iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I'm sure my Surface is FINE and I haven't lost any of my work and it's ALL FINE. UEFI sees the drive, so that seems promising. Booting from recovery USB didn't work, so I'm off to see the Geek Squad. Thoughts and prayers please. And suggestions!

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Over on VoynichNinja (an excellent discussion board with lots of solid linguistic & cryptological work), someone posted this new resource based on my (credited!) work that lets you visualize structure & rearrange quires, bifolia, and pages! It's incredibly cool and really valuable. voynichviewer.com

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Every page is available online, freely downloadable, shareable, & reusable, per Yale's #OA policies! If you're going to post about the manuscript, please use real images, not AI. It's not helpful for fakes to be circulating. Here are some actual images: collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/2002...

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It's not necessary to use generative AI to create images of the #Voynich Manuscript, so why do people continue to do it? There is so much wrong in this online image. Neither of the pages shown here is actually from the manuscript. The verso is labeled "r" ("recto") & the language is not Voynichese.

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

In particular, the video claims that the astrological pages are calendrical. The numeric evidence just does not support affiliating those pages with lunar phases. The moon cycle is 28 days...the astrological pages have 30 women arranged concentrically, so it really doesn't work.

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I'm the first in line to argue that it MIGHT have something to do with women's health and gynecology (I mean, just look at this detail from f. 77v...uterus and fallopian tubes and ovaries, anyone?) , but we won't know FOR SURE until we can read it. Counting on you, @chirila.bsky.social!

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Just got around the watching the #Voynich = moonwater + menstrual blood TikTok and while I am all for the possibility of the manuscript having been written by women for women, the video's interpretation of the images really doesn't work.

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

So grateful to @harvardmedieval.bsky.social for my appointment as a Research Associate this year while I work on my manuscript studies textbook! Access to Harvard's resources will be incredibly important for this project. medieval.fas.harvard.edu/people/lisa-...

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Arabic calligraphic scripts develop in the 7th century for the specific purpose of writing the Qur'an. This makes the letters themselves sacred, and makes graphic design an important part of the development of the various scripts, designed by calligraphy masters like al-Bawwab in 11th-c. Bagdhad.

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Latin script, by contrast, develops organically in insular, relatively isolated monastic communities (important exceptions are Caroline and Humanistic which were generally designed and circulated with intention). Latin script is therefore localizable in a way that Hebrew isn't.

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Hebrew scribes were diasporic (working within and influenced by the cities & polities in which they lived) & tightly constrained by Rabbinic authority. So Hebrew scripts are very conservative, and establishing date/place by form alone is extremely difficult. In fact, only Beit-Arié can do it! 😂

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

And the "Six Pens" developed in Bagdhad by al-Bawwab in the early eleventh century:

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The primary early Arabic script-types:

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

And here's a timeline of Gothic diagnostics...

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

...and a SUMMARY CHART OF THE DEROLEZ CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM FOR GOTHIC SCRIPTS! Here I am, making your paleography dreams come true:

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Here's a map of Pre-Caroline zones:

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

For Latin paleography, here's a general timeline:

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

and a map of where they were used (source: www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-o...):

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

First up, a chart of Beit-Arié's classification of Hebrew scripts, to which I have added examples:

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Shana tovah, friends. Hang in there.

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

My @simmonsuniversity.bsky.social LIS course "The Medieval Manuscript" starts today! After 16 years, I'm doing a complete syllabus refresh, making space for Islamic & Judaic book cultures & moving beyond western Europe to include Al-Andalus, North Africa, Middle East, Byzantium, & Persia. Let's go!

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I buried my father yesterday. His death was not unexpected (he was 93, after all), but it is a brutal loss just the same. He was utterly devoted to his family, his faith, his community, and his profession. Visited 94 countries and every continent. A true mensch. I will miss him desperately. Z'l. 💔

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Reading a #Voynich novel, and OMG! But please note that I am not, in fact, responsible for the care and feeding of the manuscript!

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

In 1956, the manuscript leaves were purchased by the St. Louis Public Library, where they can still be found.

