#
# Identification:
#
#   * Title: "Last page" 
#   * Page: f116v = TX (Rene) = p234 (Stolfi)
#   * Folio: f116
#   * Panels: f116v
#   * Bifolio: bT1 = f103+f116
#   * Quire: T (Rene) = XVIII (Beinecke)
#
#   Shown in Plate 15 of Tiltman's article 
#   [item 10 in Jim Reeds's bibliography].
#
# Attributes:
#
#   * Language: ? (Currier)
#   * Hand: ? (Currier)
#   * Subsets: S (Rene), xxx (Stolfi)
#   * Colors: ??? (Reeds)
#
# Description:
#
#   This page is blank except for four lines of text at the top
#   (numbered "0" to "3") and some drawings at the top left corner. 
#
#   The text is rougly justified against the left margin, and ragged
#   on the right. Line 0 is flush against the top edge of the vellum,
#   lines 1-3 lie about 1/2 inch below it, with normal interline
#   spacing. Except for two Voynichese words at the beginning of line
#   3, the text is written in a peculiar script ("Michitonese") that
#   seems to be intermediate between ordinary (Latin) alphabet and the
#   VMs script. The handwriting is irregular and not very readable.
#   The letters in line 0 is somewhat smaller but apparently in the
#   same handwriting as the rest.  Rene reports [07 Apr 1999] that 
#   the ink is similar to that used in the rest of the manuscript.
#
#   The area next to the upper left corner is heavily stained and
#   wrinkled. There is a large hole in the vellum, 2-3mm wide, near
#   the upper left corner, about 2cm from the edges. Lines 1 and 2
#   of the text start right next to the hole.
#
#   In the dark region between the hole and the left edge, roughly
#   aligned with text line #2, there is the drawing of a four-legged
#   animal, resembling a dog with round ears, short hais, and a fat
#   but pointed tail. The animal is facing left, with the snout right 
#   against the vellum's edge.
#
#   Below the animal is a female nymph (with breasts), naked except for some
#   simple hat.  She is facing seems to be seated on a sloping surface,
#   right at the edge of the dark area, with arms stretched sideways
#   and down.
#
#   Above the anumal there is a drawing of an unidentified bulbous object.
#
#   There is a large question mark at the right margin, aligned with 
#   line 3 but well beyound its end.  It shows up in Newbold's reproduction.
#
#   In one reproduction of this page there is a very faint line of modern-style
#   digits below part of the first line. Each letter (but not the "+"
#   signs) has a single digit below it; except that one can see also
#   the numerals "10" and "13", each squeezed under a single letter.
#   (Part of the line is unreadable, so "11" and "12" could be there
#   too.) However these digits were probably scribbled on the copy,
#   since they do not show up in Newbold's reproduction.
#
# Comments:
#
#   THE SCRIPT
#
#   Jacques Guy [] mentions the Michitonese script resembles that of a
#   1460 German manuscript in Latin reproduced in [1, p.78]. In that
#   sample, there are letters that look like Voynich 8, but they stand
#   for "d" not "s". Final "s" is written like the modern "es-zet".
#
#   Jacques [29 Mar 1996] also suggest that "ct" coudl be a "t" as
#   found in Benaventan and Visigothic manuscripts, and "9" could
#   be "us".
#
#   Rene Zandbergen [27 Mar 1996] confirms similarity of Michitonese
#   with another German manuscript from 1440, in German [2]. In that
#   sample too `d' was written as `8', `so' was written "just like in
#   the VMS(?)", and `Venus' was written `Ven9'. He adds later [28 Oct
#   98] that the f116v text "looks more like a German hand than
#   anything else. Not Kircher's, not Marci's but earlier."
#
#   Some of the "Michitonese" letters seem purposefully distorted to
#   resemble Voynichese letters.
#
#   Denis Mardle [19 Apr 97] notes that the Michitonese writing is
#   "not unlike" the small extraneous writing on f17r.
#
#   Stolfi [01 Nov 98] notes that the Michitonese script resembles
#   that of the "month names" in the center of the "zodiac" diagrams.
