spoke, as well as about their unique lives and interests. So, in a way, I am in a better position to analyze the VM from different perspectives, than a group of experts all focusing on their own area of expertise, not knowing how the parts are blended, not just interconnected.

Another preconceived idea repeated countless times by the VM researchers pertains to the content of the VM, based on the general thematical sections of the manuscript. Those who play to these preconceived ideas (writing on astrology, women’s health, description of healing plants and usefulness of the roots and leaves, five different scribes, etc.) are receiving much more attention, even if their theories are unreasonable and less likely correct. Although various VM researchers concluded that the VM was created somewhere in southern Germany, northern Tyrol, or Northern Italy, my theory is mostly ignored, even if it fits that geographical region, and the style of the manuscripts written in Alsace.

One of the conditions for the correct solution of the VM is the question of replicability. Those who leave themselves a lot of freedom to interpret the VM words in many different ways, can come with some kind of solution, but nobody else could come up with the same reading, or with the same translation.

STEP BY STEP REPLICATION

How could my theory be replicated?

To prove that my theory can be replicated, I replicated it myself, using different manuscripts to devise the transcription alphabet.

In 2021, when more manuscripts were digitalized and placed online, I have chosen several 15th century manuscripts in different languages to compare the shapes of the Latin letter to the shapes of the VM, as well as for their use for different sound. The result enabled me to verify the transcription alphabet I had developed, to compare the style of writing, as well as the topics of the medieval manuscripts.

The manuscripts used:

1. Tractatus de Husitis, written in Latin between 1428 and 1450 in Stična, Slovenia, by a Czech monk;
2. Golden Legend, Czech translation of the original Latin work;
3. The Alphabetarium divini amoris, written by Johannes Nyder in Carthusian monastery Pleterje in 1425;
4. Regiment of Helath, in German, written in 1429 by Heinrich von Laufenberg.
5. COD PAL German 291

Tractatus de Husitis

My original VM alphabet is based on EVA with some changes and better identification of minims, which I was able to do by comparing the VM writing with the Stična Codex, written in Stična. The Tractatus de Husitis was written about the same time, in the same monastery, and most likely by the same author who wrote Stična Codex in Slovenian. In Stična Codex, the end-minims have a downward tail, while in Tractatus, the flourishes are turned upwards over one, two, or three minims. Minims are pointy, and the hairline diagonal connecting line is hardly visible.

The Golden Legend is the 15^th century Czech version of the Golden Legend written in Latin by Jacobus de Voragine in the mid-13^th century. It contains a collection of the legends of the lives of the saints.

From the Golden Legend I obtained clear understanding how the letter ‘h’ was used instead of ‘g’ (based on pronunciation), while the letter ‘g’ was used for the sound ‘j’. I was also able to make distinctions between the Czech and the Slovenian language. Because the Slavic languages used common Old Church Slavonic language in liturgy, there was a lot of similarity in grammar and in vocabulary, yet there are also many differences, so that I was able to discard Czech as the language of the VM.

Since this manuscript contains the legends of the lives of some saints, it can be concluded that it was written by the Roman Catholic interpretation of mystical visions of Mary and angles, which seem to be absent in the VM.

The Alphabetarium divini amoris was written in 1425 by Johannes Nyder in Carthusian monastery Pleterje. Although it is written in Latin, I was able to find several letters that are not included in Latin alphabet, such as w, k, u, r (like the VM), 8-like ‘d’, and in a few cases also the 9-shaped ‘y’. Various Latin abbreviations are also used, including 9-shape for Latin abbreviations ‘con-‘ and ‘-us’. Even without knowing Latin, I was able to recognize many words.

This manuscript was particularly helpful to me for various reasons. It was written by a Swabian theologian John Nider (Nyder). Nider was one of the most famous German preachers. He studied philosophy in Vienna. He was very active at the Council of Constance, spent some time at Carthusian monastery at Pleterje and in 1425 returned to the University of Vienna where he taught Theology. This would coincide with the time Nicholas Kempf was a student or a teacher at the Vienna University. Nider is known as early reformer.  As an active member of the Coucil of Basel, he made great contribution to reconciliation with the Bohemians. He remained loyal to the Council of Basel even after Pope Eugene IV disolved the Council.

This manuscript revealed the similarity of the cursive writing, as well as the philosophy Kempf would adhere to, for Nider was his professor, and later his fellow faculty member at the Vienna University. Kempf  could also have seen this manuscript at the Charterhouse of Pleterje. Assuming that Kempf was the author of the VM, he would have been influenced by Nider’s preaching about the divine love that leads to mystical religious experience, and his political views supporting the Church reforms. This views seem to be reflected in the illustrations of the Voynich Manuscript.

Regimen Sanitatis (Regiment of Health), written by Heinrich von Laufenberg in 1429, was chosen for my comparison because of the script, as well as its content, and its possible connection to Nicholas Kempf. The manuscript is written in a popular genre of German Housebuchs. It is a rework of the 12th century work Flos medicinae, or the Flower of Medicine, believed to be written by John of Milan, and edited by Arnold of Vollanova, physician, alchemist, astrologer, and religious reformer. Arnold is also regarded as the author of the Rosarius Philosophorum, which reappeared as a Rosicrucian manifesto in the 17th century.

This manuscript was very helpful to me for understanding the Voynich Manuscript from different perspectives. The ‘b’ is occasionally used for ‘p’, ‘v’ for ‘f’, ‘sch’ for š (sh), ‘z’ or ‘cz’ for ‘c’, ‘g’ for ‘j’ (in the word January), ‘h’ or ‘ch’ for ‘h’, two shapes of ‘r’ are used (one like the Latin ‘r’, and one like VM-r, except smaller, ‘cv’ or ‘zw’ is used for the sounds ‘cv’ or ‘zv’). Also, two shapes of ‘d’ are used, one with two loops, and one with only the bottom loop.The letter ‘e’ already has a horizontal line.

It has been pointed out by some VM researchers that the VM might be thematically related to the German Housebuchs. Like the Housebuchs, VM contans the Astrological section with zodiac images, the bathing scenes, and the claudbands, the use of concentrical circles, the Sun and Moon have a prominent place, so do stars, the zodiac symbols show unique interpretation.  Unlike the Housebuch, VM does not have a calendar, nor astrological calculations and images of the planets. The VM also contains large plant section, which cannot be found in any housebuch I examined.

The COD. Pal German 291 is another so called Iatromathematische Housebuch. It is very similar to the Regiment of Health, particularly the illustrations. Nick Pelling, the well known VM researcher, suggested that the family of the Housebuchs could lead to solving the VM mystery.

The manuscript is beautifully illustrated with a lot of dark blue colours, golden stars.

The manuscript is written in German, but the word ‘Oratio’ is used consistently for prayer. The ‘heiligen namen’ is mentioned. The contemplation about the biblical writing (epistels) is urged. The temple seems to be the natural environment.

There are some minor differences in the shapes of the letters, which are very important for the understanding of the VM. The letters are writtten tightly together, so that ‘cke’, ‘cti’ look somewhat like the VM strike-through glyphs. The small VM-like ‘r’ is used interchengeably with a regular Latin ‘r’.

Most male names of the saints end with -i, not with latin -us (Maximiliani, Sixti pape, Alexy. The letter ‘p’ is often used for ‘b’ sound ( geporn- born, Stampock – capricorn, Scorpion – Scorpion).

This manuscript shows great likeness to the Regiment of Health: a lot of stars, cloudband, similarity of zodiac signs and signs for constellations, as well as the images of personality types. Like other Housebuchs, this, too, contains the image of a ‘planetman’, suggesting that the author believed in influence of the personality of children born under different zodiac signs.

Like the Regiment of Health, Cod. Pal 291 contains two sets of Zodiac signs (one on earth, one in heaven- spiritual world).

The book also contains prayes and at the end, there seems to be a legend about a Fox.  I never learned enough German to try to translate this text; however I have a distinct feeling the legend is about the Wolf and a Fox (since this is not related to the script, but rather to the folk-legends circulating at the time, I will discuss it elsewhere).

The Planeten Buch – BSB Cgm 7269, Konstanz  is beautifully illustrated. Humans are wearing European fashion and European physical features. The Acquarius, looking like a man from Styer – wearing black hat and an apron, is pouring water from the wooden bucket.

The script is similar to the script of other German manuscripts. I have found similar scripts in different manuscripts not listed here. The VM-r, which is hard to find in the 15th cenuty scripts (due to its small size and similarity to theletter ‘z’, can also be found in a small folding calendar, now stored in the NUK (National University Library) in Ljubljana. The pictures in that callendar also show a lot of similarity to VM drawing of faces.

Conclusion

Assuming that Nicholas Kempf was the author of the VM, he could have had a chance to get acquainted with all the manuscripts mentioned above, and the ideas presented in those books. Judging by the VM illustration, the author of the VM did not believe in planetary effects on human personality, but rather on the influence of important historical persons, and particularly on what one reads and how he interprets what he reads.

My new search for transliteration alphabet, using five different manuscripts in different languages confirmed the correctness of the Slovenian Voyhnich Alphabet I had developed, based on the 15^th century documents from the Slovenian region only. Expect for the four tall VM letters (Gauge glyphs) and perhaps the letter ‘p’, all other letters could be recognized as regular Latin letters used in different combinations for different sounds. There might not be all in one manuscript, but they can be found in the general area and in the books, my proposed author of the VM, Nicholas Kempf, could have an opportunity to see. Some leters were used for one sound in one language and for another in another language, however, all represent the languages and scripts that influenced Slovenian language and orthography. In the new alphabet comparison table, I have marked the letters that represent the same sound, in light blue, and the ones that could stand for two or three different sounds, or for different sounds in different languages, I marked with the dark blue. I will discuss those in greater detail later.

Several VM researchers, among them Dr. Rene Zandbergen from Germany, the great authority on the VM, had proposed the Southern Germany or Northern Italy as a location of the VM origin.

Aga Tenktakulus, a chemical engineer from Switzerland, focusing on identifying the VM plants, has agreed that Slovenia (medieval Carniola) would fit into his proposed location. On his post in January 2021, he wrote the following: “For those who think it might be an old Slavic in the VM, yes. All the clues would coincide in the green circle. It is called the Duchy of Carniola, from 1365 a territory of the Habsburgs.”

Dr. King from Kensas University proposes the Vulgar Latin language is Italian dialect of Veneto region. He pointed out that he identified this region because of the absence of double letters, and the absence of the letter G in the VM. I suppose he and his team identified the Slovenian dialect of the Veneto language, however, using the wrong transliteration alphabet, they could not come up with Slovenian words, and the Latin words are only approximate (not even one is letter-to-letter transliteration and translation).