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Plot twist! Some of the single leaves in the exhibit were purchased from Otto Ege! Most came from other sources, including Number 44, a leaf of particular interest to me as it turned out to have come from Gottschalk Antiphonal, the twelfth-century antiphonal that was the subject of my first book!

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

The exhibit was a great success, if the dozens of thank-you notes archived by the St. Louis Public Library are to be believed: “We enjoyed going to the book exhibit...We enjoyed finding out how the gold was polished in the illuminated letters! Sincerely yours, Pupils of McElroy Dagg School.”

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Glenn toured dozens of cities and small towns around the U.S. and Canada from 1951-1954, arranging tours for schools, churches and civic groups. Today, I reconstructed his route using articles about the exhibition that I found in Newpapers.com! (with thanks to ChatGPT for the Python code):

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

This was nothing new; similar exhibitions had taken place before, with similar pedagogical goals. But Glenn’s was different. Instead of making visitors come to a stationary exhibit space, Glenn installed the exhibit in an aluminum trailer and took it on the road.

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

In the 1950s, a bookdealer from Kansas City named Frank Glenn, under the auspices of a The Grolier Society (publishers of the well-known Book of Knowledge encyclopedia for children), assembled an exhibit of tablets, manuscripts and printed books meant to demonstrate the History of the Book.

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Ever heard of “The Magic Carpet on Wheels”? Come with me on a medieval manuscript magic carpet ride across North America in the 1950s!

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Boston Harbor today! Not a filter... wildfire smoke from Canada!

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

It's #TallShips day in Boston harbor! After a beautiful sunrise, the fire boats were out in force and the USS Constitution left early to meet her friends in the outer harbor and lead the parade! More pictures coming soon...

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Now on my way to @imc-leeds.bsky.social from Dublin. See you at the @medievalacademy.bsky.social lecture tonight, starring the great Fiona Griffiths!

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I had the absolute pleasure yesterday of examining the GORGEOUS al-Bawwāb Qur'an @chesterbeatty.bsky.social, written in Bagdhad in 391H / 1000-1 CE. Major thank-yous to the staff and curators (and local police...it's a long story) who facilitated my visit!

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Here's the absolutely gorgeous al-Bawwāb Qur'an (Beatty Is 1431, Bagdhad, 391 H/ 1000-1001 CE): viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/image...

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Covering a lot of ground, both intellectually & geographically! Delivering a lecture about digitally rebuilding dismembered manuscripts; visiting the 11th-c. Qur'an that is a case study in my forthcoming textbook on manuscript studies; & giving a #Voynich lecture at Leeds (Session 1235, Wed., 14:15)

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

And if you want to learn more, check out the project website (brokenbooks2.omeka.net) and my recent article in Digital Philology: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Here's the Fragmentarium record. Good thing it's a digital project that's updateable! fragmentarium.ms/overview/F-8...

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

🚨Beauvais Missal alert! 🚨A GORGEOUS leaf from the Commons being sold from a Paris collection. It's already part of my @fragmentarium.bsky.social rebuild of the manuscript, but once it sells I'll need to update the record with the new location. www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/...

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Written in Bagdhad in 391 H/1000-1001 CE by Abu’l-Hasan `Ali ibn Hilal, known as Ibn al-Bawwāb (here's the colophon on f. 284r). An absolutely gorgeous early Qur'an written by one of the most important scribes of the Muslim world!

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

All of these markers are designed to help the reader navigate the text of the Qur'an. The manuscript also includes stunning geometric pages, such as the preliminary page listing the Ahl al-Kisāʾ (7v, left) and this abstract carpet page (8v,right):

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

And every Sura begins with a large marginal palmette and a line of golden lettering:

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Every tenth verse is indicated by a large marginal medallion alternating gold or blue:

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Every fifth verse ends with a small golden marker:

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

These small clusters of three blue dots indicate the end of each verse:

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Spending today looking closely at images of the gorgeous al-Bawwāb Qur'an @chesterbeatty.bsky.social (which I will see in person next month!). The navigational features of this manuscript are brilliant. Here's the transition from Sura 3 to 4 (f. 43v): 🧵https://viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/image/Is_1431/82/

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

If you live in Boston's North End, please help me find my #LostDog Maggie! She has a collar with my contact information.

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