Voynich Manuscript Folio 116 Revisited

Abstract: The translation of the note on Folio 116 and the decoded first five lines of Folio 1 show that a ten-year-old Leonardo da Vinci began writing the Voynich Manuscript around 1462, after he returned from Africa.

‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’
— Leonardo da Vinci

The last page of the VM, Folio 116 or the Micharon page, contains a three-line section. There have been various attempts to interpret these three lines. Johannes Albas suggested that they describe a herbal recipe, based on the use of billy goat’s liver for a plaster to apply to a wound.(I) As in all his interpretations, Albas parses individual words by adding additional letters. In this article, the section is translated from Italian without any modifications.

In an earlier article I attempted to translate this section with the aid of a modern Italian dictionary. The following translation relies on the more appropriate Florio’s 1611 Italian English dictionary.(II) Some of the letters represent Roman numerals; for example, the first word of the second line “FIX” represents the number 49 and “M4VIX” represents 1459. I was only able to translate this section when I discovered that in the Middle Ages “F” denoted 40, such usage having disappeared in modern times.

1. Labada is a town on the gold coast of West Africa, close to Cape Coast, currently called Mina (the Mine).
2. Antonio da Noli was a Genoa merchant who traded horses for slaves in Guinea, one horse for 25-30 slaves. A single slave sold in Seville, between the years 1500-1510, for 20 ducats.(III) A ducat contains 3.5 grams of gold. Today gold sells for $1350 dollars an ounce. A single slave would fetch $3,375 in today’s money. Noli sailed with Diogo Gomes, the Portuguese navigator and explorer. They explored the Gambian river and are credited with the discovery of the Cape Verde Islands. In 1460, when Gomes and Noli were at Zaya (just south of Cape Verde), they were ordered to intercept a richly laden Castilian (Spanish) caravel sailing up the coast from Gambia (south of Cape Verde).(IV) Noli was rewarded by the Portuguese King, who made him captain of Santiago Island, one of the Cape Verde Islands.(V)(VI)
3. Oba is the title given to the rulers of West Africa tribes.
4. There are no records of an Oba Ceve. The surviving early records rarely provide the names of African rulers. Ceve is a popular name today in West Africa.
5. Ships sailed from Portugal to Guinea in the autumn in order to take advantage of favorable winds and ocean currents.(VII) A round trip probably required at least a year to complete.
6. Folio 116 is rather dirty having been for many years in contact with a wooden cover. Unfortunately, the end of line two is missing.
7. In 1469 King Affonso V of Portugal leased the trade of the Guinea coast to Fernao Gomes on condition that for five years he would explore 100 leagues of the coast further south of Cape Verde.(VIII) In 1471 Joao de Santarem and Pero de Eacobar discovered, the source of West African gold at Mina.(IX) The Portuguese built a trading fort at Mina for holding slaves to be shipped to Europe and later America. Today it is a World Heritage Site, known as “The Door of No Return.” Between 1450 and 1870, 13 million Africans were transported and sold into slavery.(X) It is a blight on the history of some European Nations.

With use of the translation notes, the section may be interpreted as follows:

See the appendix for the decoding and translation details.

Synopsis of Folio 116: the man who wrote the note was writing to someone called Vinci, presumably Leonardo da Vinci. He accompanied the eight-year-old Vinci, in the autumn of 1459, to Africa. Leonardo and Oba Ceve may have been aboard Noli’s ship when he intercepted the Castilian ship, thus endangering their lives (see translation note 2).

The first five lines of Folio 1 were translated as follows:

8. Cabo probably refers to Cabo Verde, Cape Verde or one of the Cape Verde islands. The Portuguese discovered Cape Verde in 1444.(XI) In 1459 their sailors had not explored the coast south of Cape Verde.
9. Santiago Island, one of the Cape Verde Islands, was the base for Portuguese missionaries and traders who exploited the African people on the mainland.(XII) The clergy sent to preach the gospel were poorly received and often abused. The tribes were Muslems.
10. Leonardo may be referring to Antonio da Noli who according to the note on f.116 escorted him to Africa. He and Oba Ceve were probably on Noli’s ship when Noli intercepted the Castilian caravel (see note 2 above). This could explain Leonardo’s comment that Noli was the person who showed “extreme anger for the person he speeketh unto and wished to be rewarded by the king.” There is no reference to Noli in f.1, but some words on the edge of the page are too faint to read or are no longer there.
11. King Alfonso V, of Portugal rewarded Noli with the captaincy of Santiago Island for intercepting the Castilian caravel.(XIII)

See the appendix for the decoding and translation details.

Conclusion and Discussion

1. f.1 and f.116 are consistent in that both refer to West Africa.
2. f.1 and f.116 both suggest that Leonardo da Vinci was the author of the VM.
3. f.116 states that Vinci was taken to Africa in 1459 when he was eight years old. In f.1, Leonardo writes that he began writing the VM after he returned from Cabo, i.e. Africa. These statements provide an approximate date for the VM of around 1461 or 1462. Carbon 14 dating of four pages from the manuscript have provided an average date, with a 95% confidence limit, of 1404-1439, at least 24 years earlier than the one that the above translation provides. Dr. Pearson, assistant professor at the University of Arizona, writes, “Radiocarbon dating can get us to within 20, 50, 100 years or so of dating accuracy.”(XIV)
4. Leonardo was born in 1452 so he would have been seven in 1459 when he went to Africa. Little is known of his childhood except for two tax documents that show him, in 1457, at the age of five living in Vinci with his paternal grandparents. He was still at Vinci in 1467 when he was 15 years old,(XV) but he was no longer there in 1469.(XVI)(XVII) Did his grandparents file tax documents between years 1457 and 1467? If they did, was his name on them? If not, where was Leonardo? This question has puzzled me for many years.
5. Through a combination of the first and last pages of the VM, coupled with J.W. Blake’s two volumes, Europeans in West Africa, 1450-1560, I have been able to triangulate that an eight-year-old Leonardo was taken to Cape Verde or one of its Islands in 1459. He was probably aboard captain Noli’s ship when Noli intercepted the Castilian caravel. Portuguese merchants traded horses, clothing, pots and pans with the African tribes in exchange for the prisoners these tribes captured during their tribal warfare. It was a very lucrative business. Portugal, a small country with about 1 million people, became extremely wealthy and other nations wanted a piece of the action.
6. It is difficult to understand why such a young boy was taken on a long and dangerous voyage to Africa. Antonio da Vinci, Leonardo’s grandfather, may have become upset with his son Francesco, who was considered to be a laggard. Leonardo was very attached to his uncle who at one time was believed to be his father. Antonio may have packed the pair off to make their fortune. Figure 1 is a reproduction of a photograph of a Benin plaque showing two Portuguese traders carrying manilas (the currency used to trade with the African tribes). If Leonardo and his uncle went to Cape Verde, or one of its islands, they would have dressed like the Portuguese in this plaque. Years before I became interested in the VM, I was studying and collecting African art, in particular the art of Benin City in Nigeria. This is the reason for my owning the books cited in this article and my ability to interpret the note on f.116 and the lines deciphered from f.1. I have attempted to identify the person who wrote the note from his age of 49 in 1459, but none of the Portuguese or Italians, with available birth dates, were born in 1410.