Based on his own research of the VM script and illustrations, J. K. Petersen narrowed the region where he thinks the VM was created to a village of Timau (once known as Teschelwang), north-east of Veneto, where Tischlbong language was spoken. He pointed out that a language is related to Carinthian “a south-Bavarian dialect spoken by Slovenes who inhabit the mountains of the southern Tyrol and parts of the Slovenian Styria” and that “as a distinct dialect, Carinthian dates to about the end of the 13^th century”.

Considering all this, I am surprised that the other VM researchers are so reluctant to focus their research on Slovenian language.

In my next post, I will list 80 Slovenian words found in the VM that can be transliterated letter-to-letter and easily translated by any Slovenian speaking person (less likely by Google translate, because it does not consider Slovenian grammar). The transliteration can be replicated by using my Slovenian Voynich Alphabet to transcribe the listed words into Voyniches, or from Voyniches to Slovenian.

******SEE INTRODUCTION ARTICLE OF THE PROJECT VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT SLOVENIAN MYSTERY EXPLAINED AT: https://voynichslovenianmystery.com/?page_id=9

********BASICS: https://voynichslovenianmystery.com/

In my previous blog, I focused on the general description of the minims and illustrated how they can be read as different Latin leters. I explained one reading of the word known among the VM researchers ad EVA daiin. In this post, I will explain the reading of other minims and compare them to Slovenian grammatical endings. The ending -w for verbal forms cannot be found in Slovenian dictionaries, because the words were spelled with the endings -v or -l and pronounced as U. The letter W was replaced in Slovenian language before the first Slovenian books were written in the mid-16^th century. 

Most of the minims in the VM appear at the end of the words, which means they represent grammatical ending.

In Slovenian language, the ending for the infinitive verbs is -TI (TY) which in the Middle Ages could also be spelled as DY, since T and D were often mixed up by foreign writers (Slovenian DOL, English DALE became German Thal).  For a foreigner, looking for the etymology of the words, would also make sense to spell DY rather than TI, since many Slovenian verbs are formed from the noun by adding the word DAJ (which would be spelled in the VM as DY). There are still some remnants of such forms, such as POGLED DATI which in 2. person singular, imperative mood would be POGLED DAJ (pogledy in the VM) and eventually evolved into POGLEJ.  The infinite form evolved to POGLEDDATI.

Besides different grammatical endings for number, gender, case, and tense, different groups of verbs can also have different vowel before minim ending for the first person singular, such as -am, -im, -em. In a similar way, the -al ending in the verbs for first person masculine past or future tense verbs can have a variation of -al, -el, -il ending. In some Slovenian dictionaries, the grammatical endings are indicated, including the accent. The examples below are taken from the Pravopis slovenskega jezika (the dictionary of Slovenian orthography).

In the VM, the ending -am is most frequent, which means that the text is written predominantly in the first person singular. I have already pointed out in my previous post that EVA-daiin stands for Slovenian word DAM, which can also be the ending for many words derived from the verb DATI (to give). EVA-aiin is Slovenian ending -am, used for first person singular present tense, for which the endings -im, or -em can also be used.

Several VM researchers, particularly J. K. Petersen, pointed out the slight difference in the way minims are written in the VM, but they did not explain what those differences means.

The difference between the minims is clearly visible in the above words, which I read as SAM.

SAM is one of the most frequently used words in the VM, because of its various meanings. The word SAM means I AM (in various dialects, although the proper Slovenian is SEM). It is also used to form a past tense for the 1. person singular. Example: (SAM) DAL – ‘I gave’.  Note that the SAM is a helping verb, and the main verb DAL has the ending -AL. Like in the word DAM, the personal pronoun I is implyed in the ending and is usually not written, unless the pronoun is stressed.

Besides interpreting the word as SAM, it is also important to explore the possible reading of S as Z or Ž.

EVA-dain – Slovenian DAM

Based on the Stična codex, as well as on contemporary Latin cursive writing, I read the VM glyphs IV as IV, N or W. To understand the distinction, some explanation of Slovenian phonetics is required.

How can the EVA-in be read as IV, W or N? Such reading could definitelly be concluded from various medieval European manuscripts. I suppose the similarity of the shapes of the letter could be the main reason. Although in some medieval manuscripts, the rounded  connecting lines between the minims for N and M were used, in most cursive writing, the diagonal connecting lines were used, and when the upward stroke is light and thin, the letters are hard to differentiate from U which has a rounded connecting line at the bottom. Although U with a rounded connecting line was used in the German Latin letters (such as in the Freising Manuscript in the 10th century), at some point the V was used for Latin U, and two Vs for W, both for the sound U – V in Latin, W in Germanic (where V was often used for F sound and W occasionally for B).

The explanation of the endings -l as – u, v, w,  could be based on phonetics. The pronunciation of the letter L was the subject of one of the first debates on phonetics among Slovenian linguists.

In the Freising Manuscript, the pronunciation of the -l endings is clear; it was written with double -ll, which some considered German pronunciation, foreign to Slavic phonetics.

The -l at the end, and in front of semi-vowel was pronounced as -u, but Germans pronounced it as L.

In 1883, Slovenian linguist Škrabec proposed that Slovenians should spell the words the way they are pronounced.  He pointed out that Slovenians did not accept the Polish ‘ł’ which was pronounced as W.

By the time the first Slovenian dictionaries were written, the W was already replaced with U or V. In the VM, the -l, -v and -w endings are used interchangeable. Most likely, certain words were pronounced the German way with the hard L, and some words with the Slavic L (u) or ilj.

An example of extensive use of -m endings could be found on f35r. The endings in green and red squares are verbal endings, while the endings in blue are non-verbal endings. The ending -m can also be used for declination of some nouns. It can also be found in the words such as KAM (where), TAM (there) and others.

The high frequency of EVA-dan, dain, daiin would require an entire book to explain. Although there could be other meanings, the most such words are related to the verbe DATI – to give.

The grammatical form, the proper reading, and the meaning of the VM words can best be determined from the context.

Some Slovenian verbs were formed by adding the word DATI (to give) to the noun. This is how the word ČOR + DAM  (I give magic) gradually became ČORAM (I make magic spell, incantation). Because of the flexible word order, the individual words can be reversed (DAM ČOR – ‘I give incantation), but the reversal does not work where the words are combined into one word. Another such word would be VM word RCHY DAM (RČI DAM – words I give) which has been used until the 20th century in the Prekmurje dialect for ‘I give sermon’, ‘I preach’. It originates from the expression DATI REČI – ‘to give a word’. This word evolved to RECHDY – (used in the VM) to REČI in contemporary Slovenian.

According to P. Currier, the word DAM (EVA-daiin) appears 268 times in the first 25 pages, and the word AM additional 149 times. In the next 25 pages, the word AM appears 137 times, and the word DAM only 76 times. This led him to assume that the words must be the same and that D in the word DAM must be a silent letter. Based partly on this grammatical peculiarity, he concluded that the two languages are not the same.

The word DAM is most frequently used word in the VM. Besides the word DAM (I give), which indicated the first person writing, various derivates of this word are used in the VM.  The prefix PO-  is used for the complete action; combined with DAM means ‘hand’, such as ‘give in hands’, or PODAM  ‘give one selves up’, ‘I surrender’. Where PO is separated from DAM, it could be related to ‘home’ (po dam – (longing) of home).

KALDAIIL – indicates repeated past tense action of ‘sprout’.  Like the word DAM, the repeated giving is made by adding -il, or -jil ending. The meaning is similar to DAL (grammatical form for past or future tense). It is used with a helping verb (sem, si, je, bom, boš, bo, and bi for the conditional mood – English was, will, or would).

EVA – daiin – DAIM, DANW, DAIIW

Many VM researchers are wondering about the string of four minims in EVA-DAIIIN word. (There are more such strings of minims without the D letter.) Since the words are seldom used in the VM, some believe they must be a characteristic of a certain language. 

Is there an explanation for them in Slovenian language? According to Dr. Bax’s minim theory, the EVA-daiiin could be read as DAIIN, DAIIV, DANW, DAIM, DAWN, DAIIW. To transliterate them into Slovenian, we have to consider that the VM was written before the letter J came into use, and before Slovenians replaced  U with V, and W with V or U.

It would be reasonable to assume that the V was used for U, like in the Latin writing convention of the time.

A single minim as ‘I’

A single minim inside the word, stands for ‘i’, just like it is designated in the EVA-alphabet. In the VM, two minims are sometimes used for JI or IJ, since the letter Y is used only for the beginning or for the end of the words. They are frequently followed by R, L, IL.

In the example above, the words ending with -ilj (EVA-m) are mostly the strings of verbs related to the helping verb BUOS (dialectal phonetic spelling for BOŠ – you will be). The ending reflects the soft Slavic -ilj pronunciation of the letter ‘l’.  While the -il is most often found at the end, there are some rare exceptions in the VM (in light blue square). The word DAILO seems to be the dialectal phonetic spelling for DELO (work), and DAIILOL looks like DELOL (will be making).

Another example of different minim endings could be found in the table above. The word LEK is an old Slovenian word for healing remedy. Later, the ‘e’ replaced the semivowel. By adding the ending -am, the verbal form for the first person singular, present tense, is formed. LEKAW is alternative spelling of LEKAL (was healing), while LEKAN means a passive form (healed). LEKAIV seems to be the VM form of adjective – healing, since -iv (iw) ending is indicative for the adjectives. In this case, LEKAIV sounds strange, because Slovenian writers later adopted the word LEČILEN for ‘healing’.  The -ilj ending also sounds strange to contemporary Slovenians, who are more familiar with the word LEČIL.  

In general, minim endings account for almost half of all the endings in the VM. They are most often used for various verbal forms, as well as for adjectives and nouns.

Conclusion

The study of dialects and phonology is a  relatively young addition to Slovenian linguistics, however, it is gaining importance in the last decades. In the past, Slovenians who spoke in dialect, were frown upon as oldfashioned, as the linguists wanted to create a ‘pure’ litterary language. That never worked in practice. However, the generations of school children were forced to abandon their dialects. At the present time, the linguists are searching for the people who still speak in dialects, collecting the old no longer used words and studying phonology. There is very little research into Slovenian dialects and phonetics for the time period betweed the Freising Manuscript (10th century) and Stična Codex (mid-15th century), and between Stična Codex and the 1st known Slovenian books (mid-15th cenury), that is, before the Slovenian language was commited to written form.

Because of that, even the professional Slovenian linguists regard the VM as odd and unrecognizable at the first glance, because their mind set is focused on the two widely studied codices – (Freising manuscript and Stična Codex) and less on the phonetics of the peasant Slovenian language.  I am sure if they would focus on the unique Slovenian grammar, reflected in the VM, they would be better able to understand, that the spoken words the author of the VM heard and wrote down did not sound the same as the words Trubar used 100 years later.

