An overview of the Voynich/Drebbel
and New Atlantis theories:
When I first became interested in the Voynich, and felt compelled make
my own attempt at solving it’s mysteries, I began by focusing my
attention on the many enigmatic illustrations. Like most researchers, I
believed that identifying the objects depicted might reveal a
background culture and time frame, which in turn may point to an
underlying language, which might then help cryptographers in their work
of decipherment.
In looking over the illustrations, I soon felt that some of the
previously identified “jars” had strong similarities to the earliest
microscopes. This sent me to study the history of microscopes, and I
found that Cornelis Drebbel was very involved in the early invention
and development of the devices. When I further discovered that he was
the Chief Alchemist to Rudolf II, I wondered if he could be involved in
the creation of the manuscript. This was because the Voynich is
believed to have first appeared to history, in Rudolf’s court, at about
the same time as Drebbel was working there. I also found what I feel
are some basic similarities between the art and writing style of the
Voynich and that of Drebbel’s. After this I looked for any possible new
connections which might connect Drebbel with the book. I looked
at the people Drebbel knew, their accomplishments, and the circles he
and they may have traveled in.
Among many dozens of people connected with Drebbel, I was drawn to
Francis Bacon. Bacon was involved with cipher, for one thing, writing
about the ciphers of others, and proposing his own. Also, he commented
on Drebbel’s inventions on a couple of occasions. And the two of them
must have known each other, as they both had rooms at Eltham Palace.
They were given these rooms by James I, to display their work and
collections.
This also led me to the story of Bacon’s scientific utopia, The New
Atlantis. It has long been known that many of the machines and devices
mentioned in The New Atlantis are inventions, or based on inventions,
of Cornelis Drebbel. These include the microscope, perpetual clock,
submarine, and more. This was published after Bacon’s death, in 1627,
but was written sometime between 1610 and 1626.
Once I began to study the details New Atlantis, I became intrigued by
the really startling parallels between it and the Voynich. Both books
contain unidentifiable, grafted plants. Both contain unidentifiable
animals. Both contain a unique language or cipher of some kind. Both
relate to astronomy and astrology in some way. Both include nudes in
communal baths. Some of the clothing described in New Atlantis, such as
a green turban, and an azure robe, are in the Voynich. The New Atlantis
describes a vellum book, high towers, deep caves, lofty heights. The
Voynich is a vellum text, with images of towers, at least one cave, and
heights.
I do not believe any known text matches the Voynich on so many points
as Bacon’s New Atlantis does. It is true there are hundreds of similar
looking “herbals”, and “pharmas”, but in these, most of the plants are
identifiable, and not usually shown grafted. There are baths,
zodiacs, ciphers, nudes and animals, in various manuscripts, but never
all at once, as they are in the Voynich and New Atlantis. But if we go
further and accept the possibility that certain of the “jars” in the
Voynich are microscopes, as I do in my Voynich\Drebbel Theory, we have
another simile. Because as I stated, the story of New Atlantis also
includes microscopes.
Looking further, the “rosettes page” of the Voynich, which has often
been seen as a map, has a medieval type T/O map in the upper right.
These maps show what was the known world as a circle, with a “T”
dividing the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa. So if the artist’s
intent was to draw a map here, it was a map of a place outside the
known world. And Francis Bacon’s Bensalem (the island referred to as
“New Atlantis”, as Bacon felt the Americas were the actual Atlantis)
was an island outside of the known world. It is on this page that we
see the castle towers, the caves and heights. And in the very center is
some sort of pillared structure, just where the House of Solomon is
described as being in Bensalem. It is “at the eye”, according to the
narrator from The New Atlantis.
All of these facts and similes have led me to theorize that the Voynich
may have been created by someone, possibly Drebbel, as a token artifact
to accompany, represent or illustrate the Bacon story in some way. If
this is the case, it would probably have been made to look older
than it was, because it would have been meant to look as though it were
from the ancient civilization of Bensalem. And the Voynich, while
reminiscent of an older, medieval work, somehow gives many viewers a
sense of having been created in the early seventeenth century. This,
even by some of those who strongly profess it must be older.
There was a circle of men, which included Bacon, Drebbel, Ben Johnson,
possibly Shakespeare, Simon Forman, and other great minds and
imaginative souls of the time, who frequented the halls of Gray’s Inn,
the theaters and meeting places of the London and it’s outskirts,
in the years after Bacon’s downfall of 1621. Ben Johnson wrote of
Drebbel in a play, and some believe Shakespeare based Prospero of the
Tempest on him. Bacon wrote of Drebbel, and included his inventions in
his monumental fiction, The New Atlantis. I believe it is quite
possible that from this dynamic group, somehow, by someone (possibly by
Drebbel, perhaps contributed to by Bacon), the Voynich was created to
reflect Bacon’s great work.
Taken all together, this theory would explain many of the problems
confronting past and current investigations of the Voynich. Most of
these attempts have looked for real places, people, cultures,
languages, and objects to compare to it’s elusive contents. All of
these, so far, have failed in whole or in part. Perhaps this is because
it does not reflect any real place, people, culture, language or
objects of the time, or any time... because if the Voynich was based on
Bacon’s mythology, it would explain why it’s contents do not exactly
match anything real, and yet match New Atlantis so very well. H.R.
SantaColoma
http://www.santa-coloma.net/voynich_drebbel/voynich.html
http://www.santa-coloma.net/voynich_drebbel/new_atlantis/new_atlantis.html