An brief overview of the
Voynich/New Atlantis theory:
As I began to study the details of Francis Bacon's seminal science
fiction work The New Atlantis, I became intrigued by
the really startling parallels between it and the mysterious Voynich
manuscript. 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, and the Voynich may also include healing baths, as the
New Atlantis does. 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.
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,
Shakespeare, Simon Forman, and many 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, from
the turn of the 17th century, and some through the years after Bacon’s
downfall of 1621. Ben Johnson wrote of
Drebbel in a play, and some believe Shakespeare partially based
Prospero of the
Tempest on him (along with Dee). Bacon wrote of Drebbel, and included
his inventions his The New Atlantis. These people included
the architype of the ancient, hermetic,
cipher tome in much of thier work. Prospero had his magic books, the
Rosicrucians had their "Book M", the New Atlantis had it's Book of
Solomon. All these (described) books have some similarity to the
Voynich. The "aura of the ancient tome" was a part of their personal
mytique, and/or the literature and art they produced. If the Voynich
was produced during the period of about 1610 to 1620, it should not
come as much of a surprise to any scholar of Jacobean literature, art,
science and
society.
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 science fiction, it would explain why it’s contents do not
exactly
match anything real, and yet match New Atlantis, and it's people and
time, so very well. H.R.
SantaColoma
For images, more details, and more links:
http://www.santa-coloma.net/voynich_drebbel/voynich.html
http://www.santa-coloma.net/voynich_drebbel/new_atlantis/new_atlantis.html