When I tried to write a paragraph in the dialect spoken in my native village at the time of my youth, I could not do it with a simple alphabet. (Professional linguists do that better with a special alphabet that included marks for various accents and sounds.) I imagine this is what the author of the VM was up against. From a spoken language, he would also have difficulty knowing where one word ends and the another one starts. This is why some short words are often written together, and some longer words are separated by unnecessary space.

Because of the various reading of the strings of minims, the number of vowels and consonants changes drastically from the EVA transcription which is used for most computer analysis. Implementing changes makes VM more readable and more vowel-consonant balanced. Also, replacing the semivowels with vowels makes the VM language more syllabic.  The changes cannot be implemented with a replacement button on the computer, because each word has to be studied separately within the context. For this reason, knowing the language and grammar is very important. Although Slovenian is my native language, I am still having difficulty reading the minims in some VM words, particularly since the author was not that proficient in grammar, nor in spelling. Besides, I have no concrete example how the Slovenian language in the 15th cenury sounded, except for 3 pages of religious text.

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A minim is a short, vertical stroke for letters i, m, n, and u. They are connected to form different letters by a connecting stroke which was often so fine that it was hardly noticable. They were characteristic for the medieval Ghotic script which was very hard to read. To make it easier to read, the letters were inserted or dropped, and the dots were placed over ‘i’, and umlout over ‘u’, the leters j and v were also introduced.

Dr. Stephen Bax on Minims

Back in 2014, the late world renown linguist Dr. Stephen Bax pointed out that the minims are the greatest obstacles for properly analysing and interpreting the VM. He pointed out that one minim could stand for ‘i’ and ‘j’, two minims for ‘n’, ‘u’, and ‘v’, and three minims for ‘m’ and ‘w’.  He stated that when reading the Voynich manuscript “we need to be aware of possible multiple meanings for the same signs, and we need to accept that this was not unique in mediaeval practice.”

He pointed out how important it is to properly transcribe and translate the minims, as he wrote, unless you have the context and the word knowledge – which we don’t have with the Voynich script – it is a nightmare to tell if a letter is  ‘n’, ‘u’, ‘i i’, or in the case of three minims,  ‘i u’, u i’ , ‘m’ or even ‘w’ or ‘i v’.”

Most researchers referred to the VM minims as Eva ‘iin’ or ‘iiv’ (Currier). Bax pointed out that different combination of minims can generate 14 different sounds or letters, excluding V, as well as some Latin numerals.

Dr. Bax also noticed the difference between the way the VM minims are connected: in some words, there is slight separation between the minims, and most of the time, the last minim ends with an upward flourish. He was wondering if the scribe did that with a specific purpose in mind. He believed the scribe intended to link some minims and separate others to indicate different sounds.

Most VM researchers even at the present time, would agree with Dr. Bax’s statement: “This analysis raises an important problem for Voynich studies, because so far we have treated all ii and iii clusters as only two ‘signs’, in our counting, in our statistics and in our thinking. Our transcriptions – and therefore all of our computer analyses, entropy, Zipf and all the rest – have been based on that assumption. If it is wrong, we need a major rethink, and a major recount.”

The untimely death of Dr. Bax prevented him from continuing his research in this area. All computer analysis of the VM text so far failed to produce any meaningful results, because they are all based on EVA alphabet which counts two minims as ‘in’, three minims as ‘iin’, and four minims as iiin. Perhaps, it would be time to re-interpret the minims and analyse the text based on new transcription.

I have updated EVA alphabet to take into account a new understanding of minims and replaced some letter designations that were most problematic for proper reading of VM text. I obtained very good results with my transcription alphabet.

As Dr. Bax pointed out, minims are characteristic for the Arabic script however they were often used in the medieval Gothic writing. Later, the minims were formed into the letters N, M, U, I and W.

Some Hystorical Appearance of Minims

The symbols with different number of lines have much older origin than the writing. They have been found on the artifacts from the 3^rd millenium BC in present day Serbia. The signs with two and three minims have been used for sounds N and M in Proto-Sinaitic, Ancient Hebrew, Ancient Greek, Etruscan, Venetic and some other scripts.

The minims were used in Gothic script for M, N, U, I, V and W. The pictures below show different style of minims. Even in the Slovenian Carthusian manastery of Žiče (Slovenia), the minims were used in capital and cursive script.

The above tree samples of minims are quite different, but in all these scripts it is hard to read the letters comprised of mimims. The picture on the right already uses the letter ‘i’, but it still has the same ‘d’ as the VM. I would also like to point out to the slightly triangular loop in the letter L.

In the mid-15^th century, the Carthusian monastery Žiče was one of the four monasteries that in 1415 formed the Fraternity of the Slovenian Carthusian monasteries. It had the second largest library in Europe at that time.

Minims in Stična Codex

In my previous posts, I have already explained that the language of the VM is medieval Slovenian. I pointed out to the similarity of some VM glyphs to the Stična Codex, written in Slovenian language and in Latin letters about the same time as the VM. The codex contains the formula for the general confession, which has been in use continuously with some modifications and was therefore easy to read and translate into modern Slovenian.

For the purpose of explaining the reading of minims, I will try to analise the Stična Codex. The first part was written by a Czech refugee around the year 1428, and the other two pages by his student in 1440. Since the Stična Codex was transcribed and translated by professional linguist, I cannot be accused of subjective reading.

This analysis will only include minims.

The text of the VM is less familiar to Slovenian speakers, because the author probably developed his alphabet independently from the Czech monk who wrote the Stična codex at the Cistercian monastery of Stična, Slovenia. Because the Stična codex uses German style of letters k, s, z, r, h, it is hard to get a word that could be spelled exactly the same as in the VM, however, when I substituted those letters with the Latin exquivalents of the VM glyphs, I got many exactly the same words, which indicates that the language is indeed Slovenian.

The Stična Codex already shows some solutions to the minim problems. The darker ink makes some connecting lines between minims more visible, so that in some places, it is quite possible to distinguish ‘u’ from ‘n’, but not always.

The words in the yellow square represent Slovenian word INU (and), which was used in the regions of Slovenia under German influence, while the letter ‘i’ (and) was used and a conjunction ‘and’ in the regions of OCS influence.  

The word I (and) was the remnant of the OCS language and was still used in Dolenjska region in the 16th century, however, since the author of the Stična Codex was a Czech Cistercian, he was influenced by the writing practice of Germanic priests and used the word INU. In the Stična Codex, it was also spelled as YNV, YNW or YNU, and even YNVO. In Slovenian, the word eventually evolved to IN, as Y was replaced with ‘i’, but in dialectal speech, it was often pronounced as JN or AN, which is similar to English, but with the dropped D. A similar explanation could be given to German UND: as Y was replaced with U, U was pronounced as U.

In the Stična Codex, the letters U, W and V are all pronounced as U, and since the grammatical rules were not established yet, they are used intercheangably throughout the text. ‘V’ comes from Latin writing convention which did not recognize W.  The German writers often used the letter W for V or B (In the Stična Codex, the word BUG (God) is written as WUG. The letter V in German writing practice was also often used for F (visch – fisch).

The letter W (marked with purple) was already abandoned and replaced with V or U in the Middle Ages, however it still appeared occasionally in the writing of the 16th century, particularly by German writers. It would take a scholar to recognize this confusion and try to improve the Slovenian alphabet so that it could be used by Slovenians living under Hungary, Austria or Italy.

Carthusian Nicholas Kempf was an educator and strong proponent of the use of vernacular language in liturgy. As a prior of Jurklošter and Pleterje (two of the carthusian monasteries who in 1415 formed the Fraternity of the Slovenian Carthusian monasteries, it would be feasible that he developed the Latin alphabet for Slovenian language.

In the first sample of the Stična Codex, the letters M and N have slightly rounded connecting line, while the second part the connecting line is pointy, and when pressed with a quail pen, it is usually lighter, sometimes almost invisible, like in the VM.

Some of those letters M or N appearing at the end of the words have  tails, turned downwards, however, this is not always the case. Exactly the same word, with the same Slovenian meaning, can have the letters N and M with a tail, or without it. Besides the fact that some have a flourish, there are only a few that seem perfectly written and can be correctly recognized by somebody who is not familiar with the Slovenian language. In some cases, there are four minims, that can be read as NU, UN, IM or MI. In the Stična codex they are easier to recognize, because the author put a dot over ‘i’. Also, in some Slovenian dialects, and particularly in Dalmatian Croatian, letter N was often used for M (san – sam – Dalmatian for I am, while in Slovenian, the same word meant ‘sleep’, ‘dream’). Because some regions in Slovenia used Glagolitza and Croatian liturgical books, the speech of the people in those reagions could have been influenced that dialect.

The  VM-v at the end of the words seems to be the mirror image of the Stična Codex-v, with a short slanted line with a flourish, sometimes almost rounded into O (equivalent of Stična Codex YNVO).

Frequency of letter  M

Compared to Stična Codex, M in the VM appears mostly at the end of the word. There can be several reasons for this: the M was so weakly pronounced that it was not noticed by a foreign writer; the choice of vocabulary the author used did not contain that letter; the words has an improper space after the letter M.

The frequency of the letter M at the end of the words definitelly reflects Slovenian grammar. The ending -am is still used as the verbal ending for the first person singular, present tense. This is indicated in some Slovenian dictionaries. The examples below are from the SSKJ (Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika).  You might also noticed the ending TI for the ending of the verbs in the infinite form. The German writers often spelled D for T. This can partly explain the high frequency of DY endings in the VM.

The letters ‘w’ (marked with purple) and ‘v’ (marked with orange) can also be found at the end of the words, just like in the VM.

The ‘-am’ ending is therefore one of the most frequents Slovenian endings, particularly in the text written in the first person. Since the text of the VM seems to contain poems, prayers or recipes (instructions), a lot of text would be expected to be written in the first person singular.

  Stična Codes – 1440

Stična Codex is written in the first person singular, which accounts for most -m endings. The manuscript is written in Latin, so I cannot analyze the minims in the same way as in the Stična Codex, but perhaps some Latin expert could figure out the meaning of the flourishes in this writing.

Unlike in the Stična Codex, where the flourishes are turned downwards, the final flourishes in this manuscript are turned upwards, although not all final minims end up with an upward flourish.

Minims in Tractatus Husite

Tractatus Husite was written in the Stična monastery (Slovenia) and partly by the same scribe that has written the Stična Codex, since this document was part of the Tractatus Husite.

J. K. Petersen rejects the idea that the upward turned flourish in the VM was used for embellishment. He claims that in the Middle Ages, in Latin, English, French, German, Italian, Czech, Spanish, and other languages, the back sweeping tail stood for whatever ending was appropriate for that language and could represent one or several missing letters. Petersen transliterates the EVA  – IIN as IIV, but I am proposing some additional readings, such as M, IN, IIW, MI, IM, IW, JIV, NV.

