The Voynich Manuscript. Part III. Functional interpretation and process semantics

The first part of the project: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18247099

The second part of the project: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18247208

This study proposes a comprehensive structural–functional interpretation of the Voynich Manuscript based on a complete EVA transliteration (Zandbergen edition), analysis of lexical token distribution and behavior, and comparison with the corpus of late medieval pharmacological sources, primarily the Antidotarium Nicolai (13th–15th centuries). It is demonstrated that the manuscript is neither a botanical treatise in the classical sense nor a collection of symbolic or esoteric allegories. Rather, it represents a deliberately encoded pharmacological protocol oriented toward the management of processes involved in transforming hazardous active substances.

Analysis of the manuscript’s structure reveals a unified technological system comprising botanical sections (identification and permissible forms of source materials), a balneological section (procedural regimes and phase-based processing), astrological circles (calendrical regulation of permissible operations), a diagrammatic section (systemic stabilization and state control), and a concluding textual block (principles of application and limitations). A central role within this system is occupied by a multiform active principle encoded by the qo-ke token family, accompanied by a strictly limited set of functionally distinct correctors that provide binding, protection, directive modulation, perceptual regulation, and stabilization of the result.

Reconstruction of the material composition of the protocol at the level of functional classes demonstrates full correspondence with late medieval pharmacological logic and aligns most closely with the processing of solanaceous tropane alkaloids employed in sedative–analgesic and proto-surgical practices. Taken together—phasality, passive regimes, obligatory correctors, and strict temporal regulation—the described technology is closer to early forms of general anesthesia (proto-anesthesia) than to conventional hypnotic remedies of the fifteenth century.

Special attention is given to the nature of the manuscript’s encoding: the absence of explicit substance names and technical parameters, their replacement by functional markers of states and regimes, and the integration of calendrical control indicate that the text functions as a regulatory metaprotocol. On this basis, a well-founded hypothesis is advanced concerning the existence of a complementary, now lost or unidentified volume containing detailed material and technological specifications. Taken as a whole, the results support the interpretation of the Voynich Manuscript as a specialized, deliberately encoded pharmacological treatise of late medieval Europe, aimed at risk management, reproducibility, and the safe application of potent plant-based substances.