VManusVoynich studies
← Reading room

The earlier working reading

Hold, divide, transfer

Folio 11r · 25 August 2026

A proposed interpretation, not a verified translation. Read the English summary below or open the complete English working translation.

Folio 11r, showing an unidentified botanical drawing surrounded by lines of Voynich script.
Beinecke MS 408 · 11r · Yale source

The proposed meaning · English summary

Hold the designated plant parts, take portions from them, place those portions into the preparation, and work them onward.

After another holding step, part of the material is separated or redirected. The first run closes; the second remains unfinished.

Read the complete working translation →

Where this reading comes from

What is on the page
A botanical drawing appears beside blocks of script. The pictured plant is visible; its species and medicinal use have not been identified.
What the interpretation adds
The earlier model treats the pictured plant as the material being discussed, assigns recurring forms actions such as taking and holding, and supplies context to turn them into instructions.
What is still unknown
No word meaning or complete sentence has been confirmed. Later research withdrew parts of this method; these instructions preserve an earlier interpretation, rather than a current decipherment.
Sources and edition history

Original workshop edition

The English summary follows the fourteen-page workshop reading of 25 August. The full working translation follows the later thirty-page German running-text draft. These are related historical editions, not a line-for-line translation of one another.