I agree with Petersen that a single minim at the end with a tail upwards could stand for the semivowel, which was later replaced with the vowel, and depending on the dialect, the vowel can be u, w, o, v or i (y).

Petersen pointed out that minims are most often preceded by the letter ‘a’. According to EVA and most other transcription alphabets, the letter ‘i’ is represented with one minim (s slanted line), except at the beginning and at the end of the word. It was also pointed out that the string of minims at the end of the words is most often proceeded by ‘a’ or by ‘da’, so much so that the VM researchers are referring to the EVA words DAIN and DAIIN.

The word DAM is one of the most frequently used Slovenian words, since it is used a lot in the ordinary conversation, as well as in the first-person writing.

DAM is the form of the verb DATI, 1. Person, sing. Present tense. As it is evident from the partial explanation in the Slovenian Etymology Dictionary, various prefixes and endings can be added to this word, however in the dictionary, only DATI would be listed.

dáti dám dov. lat.‛dare’ (10. stol.), dájati, dodáti, dodȃjati, dodȃtek, izdáti, izdȃjati, izdȃja, navdáti, navdȃjati, obdáti, obdȃjati, oddáti, oddȃjati, oddȃja, oddȃjnik, podáti, podȃjati, podȃja, predáti, predȃjati, predȃja, pridáti, pridȃjati, razdáti, razdȃjati, vdáti se (15. stol.), vdȃjati se, vdȃja, vdán, vdánost, zadáti, zavdáti, zavdȃjati idr  stcslovan. dati, sed. damь, hrv., srb. dȁti, sed. dȃm, dádēm, rus. dátь, sed. dám, češ. dát, sed. dám. Pslovan. *da̋ti, sed. *damь̏ ‛dati’ je dalje enako z lit. dúoti, sed. star. dúomi, danes dúodu, let. duôt ‛dati’, kar so vse tvorbe iz ide. korena *doh3- ‛dati’. (Copied from SSKJ)

The word dati was known in the Old Indian language as dádāti, Proto-Slavic as da̋ti, Greek dídōmi (dam), in Latin dare, in Old Church Slavonic. dati  (damь – 1. per., sing., present tense).

In the VM, the word DAM is used in various combination, one of the most revealing is the combination DAM DAR, which due to the flexible word order, can also be reversed (DAR DAM). Both of this combinations could be found in the VM.

The word DAM is not to be confussed with the Slovenian word DOM, which means ‘home’, however in some Slovenian dialects, the O in DOM is pronounced as A. This explains two exactly the same consecutive words in the VM: DAM DAM. The Slovenian speaking person would pronounce them differently (the first A has a long accent, the second one a short one). This is also recognizable as old Slovenian expression, litterally translated into English as HOME GIVE or GIVE HOME. The personal pronoun I is implied with the ending M. The proper meaningful English translation would be: I give (to take home).

The minims in VM f42r could easily be recognized as the 1st person writing because of the frequency of the ending -m, although the ending can also be for a noun. This text also reveals the frequency of the use of the word DAM.

Conclusion

Although Slovenian was my first language, and I am also familiar with Slovenian dialects, I still have difficulty correctly identifying the minims. Fortunately, in most cases, the misreading M for IW, and vice versa, represents only minor grammatical difference which I will explain in my next post.

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f 57  v

Because the picture contains individual VM glyph, not all of which were used in the VM text, I am assuming that this was one of the first pages. It seems out of place between the flower picture and a full text of writing. The pictures are very rough sketches. Various connecting lines are tried for the minim ‘I’ (on top, in the middle), but there is no combination of minims for ‘n’ or ‘m’, ‘u’ or ‘w’, as if it was taken for granted that combining minims forms these letters. The author used them in the words, though.

I suppose whoever combined the pages for the book was not aware of the fact that this picture represents the beginning of prophesy that evolved into the Christian liturgy. If author himself placed it in that order, he might have his own reasoning. According to Lisa Fagin Davis, it was written by scribe No. 1.

According to my first impression, this picture represents a Christian mass and four different aspects of it: communion, blessing, preaching, and healing. The Latin alphabet for Slovenian language was developed to enable Latin priest to say mass in vernacular, that is, in Slovenian language, and to teach lay brothers to read the bible and other books. Since I believe the service was perhaps more like Waldensian or Hussite, regarding communion as a symbolic, not actual transubstantiation, it would be reasonable to assume that there is no literature to describe it. I was not able to find any information on that on the internet, nor on the mass in Old Church Slavonic, nor on the Bogomil religious service.

The ritual might have been unique since Slovenians have a unique word for Communion bread – OBHAJILO.

The author would be motivated to learn the words associated with this religious ritual, because most religious groups, accused of being heretical, were calling for the use of vernacular language in liturgy.

Some Notes on Slovenian Medieval Grammar

Slovenian language is most archaic language and very difficult for a foreigner to understand. The language used in the mid-16th century, when the first Slovenian Protestant books were written, was even more complicated, because the Latin letters for Slovenian sounds were not consistently used. There were also other grammatical practices modern Slovenian readers are not familiar with.

The VM was written 100 years prior to any other larger text in Slovenian language and Latin letters, which means that the grammar was even more archaic and inconsistent.

It is evident that the author had a lot of difficulty writing down the word, because the vowels were not pronounced clearly. In the VM semivowels are not written down, so that the writing shows some likeness to abjad. Example: vьsь ‛ves, cel  – Since Latin had no equivalent for Slavonic ь, it was often dropped. This has been a common occurance in the earliest Slovenian writing so that the Protestant Slovenian writers of the 15th century, the authors of the first Slovenian books, insisted the vowel should be inserted. In most cases this has been done by 17th century, however due to various dialects, it has not been done consistently. This is the reason some words with the same meaning are spelled differently. There are also many words with different meaning that are spelled the same, because the accent is not shown. Only a few accent marks could be found in the VM text. 

Slovenian and Croatian linguists also pointed out that in Dolenjska dialect of Slovenian language, the vowels and consonants were often dropped in  speech, and consequently in a written form, like ‘ladati’, instead of ‘vladati’. I noticed this might be the case in the VM words, such as OKA – ROKA (hand, arm) and OZA – ROŽA.   

My insertion of the missing vowels is based on medieval Slovenian writing, and on dialectical pronunciation.

I also noticed that the author, being a foreigner, occasionally used te wrong word, such as the word ‘taste’ for ‘smell’.

Slovenian grammatical forms are often weird and inconsistent with the 16th century Slovenian writing. The author could have created a word he had not heard, using the wrong word for example, or add a foreign ending to Slovenian word, or Slovenian ending to a foreign word. In many cases, the Slovenian endings had changed later,  like SVETEC  to SVETNIK, or ŠKODAIV to ŠKODLJIV, DARAV – DARIL, DARAIV to DAREŽLJIV. These changes could be assumed from the way such words are used in different 16th century texts.

I had chosen f57v for detailed analysis since it contains visual images, VM letters and represent the central message of the entire book.

I am not claiming that the translation is 100 percent correct, since different division of the words can generate words with different meaning, and some words can have better meaning in some other language. For my translation, I used the words that I was able to find in the Slovenian and Croatian writing of the 16th century, adjusted to the grammatical form (and even a grammatical form the foreign author might have used).

Holy Offering – Holy Sacrifice

I am assuming the label in the top left corner of the outside circle is the title because it has a meaning that seem to be relevant to the central picture. I read the word as DAIROL.

According to EVA alphabet, as well as other transcription alphabets, this word could only be transcribed as DAIROL.  In the Slovenian language, this could only be translated into the word related to giving.  DA  IR is often used in the VM to mean GIVE GIFT. The form DAIROL would be the word that eventually evolved into DAROVAL (made offering) and DAROVANJE (offering). In Slovenian, the mass is called Holy Offering, which is equivalent of English Holy Sacrifice. The word DAROVANJE is part of the Catholic Mass, which in Slovenian is called SVETA DARITEV (Holy Giving, Holy Sacrifice).

The Central Picture

At the first glance, we notice the four concentrical circles around the central circle in the middle which is the focal point.

Looking at the picture, the eye focusses on the central circle with the dot. This has been one of the oldest written symbols that has been continuously used on the Balkans and had a mystical meaning.

According to the ancient interpretation, it represents God. The symbol was accepted by the Rosicrucians for their symbol for God.

In Slovenian, this symbol was called RIS (sounds like RES – Slovenian for ‘truth’). In Slovenian pagan tradition, this symbol was drawn at intersections for protection against the evil spirits.

I suppose we can interpret this as God’s infinity in the smallest dimension, and the progressive larger circles as the extension towards the infinity of the other extreme.

God is in the infinitely small things and in the infinite big things, but humans are limited in time and place. By way of their creativity, they show likeness to God – the ultimate Creator. In Jesus, human and divine tendencies are crossing and overlapping.

Religion was created to help men orient themselves in time and place. It consists of magic of words and rituals. It has developed from the primitive magic which eventually was rejected as the institutionalized religions introduced their magic. From the primitive religions, based on superstition and rituals, the more advanced religions were formed based on transmission of wisdom, and past experiences, by way of written words.

This circle is surrounded by a square, the sides of which seem to be three half-circles, offering an allusion to the Trinity. From the middle of the circle, a line of writing is arranged in such a way that the words form a cross in a shape of X.  In between the cracks of this cross, there are four male figures (just the upper body) forming another cross.  Their outstretched hands are suggestive of talking. The one on the right looks like he is lifting-up the communion bread, the one on the left, looks like he is giving the blessing with his hand.

From this middle picture, it is evident that the man is holding a host in his hand. The poses of the other three men are also suggestive of talking, preaching, blessing.

The majority of Voynich researchers believe that this page represents the basics of the alphabet and language. I also agree with that. We need to remember that the medieval writers, especially the mystical writers, were focused on Jesus as the Word of God and rejected other images of Jesus. A lot of philosophical-theological debates and disagreements were also around the question how God’s Word became flesh.

Writing on + Cross

Top:  OTARDALY – OTARDALI – a verb from TRD (hard, strong), which is often used in Slovenian religious terminology for ‘strengthen’.

OTAR DALY – O(L)TAR DALI  (place on the altar) – a person with two outstretched hands (an allusion for preaching). Preaching the Word of God means strengthening one’s character. Also, the Holy Words (the Bible) is placed on the altar.

These two Slovenian words in a way compliment each other. In the medieval times, the critics of the Church were mostly preachers who sacrificed their own happiness for the sake of the Truth (God), following the example of Jesus who sacrificed his life. The prophets place themselves on the altar (as sacrificial lambs), and the Church often ‘place them on the altar’ as saints to strengthen the faith.

