The Voynich Ninja

Some background on Jean Thenaud (I haven't had a chance to double-check this information, but it appears to be from a credible source). He became a Franciscan and was in charge of an abbey, where he wrote some of his books.

The work in which the cosmic spindle image is included was apparently requested by the king, who had an interest in kabbala, and it may not have been an area of Thenaud's expertise before the king requested it because the king apparently wasn't all that happy with the result and asked for a better explanation of kabbala. Thenaud later became an Augustinian and apparently learned or knew how to chart horoscopes.


So... since Thenaud, the Christian monk, may not have known much about the kabbala before producing the manuscript, he may have relied on earlier sources (possibly Hebrew manuscripts or translations of Hebrew manuscripts)? There was apparently a very good library in that region at the time. He also liked to travel, so perhaps he visited other libraries on his journey to Persia. He could probably read Latin, Greek, and French, and quite possibly also Hebrew, since many monks learned Hebrew to read old scriptures, but I couldn't find info on whether he knew Arabic.

I'm really curious about what images might have preceded this one. Since the illuminator may have chosen the imagery, it's also possible that Thenaud didn't have much input into how the picture was drawn. Unfortunately, I don't have time to look up the source of the imagery (a lot of French books were illuminated in Belgium/Flanders) to see if there are precedents for this representation of the spindle.

I'll look into this as well tomorrow, but it may not be easy. R.Sale is right that the line of stars is the outer layer, the fixed stars. That means that this is the Platonic Spindle as described in the myth of Er.

That also means that the spindle image may have come from a variety of sources. I agree with jkp's reasoning that it was likely copied. So now to find the source

Nicole Oresme, Le livre du Ciel et du Monde, Paris, BnF, Manuscrits, Fr. 565, f. 69, (1377)


Hildegard von Bingen Date: 1165
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It may be important to note that in the VM the dots on the spindles are not very precise. They appear to be less important than the actual object and the way it is held. 

What struck me about the image I posted was that it combines all the elements required. It's the first image I see of a spindle with cosmic markings on it. And it has the right shape, and the whorl even appears to have some kind of indentations/serrations. And like R.Sale noted, the proximity of a cosmic boundary. It's just way too much to be a coincidence.

The pair in the VM likely isn't exactly reflecting Platonic theory either, though the idea of the cosmic spindle may have originated from Plato. In Plato, there is one spindle which turns, symbolizing the rotation of the heavens. But in the VM there are two, held like a distaff-spindle pair. Hence I believe this is a somewhat adapted form of the Platonic thought, where a distaff/spindle is placed at each pole. The dots seem to merely mark that the spindle has to be read in a cosmic sense, as Linda noted earlier in this thread.

However, it seems certain that the VM illustrator had access to this type of illustration. So to me it seems like a matter of finding a common ancestor, which may well be impossible.

Thenaud's book also includes this image, which reminded me of the "thread" running through some of the VMS imagery. As far as I can tell, it represents the three Fates (the Moirai) although it is labeled oddly (the one on the right is labeled the same as the one on the left and probably was meant to be Clotho). Atropos, Lachesis, and Clotho (who was traditionally the spinner).



The Berlin sculpture of the Fates (available on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) interestingly does not appear to show a distaff or spindle, it somewhat looks like a piece of cloth wrapped around a distaff (or spindle). It's as though it has a dual nature (like the VMS), showing the beginning (the staff) and the end result (the cloth). This duality also seems appropriate in that our worth "cloth" comes from Clotho, the spinner, but also makes me wonder if the odd looking "spindle", the weird red thing that looks like a douche bag, could be a spindle wrapped in cloth?

P.S., does anyone know why other images are showing up and mine aren't? This wasn't happening before.

The cosmic spindle on Gallica: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

He calls the large woman Necessite, which makes this for sure an illustration of Plato's Myth of Er. 
What puzzles me is that usually the Spheres would be represented in a diagram with concentric circles - this is the only instance where I have seen cosmic markings right on the spindle itself.

It might be that, like JKP suggests, they hunted through libraries looking for suitable material and found some source we don't know of. Through that tradition it could be linked, however indirectly, to the Voynich image.

What I think more likely at the moment is that we are seeing a case of convergent evolution. The thought of a spindle as the "engine" of fate and indeed the very movement of the cosmos was introduced very early in Western thought and would have been known to many from Antiquity to the Renaissance.

Very interesting... Very nice find.
The label says:"The image of Lady Necessity and of the Universal"... so the spindle is explicitly labelled as "the Universal".
I have some comments on the extent to which the spindle and the mention of Necessité "makes this for sure an illustration of Plato's Myth of Er": yes, this is what the illustration references for sure, but interestingly the accompanying text is not a translation nor a version of the myth of Er.
Placing the spheres (or circles or whorls in Plato's version) on the spindle is a very literal illustration of the myth of Er's text. In this case, the illustrator seems to display much better, more detailed knowledge of Plato than the author of the text.

In general in medieval texts what we find is usually not a copy of the unadulterated Greek original, but mostly exegeses, commentary  and elaborations on a distortion of what the original may have been. 
The author here discusses souls, how they descend into bodies to inhabit them, and what they become after death, and mentions the "platonists" theory but does not recount the myth, nor mention Er, nor mention a spindle, and while in the original story the souls pass before Necessity's throne, and the spindle is on Necessity's lap, neither of these are mentioned in the text and for some reason in this text the reference is to gods carrying out their tasks "between Necessity's legs".

These nuances may seem specious but I think it is an example of how the text may relate to the illustrations in medieval manuscripts and also in the Voynich: if the text/image relationship is like that of the Paris MS, then it is an indirect one, and the illustrations may in fact show things that are not mentioned in the text at all.

Yes, those are surely good points. I don't think any Voynich image nor Thenaud's image reflects an unadulterated version of the myth. 

I suspect that these may be instances of convergent evolution, both the Voynich and Thenaud using the cosmic spindle for their own specific purpose. If the Q13a images are what I believe they are, the the "spinning = heavens" metaphor is more extensive than in Plato's tale. And Thenaud was apparently writing about Kabbalah from an outsider's perspective. 

Still it's surprising to see a visual match of this kind, especially since one of the predictions was "a cosmic spindle".

Looking for something else I found an image described as "Table of significant events".

Physician's Almanac, BL Harley 2332, England, 1411-1412, f 20v.



Is that a Thing in the bottom left corner?
It must have been self-explanatory or mnemonic for the author, as there is no accompanying text and it appears nowhere else in the Ms. The surrounding images all evoke important events such as the nativity, battles and the deaths of kings.
Note that the woman in the upper right corner is holding a distaff, and I don't know what that is meant to refer to.  Is this object in the lower corner meant to be the spindle? Or... an enema? Or what?
ETA based on the numbers above it, the object marks an event that took place 63 years prior to the MS's manufacture in 1412, which gives a date of 1349. I have no idea which event is referred to. Wikipedia gives lots of Black death and earthquakes for You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., but nothing that might evoke this object.

An enema would surely be more of a 'significant event' than a spindle. But since the woman in the opposite corner is boringly holding a typical medieval distaff, I'll vote for spindle. 

There might be some implied logic as the distaff was often held high.on the viewer's right and the spindle low in the other hand.