Proto-Romance Manuscript from Ischia.

Gerard Cheshire Discussion

Dear H-HistGeog members,

The peer-reviewed paper titled The Language and Writing System of MS408 (Voynich) Explained is now published in the journal Romance Studieshttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02639904.2019.1599566

The manuscript uses a unique alphabet and writing system with a language that became obsolete: proto-Romance, which evolved into the modern Romance languages. The manuscript originates from Castello Aragonese, Ischia, c. 1444, and is therefore of great significance to Italian heritage and linguistics. It seems that the manuscript left the castle in 1912, when the building fell into private ownership. I feel it should be returned to Italy forthwith as it belongs to the Italian people - please discuss. 

Please disseminate the link to other scholars who may find the paper useful to their research. In human geographical terms, the manuscript is very revealing about living alongside active volcanoes, which were not understood scientifically in the 15th century and believed to be the work of Vulcan. 

Regards,

Dr. Gerard Cheshire.

Research Associate.

University of Bristol. 

https://bristol.academia.edu/GerardCheshire