Bottom: OSVARAIR DLY – the words SVAR and OSVAR are very frequently used in the VM. They stand for the imperative singular verb SVARITI – to warn, to give warning, as well as ‘to scold’, ‘to criticize’.  While the verb “svariti” was often used in a peasant speech, the noun was uncommon. We can imagine that the author of the VM, coming from a different linguistic background, formed the noun from the verb by dropping the ending -ty/dy and replaced it with -air.  The word DLY could stand for D(E)L(A)J (make), if we consider that in phonetic speech, the semivowel was pronounced (but not written; the vowels were inserted later).

The root word here is SVAR (give warning). It sounds similar as STVAR (to make, to create).  The similarity of the expressions is also complimentary, meaning: a prophet (genuine artist) is giving the warning about what is wrong in society and at the same time, he is creating alternatives for improvement. He is warning and creating at the same time. ‘O’ is Slovenian prefix, indicating finished action.

The artists, who only criticize, are basically just healing their own anxiety. This idea was beautifully expressed by Slovenian writer Ivan Cankar, when he said that ‘heavenly Creator makes a casket and a cradle at the same time’.

A priest, or a preacher is imitating Christ by criticizing people’s bad habits and warning them about the consequences, while at the same time proposing a better way to create better life for the individuals and for the society (communion of people).

The Writing on the X Cross

Top left: ARKALDY – This word is pointing at the man with outstretched arms. Depending where we break the word, we can get two different words, which could be remotely associated.

ARKAL + DY – AREKAL DAJ – govori, prerokuj – (you) give a prophesy! This form seems associated with the word REČI (govoriti), which originates from the Latin/Italian spelled word REC for Slavic REČ.  In Slovenian language, two grammatical forms evolved from this root: REČI which means ‘to say’, ‘(you) say!’, or ‘words’, ‘things’.  The remnant of REC can be found in Slovenian words REKOČ (while saying), OBREKATI (gossip, saying about), PREREKATI (argue), NAREK (dictation). If we drop the letter B (as it was often the case with the prefix OB-) and replace K with C (as in Latin spelling), we get the word OREKATI. The grammatical form for the 3^rd person (singular, masculine, past tense) would be spelled ORECAL. The linguistic trail could go as far back as Greek ORACLES, where “oracle” is a prophetic saying as well as a temple.

ARKA LDY – (B)ARKA LDI – boat + people – this could be the word used for the part of the church. In Slovenian language, the large part of a church is called “barka” (now: ladja) which was separated from the altar with a low decorative gate. This place in the church was reserved for ordinary people, while only the priest and his assistant were allowed near the altar.

ARK in the Bible was a ship, built by Noah, to save his family and animals from the flood. In the bible we read that the Noah’s ark landed on Mount Ararat in Armenia.  The search for the physical boat on Mount Ararat is still going on by those who take biblical writing literally. 

Ark of Covenant is a reference to the Hebrew chest of stone tablets with the Ten Commandments. It is much more likely that this ‘ark’ landed on Mount Ararat.

I would also like to explain the work ‘arka’. At the first glance, the word reminds me of Slovenian swear words ARKADIO, ARKAMADONA and AKRADUŠ. The Venetologists are explaining the word ARKA as a magic word of the ancient Veneti. Since DIO means God in Latin, it could be assumed that the word ARKA means swearing to God.  This meaning is clearly understood from the last swearword, where ARKA is combined with the Slovenian word DUŠ (soul). Unlike English, who swear on the Bible, Slovenians were known to swear on their soul.

The word arka originates from Greek god Arcas, the son of Zeus and Callisto. He was a hunter who became king of Arcadia.  He taught people weaving and baking bread. Callisto was associated with goddess Artemis. Arcadia in Greek mythology was the home of god Pan (depicted as half goat, half man).  In European Renaissance art, Arcadia was celebrated as an ideal land, like heaven. In Slovenian literature, Simon Gregorčič wrote a poem Veseli Pastir (Happy Shepherd) expressing the happy, worry-free life of a shepherd on the mountain, comparing him to more enlightened people in the valley who were faced with constant wars, and with worries and burdens of conscience as well, if they did not conform to the Church’s rules.

Since it is highly unlikely that the flood would carry a boat adrift to an elevation of  3,896 m (12,782 ft), it could be presumed that the biblical story was told in the figurative language, which means that “new wisdom”, such as the one in the Ark of Covenant, was brought with the peace-loving people who fled from the general degradation of the materialistic and immoral culture, which was creating slavery, wars, and moral degradation.

Considering all these alternative meanings, I am quite convinced the correct translation would be preach!, prophesize!

Top right: ORALARAR – assuming ORA means pray or preach (Latin: orator – speaker, preacher), oralarar could be a Slovenicized word for a prayerbook, pulpit, or some other word related to preaching. According to Texas University Language site, RAR was Illyrian word for heaven. In Slovenian, it evolved to RAJ. There is also a possibility that ORALAR is a combined word, comprised of Latin ORA + LAR. The word LAR is explained in 1592 dictionary as ‘house god’, ‘idol’.

Bottom left: OLKCHDAL – OLKČDAL – from the root LEK (healing remedy) – verb LEČITI – LEK DATI – healing give, heal. It is possible that the strange spelling could be a result of authors attempt to relate to the etymology of this word.

The spelling is somewhat strange since more familiar word would be OLEKAL or OLEČIL. However, a foreign writer could easily spell it as OLKCHDAL, since the grammar rules were not established yet and no marks for the pronunciation were used.  The possibility that this long word could also be a combination of short word further complicates the proper translation.

This VM expression, related to a man with outstretched arm, could be compared to a final Catholic blessing ‘Peace be with you’. The olive branch was an ancient symbol of peace and the expression ‘giving olive branch’ is still used in Christian terminology.

This label is located next the person with one outstretched hand, an allusion for blessing.  The original meaning of blessing was ‘to say good things about’, but eventually became to mean “making holy”, “bestowal of divine favour”, which in essence is healing.

We need to understand that the ancient writers were aware of the healing power of words, particularly prayers, which offer people hope and reinforce their believes and expectations. For this reason, various magical remedies were usually administered with magical words. The Christian sacrament of Communion replaced pagan magical healing remedies and incantations with specific words and substances that have transformative and healing power. Even the prayer before the communion is focused on the “healing of a soul” and “protection from anxiety”.

OL K CH DAL (OL K Č DAL – oil that if I would give) is the phrase obtained by different division of the above VM word. It could be related to the anointing with the Holy Oil. It might have origin in ancient common meaning related to olives.  The Olive branch was offered as a sign of peace and respect in the ancient civilizations. The olive branch is still a symbol of peace.

The olive oil was also recognized as a healing remedy in the ancient times.  Infused with various herbs, it became used in religions for anointing kings and prophets. The holy chrism was made of olive oil and up to 70 different plants. The olive oil also became the base for making various herbal remedies. In Slovenia, people still make their natural remedies at home by infusing healing herbs in olive oil. The symbolic meaning of the Olive branch in religion was beautifully described in the poem Oljki (To the Olive Tree) by Slovenian poet Simon Gregorčič.

DAL – is a form of the word DATI (give) which eventually evolved in a suffix -DAL for the words that could be associated with giving, such as POGLED-DAL – POGLEDAL – (he) looked.

Bottom right: OKALI – OKALITI means ‘splitting the seed and sprouting a plant’, making plant grow. KALINA in Prekmurje dialect means plant. Many Slovenian words also had symbolic meaning, so that the “preacher” could also be regarded as the one who magically enables the words to grow. Since the word is pointing to the host, this could be understood as invisible mystical initiation, like germination of the seed that is invisible and incomprehensible for a simple mind. The seed produces plants, and they produce the multitude of seeds.  This analogy is quite suitable for Communion, for which Slovenians have unique word OBHAJILO. 

According to the Slovenian Etymological Dictionary, the word OBHAJILO originates from the word ‘visiting’, ‘walking around’. The expression ‘Misel me obhaja’ is used as an example. The connection to communion is made via Latin ‘celebrare’ (visiting) and Slovenian ‘praznovati’ (often visiting).

I believe the word ‘hajati’, which I was not able to find in the Slovenian Etymological Dictionary, would make much better etymology for OBHAJILO. The word ‘hajati’ is not only an old Slovenian word, still in use, but also the word used in the Bible to express growth, expansion. In Slovenian, the word was used mostly for the ‘rising of bread’, ‘the expansion of bread dough’.

It is true that the word SHAJATI also means ‘getting together’, which could also be related to the early Christian community getting together and expanding.

The words KALITI (to germinate, to grow) and HAJATI were taken from the natural, agricultural world to be applied to abstract ideas.

Bottom left: OSVČOR OKEAR –OSVČOR seems to be related to something holy, such as a person who performs holy incantation, or distributes the communion bread or wine.  If the word was not followed by OKEAR, I would be tempted to say it means ‘a person doing blessing’, SVEČENIK or SVEČAR in Slovenian, but the word OKEAR sounds like ODKER, which in dialect means ‘uncover’. It was a customary in the religious ritual that the chalice was covered so that the ‘mystical transformation’ was hidden under the vail. In the Orthodox religion, such veil was called AIR, because it was made from very light material, most likely silk. The word OSVEČAR is related to SVETITI which means ‘to bless’, but also ‘to enlighten’. In Slovenian language, it evolved to POSVETITI, POSVEČATI.

Concentrical Circles

The central composition is encircled with perfectly rounded concentrical circles which form four bands of writing.

The first concentrical circle contains individual glyphs, mostly used as letters in the VM text. Among them are also some that were not used in the VM.  Some also form meaningful words.

The First Circle (from the inside)

It is not clear whether the author intended to write coherent text with separate letters, or individual letters and ligatures. Towards the end of the circular writing, there are some words that could be meaningfully translated into Slovenian language. Even the individual glyphs could be divided into Slovenian words.

I am having some difficulty with some glyphs, such as the one I identified as q, hv; it looks like VM glyph V, topped with Latin T. Slovenian language does not have letters Q and X; instead KV, HV and TV are used (to a foreigner, they would all sound like Q). In some 16^th century writing, the letter Q was still occasionally used. The letter X was used in some medieval writing as H.

* This could be an experimental word, a shortcut for Creator. In Slovenian 16^th century writing, I had seen a few of the letters that look like the first part of this glyph. They stood for CH (Č).

Assuming that the first letter is Č, we get the word ČDLO, if we put the ligature apart. By adding R on the left and AR on the right side, we get the word that reads RČDLOAR, which could be a word a foreigner might create for the ‘one who makes words’ – a writer, a preacher.

The first band of writing could be understood as an illustration how symbols became letter, and letters the words that were spreading outward, as illustrated with the concentrical circles. The second circle is already comprised of words. The glyphs are also suggestive of the author’s various attempts to combine simple letters.

The Second Circle

The second circle is comprised of complete words. In the table below, I have copied the VM words (the left column), followed by transliteration into medieval Latin letters (as they were written and as they sounded), the evolution of those words and translation into Slovenian language, and in the third column, I copied partial etymology from the Slovenian Etymology Dictionary. The words might not match exactly, because they change with the grammatical form. I added my remarks to explain this.