#   For example, the last character of line 1 is similar to the first
#   character of the Pisces label (f70v2). If the two sets are indeed
#   by the same hand, then the month names give valuable clues on the
#   Michitonese alphabet.
#
#   THE TEXT
#
#   Before seeing what the text actually looks like, Stolfi [5 Feb
#   1998] conjectured that the text could be an anagram, given that it
#   resembles a "Scrabble end-game". Unfortunately anagrams of that
#   size are practically unsolvable without a clue.
#
#   Common opinion is that the f116v text is scribblings by a would-be
#   decipherer. However this theory does not seem compatible with the
#   "ordinary" appearance of the text, and does not explain the
#   normal-looking Voynichese words ("oror sheey" in EVA) inserted in
#   the text.
#
#   Rene [5 Feb 1998] conjectures that the "would-be decipherer" is
#   the same person who wrote the character tables on f1r. Rene also
#   remarks that one can exclude Dee, Kelley, Askham, Ricci, and
#   Bacon, since the third line is very likely German.
#
#   Andras Kornai [25 Nov 1998] says that says that "-d" is the 2nd
#   person posessive ending in Hungarian, but the text does not seem
#   to be Hungarian.
#
#   Newbold [1921] reads the first line, rather arbitrarily, as "michiton
#   oladabas multos te tccr cerc portas" (and ignores the other three).
#   After many arbitrary manipulations he gets a "cipher key" out of it.
#
#   Brumbaugh reads the text as "(...)con olada ba", interprets
#   "con...ba" as an anagram of "bacon", and turns "olada" into
#   'rodgd' by adding 3 to each letter. Brumbaugh then says "rodgd"
#   means "roger"; but he concludes that this evidence was planted by
#   Dee/Kelly. (Reported by Rene [2 Feb 1998].)
#
#   Jim Reeds [15 Apr 94] quotes Erwin Panofsky [4] who reads the
#   second line as "so nim geismi[l]ch o", meaning, "... take goats
#   milk, or..."
#
#   Jacques Guy [] remarks that the the word that Newbold and others
#   read "valst" or "valsch" is actually "valde" ("strongly, very") in
#   the 1460 german manuscript [1, p.78].
#
#   Rene, tongue in cheek [15 Apr 1998], notes that the mapping
#   {ol->d, m->p, ch->e, d->b, b->n} turns "michiton oladabas" into
#   "pieiton d abanas", i.e. "Pietro d'Abano" modulo transcriber
#   errors.
#
#   Rene [07 Feb 96], looking at D'Imperio's photocopy, thinks that
#   there might be at least one (unreadable) letter before "michiton".
#
#   Rene [13 Mar 1996] noted that the text begins with "mich" and ends
#   with "nich", suggesting it was written by "MICHael voyNICH".
#
#   Rene [5 Feb 1998] notes that some Voynichese words are similar to 
#   "oladabas", e.g. the label on the NE corner of f67v2 ("otararain").
#   Dennis [28 Oct 1998] suggests "otardar" from f67r1 (outer circle,
#   at 11:00).  
#
#   Rene [28 Oct 1998] also suggests f76v.P.19 ("orar.sheey") as a
#   possible source for line 3.  Stolfi observes that there is also
#   an "aror.sheey" on f104r.P.28.
#
#   Stolfi [] remarks that "Olazabal" or "Olazábal" is a common mame 
#   in Spanish-speaking areas, probably of Basque origin.
#
#   Nick Pelling [14 Sep 2002] says that the last word of line 1,
#   flipped left-to-right, looks vaguely like "mirror"; and line 2,
#   upside down, looks like a series of items preceded by Roman
#   numerals:  "+ vi n + v m + vi go + xi n + xi vom + xi ivn + xij".
#   A shopping list? :-)
#
#   THE DRAWINGS
#
#   Rene [18 Sep 1997] thinks the animal looks like a horse. Stolfi []
#   thought it could be a dog.
#
#   Rene also observes [] that the nymph on f116v looks very much like the
#   "dead" nymph on page ???---which also has extraneous writing, possibly
#   by the same hand.
#
# References:
#
#   [1] Joyce Whalley "The Art of Calligraphy -- Western Europe and America"
#   Bloomsbury Books, London 1980
#
#   [2] Manuscript Palat. Lat. 1369. Cited in [3].
#
#   [3] Fritz Saxl, book about astronomical and astrological images in medieval 
#   manuscripts.
#
#   [4] Erwin Panofsky, in a letter to W. F. Friedman, 19 March 1954,
#   now in Marshall Library.
#
#
# Last edited on 2002-09-15 13:22:08 by stolfi