31 July, 2025 by Sherri Mastrangelo
On folio 57 v of the Voynich, in the second wheel, there is a simple pattern of 9 symbols that repeats 4 times - or so I thought at first. As I examined it closer, it seems that the first two patterns use the “one leg, one loop” glyph as the ninth character, and the second two patterns use the “one leg, two loops” glyph as the ninth character.
I couldn’t find anyone else discussing this online, so I’ll share some visuals to discuss.
First, here is the wheel in question, with the second inner circle from the top highlighted in four sections. I start the pattern at the “o” character, as the faint lines before it may indicate a start. It is also below the exterior word.
The pattern continues for 17 characters. These are not all of the symbols that occur in the manuscript. In fact, there are several here that don’t seem to occur anywhere else (possibly the 5th, the 10th, 13th, and 17th in the chart below).
As mentioned before, the first two patterns, A and B, are the same with the one leg, one loop, while patterns C and D both have one leg, two loops as the ninth character. Do these glyphs signify anything within the whole text? Or do the numbers 9 or 17 mean anything?
Are there patterns in the other circles on 57 v? Do they relate to this pattern?
Does this pattern occur anywhere else in the manuscript?
On folio 49v, there are several characters in a vertical line, starting with the “one leg, one loop” glyph. The pattern here seems to repeat in an interesting way too.
On folio 66r, there are several characters in a vertical line. Within this line, is the only other place in the manuscript where the 6th character in the chart above appears.
On folio 69r, within the circle, there are six of these characters.
I would like to also draw attention to the work of Mary E. D’Imperio, in her publication “The Voynich Manuscript, An Elegant Enigma” for the National Security Agency in 1978, the chart “Fig. 24 “Key” Like Sequences” does show these patterns, though she doesn’t draw attention to the changing ninth character on the wheel:
The colored marks (green square and yellow circles) in the chart above are my own additions.
Does D’Imperio think that change in the pattern of 57v is not worth mentioning?
Also, the pattern she shows on Folio 76v is actually on 76r prior.
On 49v, I highlighted that the seventh character (two legs, one loop) matches the wheel pattern, as does the ninth (one leg, two loops).
I would also be curious if any of the words with the wheel of 57v show up on these other folios. I’ve seen a few of the words on 66r, but I need to do more research on this.
Would love to hear your thoughts - or please share any relevant links.
Update:
On the Voynich Ninja forum, a user shared this relevant thread from 2016: https://www.voynich.ninja/thread-1008.html
There are also at least two relevant blog posts by Nick Pelling on Cipher Mysteries from 2010 and 2017: https://ciphermysteries.com/2010/07/01/astrolabes-nocturnals-and-voynich-manuscript-page-f57v and https://ciphermysteries.com/2017/08/31/voynich-f57v
Any other related posts?