The third band of writing

The third circle is again comprised of individual letters, as if the author wanted to emphasize that the nation already had its writing system that was no longer in use and had to learn it again. At the same time, it reflects the author’s intention to collect the symbols (letters) that could be used for the unique Slovenian language (and invent some new one for this purpose). It seems he was experimenting with connecting them in the cursive writing and forming ligatures for certain sounds taken from the OCS Glagolitic alphabet.

The most peculiar among the letters are four glyphs that look like ligature and are spread evenly (in the first circle, there is only one sign, like these, but not equal).

I would not speculate what these glyphs represent. The first glyph looks like the Glagolitic Č, which is connected to VM letter D, but the last letter is unclear; it might be o or reversed VM glyph Y.

On the outside circle, there is one more band of writing with a similar theme, focused on spiritual things.

Conclusion

The Bogomils that left their mark in Slovenian liturgy were interpreting the biblical writing and religious rituals as symbolic. To explain this to the simple-minded Slovenian people, they used the analogies from nature.

Because these words are so closely related to the lives of ordinary, peasant people, they were suitable for analogies for the abstract, spiritual things. For the primitive people, words were the greatest gift of God, so much so that St. John started his episle with, ‘At the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’. Many medieval theologians and philosophers meditated on these words, which were particularly meaningful for those who believed that the Son of God was the Divine Logos. Most of the genuine prophets and mystics came to this understanding. A mystical prophet has to suffer inner division (individual search for what is right and what is wrong), and die to his old self (experience spiritual transformation by abandoning wrong teaching or wrong understanding, and embrace a universal and eternal Truth. He had ‘sprouted’ out of the faith community, becomes critical of that same community, and proposes improvement, and eventually becomes ‘seeds’ for the new spiritual growth.

This analogy can explain the majority of the VM plant/floral imagery.

The signs representing letters are not just imaginary glyphs; most of them are letters from different alphabets (see my post of Voynich grammar). This is indicative of carefully laid down plan to devise a written form of a language.  If strange pictures in the biological pages give the impression the author was a mystic, this page is suggestive of the author being a scholar and educator. This, too, led me to believe that the author might be Nicholas Kempf, who spent years teaching at Vienna University before entering the monastery. As a prior, he served in two Carthusian houses in Slovenian speaking region. He was a strong proponent for the use of vernacular language in liturgy. As a prior, he had to learn Slovenian language to be able to teach lay brothers how to read and understand the Bible.  From Kempf’s writing, it is clear he understood the Biblical writing as symbolic esoteric writing, which means that the stories could not always be interpreted literally and that they needed to be studied carefully in order to arrive at the meaning. In Slovenian, KARATI (to scold, to criticize) and SVARITI (to warn, to give warning) seem to be synonymous, yet there is a fine distinction: KARATI pertains to accusations of one’s mistakes, bad habit, while SVARITI pertains to approaching danger or to harmful consequences of one’s actions.

It is clear the author of the VM, like Nicholas Kempf, understood the ideas behind the Christian sacrament of Communion, and the incarnation of Christ in his followers, particularly in genuine mystical prophets who speak on His behalf.  

****UVODNI PRISPEVEK O PROJEKTU SLOVENIJA/SLOVENŠČINA: https://voynichslovenianmystery.com/?page_id=56

******SEE INTRODUCTION ARTICLE OF THE PROJECT VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT SLOVENIAN MYSTERY EXPLAINED AT: https://voynichslovenianmystery.com/?page_id=9

********BASICS: https://voynichslovenianmystery.com/

In 2016, when I first discovered the internet site about the VM, I was impressed by the strange looking flowers and my first impression was that the text represents poems or short legends. Some looked familiar, like the twin-bells, hemp, pansy, but the pictures with strange roots definitelly do not belong in the plant world.

The VM researchers at the time worked on the assumption that the first word of the text is the name of the plant, and the rest of the text a description of the plant, including its healing property.

As soon as I recognized that the EVA transcription alphabet generated some simple words in Slovenian language, I examined a book Icones Plantarum Rariorum, edied by Nicolao Josepho Jacquin, printed in Vienna (Vindbonae, 1781) hoping I would find some likeness of the flowers and the Latin names for them. Neither in this book, nor in the book about the plants in Carniola did I find any clues as to the name of the plants.

I began concentrating on the possibility that the text contains the description of the plant, but I could not find consistent use of certain words that could indicate the description, such as roots, leaves, stem.

I abandoned searching for clues in the plant section, although I felt strongly that the flowers might in some way be related to the heavy use of floral imagery in Slovenian literature.

Flowers in European Medieval Literature

The floral symbolism was widely used in the medieval art, however the VM researchers were mostly focused on identifying the flowers and plants and only recently, the focused has also shifted on the religious mystical interpretation of some VM images.

Coming from the culture where floral images were widely used in poetry and prose, my first intuition was that the text next to the flower in the VM pictures represented poems. I was also aware that some medieval Carinthian and Bavarian poets, dedicating their poems to Lady, were using a symbol of red rose for their emblems.

I came to better understanding of floral symbolism, after I came across an interesting You Tube video in which the author suggested that the VM was written in ‘Gentle language of flowers’. He admitted he had no clue what he was talking about, except that he found the phrase ‘gentile language of flowers’ in the mid-18^th century book of Gabriel Rosetti, and that the language seems to be connected to flowers. The following quotation was offered:

»In the Hundred Tales of the Gentle Language, written for those of noble heart and subtle intellect, in which language flowers are mixed with other words (preface of the author), we read as follows: »Prester John once sent the Emperor Frederic II. who was very fond of gentle language, a present of three very valuable stones; but that monarch had no how to make use of them. Prester John’s lapidary addressed Frederic one day as follows: Sire, this stone (the first) is worth your best city; this one (the second) is worth your finest province, and this last  is worth more than your whole empire.’  Thus saying, he took hold of the three stones; and the virtue of the last concealed him from the view of the emperor and the people. So the lapidary vanished from their sigh, and carried back the stones to Prester John, because Frederic II. did not know how to make a proper use of them.« (p169)

This legend was allegedly written by John of Florence in 1378, during the reign of Charles IV, Emperor of the Romans. The first half of his book contains novels, and the second part contains details of the wars between the Guelphs and Ghibellines and the dissensions between the Emperors and the Popes.

Since I have quite a bit of knowledge about European languages and history, some statements were quite familiar to me, so I decided to check out the Rossetti’s book. I was not able to find any information about the Hundred Tales of the Gentle Language, however the ‘language in which flowers are mixed with other words’ sounds like Slavic, therefore also Slovenian. To word CVET sounds like SVET, which also means ‘world, advice, warning, shine, light’.

In the VM, two tall glyphs are used interchangable in the above words and in different words derived from them, as well as for different grammatical forms.

Rossetti also suggested this language was used in sectarian writing aimed at hiding ideas that could be offensive to the Church. This is also pointing at Slavic language, since the Slavs were the originators of the Bogomilism and supplied the Slavic translation of the Books to Patereni and Cathars and other rebelious sects throughout Europe, where they were translated into their vernacular languages. Since Emperor Charles IV ordered the sons of the Prince Palatine to learn Slovenian, it could be assumed that there were intellectuals able to translate the material from the Old Church Slavonic to vernacular languages, particularly Ochitan.

The legend about Frederick II, referrs to the Hohenstaufen Holy Roman Emperor in the first half of the 13th century, who was also King of Italy and King of Jerusalem. He was the Son of Henry VI and Constance, heiress of the Norman kings of Sicily.

Dante was contemporary of Frederick II and was excited for Frederick II to ‘liberate’ Italy.

The statement that Emperor Frederic was fond of Gentle language suggests that he was fond of a particular Slavic language, spoken in Carinthia and Carnilola. If he was not that fond of the language, he was sure fond of the Slovenian lands in Carinthia. The Slovenian language was used in the installation of Carinthian dukes up to the mid-1440s.

The legendary Prester John, frequently encountered in the medieval writing and illustrations, is described as a native of Tartary, or Cathari, ‘a countryman of that Angelica, the daughter of the king of the Cathari’ who had a stone with which she could vanish’ when she puts it in her mouth. The Cathari are said to come from Greece to Italy and were first discovered in Milano in the 11th century. They were called Albigenses, Patarini, Paulicians, and Puritans.  Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and hundred more were said to belong to this movent.

It is also explained that this miraculous stone is the Word of God, and the stone is Christ. It is also mentioned that the ancient word of God is preserved among some people of eastern Tartary. From this clue, we can assume that the ancient word for God was Bog (Slovenian and Slavic for God).

Rossetti explains how the mystical poets, inspired by the Bible, came to fuller understanding of the Biblical style of writing and can transform it by way of symbolic language in such a way that it seemed like they were praising the Church while they were criticizing it. 

Rossetti attributes this language to Tartarians, that is, to Cathars, Paterens, Albigensian, and other sectarians originating from these religious movements. Surprisingly, the Bogomils, who are the originators, are not mentioned. It is possible that Rossetti was unaware of that, or perhaps, he was associating Bogomils with Tartarians. The Tartary sounds like ‘tastari’ which in Slavic would be ‘the old ones’, ‘the ancients’. The Bogomils originate from the St. Methodius’ Moravian Church, later known as Old Church Slavonic, since it appeared in the same region of Macedonia (at the time under Bulgaria) where the expelled Methodius’ students had established the cultural and religious centre. They could be an off shoot of the Methodius’ church who later refused to accept Latin liturgy, and Latin priests.

Although the history is vague about the Bogomils in the former Yugoslavia, it is a documented fact that a branch of Bogomil Church existed for four hundred years in Bosnia, against which several crusades were directed. They were known as Bosnian krstjani and represented an independent Bosnian Church, separated from Rome. Many Cathar from France and Germany found refuge there.

The Bogomils were iconoclasts, and their bibles were decorated with geometrical patterns and flowers, rather than religious pictures. They regarded biblical stories as symbolic, rather than literal.

Being persecuted by both the Roman and Orthodox Churches, they were most critical of the Church’s materialistic tendencies and its feudal system that made lower cleargy exploited as serfs.

Some of their critical and gnostic ideas were promoted also by great humanistic minds of that time, particularly artists.

It is not clear which sect Dante belonged to, but his attitude towards the Slavs can be assumed from his affection towards Frederic II and Charles IV. According to some sources, the patriarch Pagano della Torre hosted the poet Dante Alighieri in Tolmin and showed him the near-by Zadlaz cave, where he found the inspiration for the Hell in his poem Divine Comedy. The cave was later renamed to Dante’s cave.

Rosetti also mentions that Dante allegorically regarded himself three white flowers, and not just three, but three times three. This might also be an explanation of Dante’s idea being multiplied exponentially.

