The Voynich Ninja

Marco's certainly the broadest researcher currently. He's as good on the text as he is on the imagery.

(11-09-2017, 11:02 AM)MarcoP Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.In 2016, Darren Worley pointed out You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. the interesting engravings in the Lapidary section of the early printed Hortus Sanitatis (or “Ortus Sanitatis”).

The book includes a “rainbow-like” stone called Yris or Iris (in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. the engravings were painted in color)...

(11-09-2017, 04:20 PM)Helmut Winkler Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Isidor, Etymologiae 16,13,6; Plinius Hist. Nat. 37, 52, 136, iris, very likely a sixsided prismatic crystal,

Here is a text passage from the Lorscher manuscript:

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Isidorus, Etymologiae, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 281, folio 244r You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. by Carla Cucina is about “The Rainbow Allegory in the Old Icelandic Physiologus Manuscript”. The essay largely focuses “on the metaphorical implications of the rainbow and its colours, particularly against the Latin-Christian background of exegetical literature.”
Several of the images and details discussed in this thread are explained by the passages mentioned in the paper.
For instance the theme of Alpha and Omega mentioned by bi3mw You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and discussed in the Nuremberg Chronicle is explained by passages by Isidore and Rabanus Maurus (quoted below).

Quote:“As a matter of fact, in this rainbow the colours of water and of fire are shown together, since it appears blue at one side and red at the other, because it is a witness of both judgements: one certainly to come, and the other past, that is, because the world will be burnt by the fire of judgement, and will not be destroyed by the water of the flood any longer. Iris, that is the rainbow, is said to be the symbol of God's two judgements: the first, the one through flood; the second, the one through fire...”

In the Western tradition, there is a great variety of descriptions and associations with the rainbow. In particular, there is no agreement on the number of colors by which it is composed. The passage above is about only two colors, but other sources speak of three, four or six different colors.

The label EVA:oteedy oteedy appears near the rainbow at the bottom of f77v. EVA:otedy otedy appears at the top of the page, near the nymph at the left of another rainbow. EVA:otedy also appears near the “elemental tube” at the top of f77r. So I was particularly interested in association of the rainbow with one of the elements. The many quotes in Cucina's paper make clear that there is no specific association. The passage from Rabanus makes associations with water and fire. Isidore associates it with all the four elements of classical and medieval physics:

Quote:(The rainbow) is four-coloured, and takes its appearance from all the elements. It derives its fiery-red colour from the sky, purple from the waters, white from air, and draws its dark colour from earth.

I wonder if other (non Western) traditions could point to more specific elemental associations for the rainbow.

The reference to Rabanus is very interesting. A beautiful manuscript of the "De rerum naturis" from 1425 can be viewed You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. The ninth book, chapter 21 deals with "De arcu celesti".

The Ashburnham Pentateuch You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (VI Century, unknown provenance - Spain, North Africa, Syria or Italy?) has an unusual green rainbow at f10v.
The position in the page (top right) is similar to that of the red rainbow in VMS f82v.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., Bede the Venerable, 10th Cenutry?, England?, Provenance:John Dee

Not very Voynich-like, but it is interesting that the illustration is labelled.

(08-12-2016, 07:30 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Handy link, JKP. Hmm, those early rainbows are really all over the place. I'm surprised that they apparently only saw particular colors in them, often blues, yellows and greens.
Some of them originate from clouds, but I haven't seen ones with those dangling lines like in the VM. You may be right that there's another typical synthesis or ambiguity going on here.

Too right they are all over the place - even many of the later ones.
RED is at the top, guys, unless it's a double rainbow, then the top one has reversed colours.
0/10 for observation for the artists.

The VMS picture with the double rainbows and green at the top of both is the best evidence ever (if we needed it) that neither Bacon nor any other scholar of optics had anything to do with the VMS. Bacon experimented with crystals and was the first to calculate the maximum angle of 42 degrees for a real rainbow. The double appears 10 degrees from the first.

The VMS picture is so wrong that the author could have known little about 15C optics. Theodoric of Freidburg (1307) provided a complete and correct theoretical analysis of primary and secondary rainbows 100 years earlier.

I think we can also rule out the idea that the author was an early inventor of the microscope.

Sure you can invoke the heavy painter as a later figure to explain the colours but the angles are still all wrong.

My 2c worth - please shoot me down if I am wrong here.

---

Yes DonJch I agree that it is very improbable that this is an actual rainbow.

But, it is very common in the VMS, that the old transcriptions (with comments & observations) contain basic assumptions that are wrong. 

What happens is that it has been proven to be very difficult for people to see a red color if you write down a blue color is actually red. ;-)

(08-05-2018, 12:16 PM)Davidsch Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Yes DonJch I agree that it is very improbable that this is an actual rainbow.

But, it is very common in the VMS, that the old transcriptions (with comments & observations) contain basic assumptions that are wrong. 

What happens is that it has been proven to be very difficult for people to see a red color if you write down a blue color is actually red. ;-)

Davidsch: so are you referring to the psychological experiments where they test peoples reaction to words for colours that are written in a different colour? This is a good point.

As far as basic assumptions that were wrong, Aristotle recognised a 3 colour rainbow with red, green and violet. Islam recognised a 4 colour rainbow of red, yellow, green and blue where the colours represented the 4 elements, earth air fire and water and this system was becoming relevant in medieval times. The VMS drawing shows space for 4 bands (alchemy).

None of that says anything about the order of the bands though.

My point is simply that a true scholar of optics in the 15thC would not have been able to bring himself to draw a rainbow as wrong as in the VMS. I am trying to get into the head of the author here.

Ergo my working concept of the author changes from scholar to...what? Student? Artist? Scribe? Trader? These seem good possibilities. I wonder what picture others have in their minds?

I would love to see scans from some of the student notebooks from Poland that have been mentioned previously.

A whole different rainbow situation:



Venus, sitting on a rainbow, with her devotees who offer their hearts to her ----The Hague, KB, 74 G 27 . Christine de Pisan, L'Epistre d'Othea Place of origin, date: Auvergne(?); c. 1450-1475 You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.