Such exponential growth of ideas seems to be expressed in the VM picture. There is an interesting legend that could explain this picture, but I cannot get ahead of myself, and I will live this for some future post.

The image of this picture made a strange impression on me: it could have been the illustration of one of the Slovenian legends circulating in the vicinity of Pleterje Charterhouse and deals with the magical power of the fern seeds on St. John’s the Baptist day (follow my blog for the rest of the legend!).

When Dante referred to nature as ‘God’s garden’, he talks of spiritual Garden – “… that beautiful garden Blossoming beneath the rays of Christ”. For Dante, the rose was the centre of his religion and faith, the symbol taken from the Songs of Solomon. He used symbolism of flowers for their symbolic colors, for their emblematical significance, and for their association with the saints or with pagan mythology.

The Songs of Solomon were widely read in the Middle Ages, as the poets and mystics tried to understand the nature of divine inspiration. Since the ancient writers lived close to nature, they had taken the words from the nature and applied them to spiritual things.

The divine inspiration does not come out of nothing; it comes from the subconscious memory where all the ideas from one’s past experiences, the books, history, oral stories, are stored. The artistic inspiration – in many religions called God – applies them to the time and place and rearranges them into a new artistic vision or works of art.

For this reason, the genuine prophet often compares himself to a flower, that was planted by others (by way of family values, books he read, religious and social conditioning, arts, and science he was exposed…). These ideas grow in him as he matures, and blossom into poetry or whatever form of art he pursues, and eventually his work become a seed for other artists.

There is no doubt that the flowers in the VM have strong symbolic meaning and that the author was influenced by great poets before him, and in turn, influenced great poets after him.

Nicholas Kempf would have the access to classical works of art, since the Žiče Charterhouse, one of the four Slovenian Carthusian monasteries that formed the brotherhood had the second largest library at the time. It is also known that he was meditating of the Songs of Solomon, since he wrote a commentary on them. His poems are symbolic to a degree that it is often hard to tell when ROŽA is a flower or a poem, or when LECHILO is medicine or his consoling words. But he does not describe the illustrations to decode their language. For one thing, the artist normally doesn’t do that, because they want to keep the secret veiled to make it understood only to like-minded people who will continue using the symbolism for similar situations. For Example: for the prophet Daniel, the Babylon was the beast, for Christians, the beast of Revelation was Rome. Only those who knew the Old Testament would understand that.

Knowing what happen to the works of other artists who openly criticized the Church and State, the author probably wanted to preserve his work by hiding his most radical ideas into pictures, while the text is rather simple, aimed at people for whom the alphabet was just developed so that they could learn to read and write in their own national language (Glagolitic priests were using Croatian OCS language).

Flowers in Slovenian Literature

Although the Slavic language was recognized as the fourth Sacred language, its use in literature did not start before the Protestantism, and even then, only for religious songs. While the Slavic Bogomilism raised the importance of vernacular language, and for this purpose the schools where people could learn to read and write, were established, the movement itself and its schools were suppressed. Historians are vague about what happened to the ancient Slovenian families in Carinthia and Carniola, where peasant population was mostly Slovenian, and the ruling nobility was mostly German.

The monks, who were the first teachers of literacy, were mostly foreign, and although there were some poets among them, they did not write in Slovenian. If there were any poets and other nobles of Slovenian descent, they would be regarded German because to get their message across, they had to write in German.

Even the powerful Slovenian dynasty of the Count’s of Celje spoke German. The reason for the Germanization of the upper classes were the intermarriages among the ruling dynasties.

Except for a few pages of the Freising Manuscript (10^th century), and Stična Codex (15^th century) there is no written record of Slovenian language before 1550. Protestantism raised national awareness for Slovenians. By then, the Slovenian speaking territory has been greatly reduced. Like the Slavic Church of St. Methodius in the 9^th century, Protestants felt their religion could help preserve Slovenian language and national identity. The first books in Slovenian were written and printed, however before long, they were collected and burned by the Counter-Reformation, except for the Slovenian translation of the Bible which had been used by the Catholics. Some copies were hidden in the Vatican archives.

Some poems and legends were preserved in oral form and written down in the 19^th and 20^th century. They seem to be written in the two layers where on the surface, the poems are religious or make-believe legends, but they reveal some secret historical, theological, or philosophical truth that only certain people who were familiar with classical literature were able to understand.

The geographical separation of Slovenians among the Kingdoms of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, and Italy caused the formation of strong dialects that could account for the Slovenian language of the VM being so different from the old Slovenian manuscript of the 10^th century, and the Protestant writing in the 16^th century. Although Trubar comes from the Carniolian region, he was influenced by German language, since he studied at Tubingen.

At the time the VM was written, Slovenian religious and secular rulers were shifting their alliance between the popes in Rome and popes in Avignon. During that time, Žiče Charterhouse served as the Motherhouse of Carthusians.

The Voynich Manuscript is written in the language as it was spoken in Slovenia in the 15^th century. I suppose the peasant language did not change drastically, but the written language has undergone several standardizations in effort to develop the written language that all Slovenians, regardless in which kingdom they lived, could understand. I suppose this was the intention of the Carthusians of the 15^th century, particularly the author(s) of the Voynich Manuscript.

Although it seems the VM was written by a monk, it lacks the recognizable Catholic and Christian language. Most of the religious terminology is original Slavic.

Connection to Alchemy

The VM is very spiritual, yet more universal. The imagery is taken from the nature. The images taken from the Bible are transformed back to the natural images. The author is lamenting over the past, but he is more peaceful, more hopeful, and joyful. There are no scenes of violence in the VM illustrations, and no images of God’s punishment.  This indicated that the author, although focused on spiritual purity, was not fearful of God, but rather grateful for God’s generosity in providing healing plants and healing words to help people on their earthly journey. He feels he is part of this divine provision, by being alchemist and a poet.

From his writing and illustrations, it is obvious the author had higher illumination, or mystical experience, which revealed to him higher knowledge (gnosis) and the power of words that could transform the world, if the plan is kept secret and gradually revealed according to people’s preparedness. Like most mystics, he felt compelled to keep the SECRET, while at the same time transcend it by way of metaphoric language for which he mostly used FLOWERS. Slovenian language was perfectly suited for this because of the similarity of the words SVET (world), SVET (holy), SVETL (bright, illuminated) and CVET (flower blossom), CVETJE (flowers) and (R)OZE (flowers).

The Rosicrucian movement that came out of hiding in Europe in the early 17^th century has inspired many artists to resort to the secret esoteric language, particularly in the Catholic countries where any criticism of the Church or any new ideas were supressed.

The history of the Rosicrucians is vailed in mystery. According to their manifesto, the information about the founder had been hidden for 120 years to protect the brotherhood of four fraters who were engaged in alchemy, pledged to remain celibate, heal people, and share their wisdom and knowledge free of charge for the betterment of humanity. The legend about their founder states he was a Cathari orphan from Rhineland, saved by Carthusian monks. After acquiring the Arabic wisdom, he remained the leader of the Rosicrucian brotherhood until he died at the age over 100 years. According to the legend, each Rosicrucian had to find a replacement for himself.

The work that seems like a description of a mystical experience, contains a date 1454 twice, and a signature Fr. C. R. The book was published in Strasburg anonymously, but Andreas Valentinus later claimed the authorship.

The word Rosenkreuz is German and means ‘flowery cross’.  The Rosicrucian movement in the 17^th century adopted cross with red rose as its symbol.

Rosicrucian Ideas in Slovenian Literature

The science and alchemy made great advances as Emperor Rudolph (1552-1612) was great supporter of arts. Unfortunately, the English mystics John Dee and Edward Kelly brought their superstition and occult practices to Prague. Calling on the spirits of dead people was foreign to the Slavs; they were afraid if they did appear in their altered states of mind.  Slovenian poet Aškerc explained that the spiritual manifestations are produced by guilty conscience. 

I suppose at some point in the 18^th century, Slovenian artist discovered the uniqueness of the Slovenian language and culture, and began building a carefully-laid plan to liberate Slovenians from the foreign powers and re-established their own state which had been lost, when Carinthia, the cradle of Slovenian culture, has become Austrian German State, while Pannonian Slovenians had lost their independence under the Hungarian rulers, and a large part of Slovenians was living under Italy rulers.

The short-lived French occupation and creation of the Illyrian Provinces, with Ljubljana as their capitol, had triggered the national awareness and a way to use genuine Christianity to achieve their liberation.

Being a writer and a poet, I instantly recognized the symbolic meaning of flowers in the VM, because flowers were often used in Slovenian poetry. Slomšek wrote about the powerful aroma of violets which grow in hiding (as a symbol of advanced Slovenian spirituality), unnoticed by the powerful neighbours. Gregorčič wrote a poem about olive tree and its symbolic meaning of peace. Župančič wrote a collection of poems, titled Zimzelen pod snegom (The Evergreen Under the Snow), alluding to the importance of Slovenian literature, which had a late start, but has a power to withstand the worldly temptation of money and glory, and remain faithful to the role the genuine prophets of all times, places and religions has played in effort to guide humanity towards common ethical and moral norms.  In his novel Bela krizantema (White Chrysanthemum), Ivan Cankar wrote about the importance of Slovenian culture, art, and literature. 

Irma Ozbalt, recognized Slovenian Canadian author, published a book titled MATERINA DUŠICA (Mother’s Soul – the name of the plant – origano) about the spiritual imagery of some of Slovenia healing plants. At the time of Cold War in America and Canada, Canadian Slovenian painter Andy Stritof used the flower imagery to illustrate how world was divided. In Picasso’s style, he painted a flower that looks like the “universal mother” with two large breasts, like two spheres that at the same time look like a nuclear bombs.

These are just a few examples of the use of flowers in Slovenian poetic imagery, not to mention the use of flowers in the traditional Slovenian songs.

I didn’t think much of my own poems, inspired by various flowers. In a short poem about primarosas, I speak about the childhood joy of playing music with the tiny yellow primarosa trumpets. In Slovenian, the plant was called trobentice (little trumpets). In my poem, I pointed out that although the blossoms looked the same, each had a different sound, alluding to common objective and purpose of art. In my poem Snowdrops, I explorfed the magic of this early spring flower, making its way through a sheet of snow or ice towards the sunlight, just like genuine artist can overcome his or her obstacles in his search for the Truth.

My poem Sunflower was even more metaphysical. I mentioned its large flowerhead and its characteristic property of daily turning its head towards sun, and the fact that it can provide the shade to other flowers growing underneath. The interpretation came to me much later, when I realized that many great artists, particularly painters, were meditating on Sunflower.

In one of my poems, I refer to Slovenian literature and poetry as buquet of flowers, before I learned that in the 19th century the almanach of Slovenian literature was called CVETNIK.

CVETNIK was also a folk-legend Janez Trdina had heard in the Gorjanci region of Slovenia, along with many other legends he collected and published in his book Bajke in povesti o Gorjancih (Legends and Stories About Gorjanci Mountains).

The Legend Cvetnik

On the Gorjanci mountain, there was a beautiful garden hidden in a deep forest, encircled with big boulders. Whoever found himself in this garden is so taken in by its beauty and by the fragrance of flowers, that he forgets to eat and drink, to sleep and to return; despite a prolonged awakening and lack of food, he feels no pain. Blessed is he who by luck or coincidence gets a blossom of these beautiful flowers, for he no longer feels any anger and sadness, and he could not be defeated by any enemy, neither could he be killed by any bullet. (Excerpt from the legend)

This is highly suggestive of Christian mysticism and Gnosticism, something the Rosicrucians were advocating, such as peaceful invisible esoteric work for the spiritual conversion through religious art and through the eternal Word.

According to the legend, Vlah Ilija (Elijah the Vlach) retired to Gorjanci Mountain to live as a hermit in a place that was overgrown by thorny bushes and weeds. The shack he had built, was just big enough for him and his goat. His only provisions were goat’s milk, plants, and roots, and fresh spring water. He was content with his solitary life. Three times a year, he was visited by his son who brought him a bottle of vine from Vivodina.

Elijah’s goat is undoubtedly the reference to prince Kozel (Kozel means male goat in English) who is credited to promote Slavic Christianity by receiving St. Methodius, when he was persecuted by the German bishops for using Slavic language in liturgy.

The legend is suggesting that because of the refuge the Pannonian Slovenians were given to Slavic missionaries God rewarded them with secret wisdom (in a legend, the over-grown shack turned into a chapel and weeds into beautiful garden).

This legend was being passed down without any attempt to interpret it. However, it served as an esoteric vehicle used by many Slovenian artists who used flowers to hide the secret message in their creative writing. Prešeren’s Sonetni venec (The Wreath of Sonets) is full of biblical imagery and comparison of Slovenians to Jews. Slovenian poetic imagination was filled with the magic Slovenian language contains, like the magical words buh and buk (the book and God), or the words svet and cvet (holy and flower).

With his legend Cvetnik, Trdina transmitted some gnostic ideas which would not be otherwise acceptable for publishing in the Catholic controlled society. He lost his teaching job because of his progressive ideas.

Trdina collected his legends in the valley at the foothills of the Gorjanci Mountains, where the Carthusian monastery Pleterje was located. It is the only Carthusian monastery still active in Slovenia.

It is obvious that the garden is not a physical place, but a region with high mystical spirituality. Slovenians are a nation of poets and writers; their independence was accomplished in 1991 with pen, not with guns, as they say.

Trdina’s legend Cvetnik could have been originally composed by some anonyms Carthusian monk from the nearby Pleterje Carthusian monastery, where Nicholas Kempf was prior in 1460 and where he most likely wrote his book on Mystical theology. It is possible that he withdrew to the top of the mountain and lived there as a hermit during his spiritual torments. The Pleterje Carthusians were taking care of the Church of St. Gertrude, known in Slovenian as Sveta Jera. The church of St. Jera was first mentioned in 1447 when Frideric II. of Celje and His son Ulric II awarded the stewardship of the Church to the Carthusian monastery of Pleterje.

Whatever the case, a new church dedicated to St. Nicholas was built on top of Gorjanci mountain before before the 1526, when it was first mentioned. It is possible that the Church was built to preserve the memory of Nicholas Kempf who became the forgotten ‘saint’, because he dared to criticize the Church of his time.

Thinking about these three churches reminds me of Fr. C.R. in the Alchemical Wedding who was going on the mountain where three churches on the top were standing.

I was not able to determine when the church of St. Ilija (Eliyah) was built next to St. Gertrude. It is believed that the church was built by the Bosnian refugees who had to converted to the Serbian Orthodox religion in Serbian occupied Bosnia. St. Ilija is a patron saint of Bosnia and is specially worshipped by the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Although Trdina stated that he heard the legend from the people at the foothills of Gorjanci mountain, the legend has a mark of Trdina’s great creative mind, and his understanding of art and history. By the time Trdina visited those places and heard the legend, the memory of Nicholas Kempf was probably forgotten. Because of the Protestant ideas embraced by the Carthusians, they were expelled by the Counter-Reformation and their monasteries were taken over by the Jesuits. The only explanation how Trdina could have gotten this legend would be that the Old Believers kept it in circulation as a Catholic tale.

From Trdina’s story we can assume that he was familiar with the Rosicrucian Brotherhood whose ideas by then were not acceptable to him.

Slovenian writers and prophets had a literary plan and they faithfully followed it in their effort to spiritually enlighten Slovenian people, rather then seeking fame and glory by writing in foreign language.

Slovenian literature was a unique flower from the Garden that many powerful nations, such as Germans, Italians, Hungarians, occupied, but they were not able to suppress Slovenian language and the aspiration of Slovenian people to re-gain their freedom.

Flowers in Slovenian Folk Culture

Our distant pre-christian Slovenian ancestors had great regard for flowers. They used them for healing and also in various religious rituals. Not even Christianity was able to extinguish some pagan customs. In his book Praznično leto Slovencev, Nik Kuret explained that many pagan custums were incorporated into religious rituals and practiced in Slovenia up to the 20th century. Some of the  plants were incorporated into a Palm Sunday bunch, consisting of hazelnut branches, ivy, branches of pussy willow. In Corpus Christi processions, the young girls dressed in white were tossing rose pettals. This religious holiday is called Telovo and might be associated with the ancient Venetic godess Telo (telo in Slovenian means »body«). On summer solstice, special flowers, called »kresnice« were placed in fields to ward of hail. The name of the flowers is associated with Slavic god of fire »Kresnik«. There were many other plants that were used in spells in variuous rituals.

Our distant Slovenian ancestors believed both summer and winter solstice had magical power. The summer solstice represented the longest day of the year, which meant the most sunlight. In the abstract spiritual analogy, it represents the highest sence of awareness, a peack creative experience, or the union with the devine (in the language of mystics).

The use of plants for medicinal uses has also been widely practiced in Slovenia.  They were regarded as gifts of God. In the monasteries that began to be established in the region of today’s Slovenia since the beginning of the 2^nd millennium AD, the monks practiced herbal healing. They also copied the classical Greek books on healing plants. In Olimlje, Slovenia, the third oldest apothecary was founded by the Paulician monks.

Carthusian Parallel Religion

Carthusians are known for their artistic works. Besides copying books, they were also writing theological and philosophical works, and particularly poetry. Out of humility, they did not sign their work, and if they did, they used pseudonyms.

From some of the medieval poetry that has been preserved in Slovenian language, it can be assumed that they were composed by monks who had different understanding of the biblical writing than the Church was explaining. Such as the poem about Jesus’ birth and Mary’s virginity.  The analogy of sunlight going through glass is used to explain the birth of Jesus. As a spiritual being, Jesus is like a light, and as such, He can incarnate in any human body, or in many human bodies at the same time. Jesus is pure Love, born out of Love.

Besides spiritual work, the Carthusians also engaged in practical matters. They are known for their vineyards, orchards, animal husbandry. They cultivated fields and ran hospitals and public baths and distributed herbal medicine. At the time of my youth, they still shared their grafts for fruit trees, and wisdom with the nearby peasants, and they still distributed herbal remedies free of charge.  The Carthusians of Pleterje were not involved in politics, but they were not shy away to stand up for the Truth when it counted most.

Judging by the words I can read in the VM, and by the illustrations, I believe the author was focusing on the Love of God, rather than on the fear of God, which was characteristic for the Protestant writers, not to mention the Catholics. Perhaps, the author had experienced the fear of God during his mystical experience and realized that the fear of God was manipulative tool of those who wanted to have power over people. It also reflects the influence of the Pauline theology, since St. Paul, more than other biblical writers, placed great emphasis on Love and forgiveness.  

Blessings of Flowers

Besides Palm Sunday’s blessing of the greenery, the blessing of the flowers became part of the Christian tradition at least since 10^th century on. For this purpose, special blessings were prescribed to make the healing properties of the plants more potent. The name of the plant being blessed had to be mentioned two times. The ritual included 64^th psalm and three longer prayers. The blessed plants were than taken home and stored for the protection against fire, lightning, in the barn to protect farm animals, and for protection against illness and harmful magic spells. They were also used as incense for blessing, particularly for sick children and animals.

In the monastery in Metz, a special blessing form was used in the 15^th century for rue (useseful for exorcising the devil), mandrake and other plants. In this way, the litterate people were teaching the peasants in the 14^th and 15^th century about plants.

Some monasteries were blessing the healing plants every month, since they were not ready to be picked all at the same time.

The prescribed prayer a priest used for blessing the plant, mentiones the name of the plant and the desired affects, such as “to avert evil spirits and spells, and any connection with the satanic works from person’s body from any direction it might come, so that the blessed plants will not possess any evil power, but rather the powers of Jesus, St. Ubald and St. Antony of Padua, whome I implore over this plant, ordering the devils to be shamed and cursed and go into the abis with all their pagan works, so that the holy angels could obide in these flowers.”

For an intellectual priest who believed neither in devils nor in angels (as is evident from the pictures in the VM), and from the works of Nicholas Kempf, it was probably problematic to utter those words.

Yet, the Churches continued with this practice until they were no longer able to control superstition.

Not all Slovenian traditions involving plants were taken over by Christianity. Some pagan rituals kept being practiced just to keep the tradition going, without even understanding the origin, like belief in the magical power of the seeds of the fern on St. John the Baptist Day.

Conclusion

The language of the VM might very well be written in the language of flowers. The manuscript contains strange looking flowers that speak in their own secret language, while at the same time keep us guessing which flower they actually represent. There are no flowers with roots like lions, or with blossoms like chalice, as Koen Gheuhus had pointed out in his blog. He recognized the spiritual significance, but the pictures speak different to him than to me, because we come from different cultures. Being nurtured by the Catholic religion and Slovenian Christian art enables me to understand the secret language of Flowers.

I believe this secret language lingered in Slovenian folk culture until Slovenian literary artists made a conscious decission to write in Slovenian language with a secret plan in mind.

I firmly believe the author of the VM was Nicholas Kempf, a son of a gardener from Strasbourg, a Carthusian monk who wrote his most famous book Mystical Theology at the Pleterhe Charterhouse. He wrote over 30 books, but only a few have survived, and even those are copies, not originals. Others were lost or destroyed. The Voynich Manuscript might be one of his lost books.

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******SEE INTRODUCTION ARTICLE OF THE PROJECT VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT SLOVENIAN MYSTERY EXPLAINED AT: https://voynichslovenianmystery.com/?page_id=9

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