The Voynich Ninja

I'll just stick to this thread. In the thread about the cross, Marco linked again to Florence Plut.13.16., which helped me understand something about the cross nymph's surroundings.

This nymph represents Argo Navis, which would mean that the triangular water feature behind her represents a ship's sail. I've always thought that it was a rather poor sail, but actually it works quite well:

You are an expert in linking apples and pears, but your trhead has the title "Discussion of the Konstellations" and I do not see what this has to do with that subject.

IMO you should post this in another thread. 

Davidsch: I made this thread myself exactly to be able to discuss my take on q13a on one place. A more on-topic post has rarely been seen 

Anyway, back to business. For those who'd like to give it a try, have a look at this nymph:


She's on the Hercules/Lyra page, which means that, if my approach of constellation groupings is correct, she represents a constellation in the same section of the sky as Hercules. Possible candidates are:

Corona (crown)
Aquila (eagle), possibly with Sagitta (arrow)
Cygnus (swan)
Pegasus (winged half-horse) possibly with Equuleus (little horse)
Delphinus (dolphin)

Now, if you observe this nymph carefully and take in all the details, what's different about her, compared to other nymphs? Which facial and bodily features stand out? What does her pose seem to suggest?

(03-07-2017, 04:38 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Anyway, back to business. For those who'd like to give it a try, have a look at this nymph:

-snip-

Now, if you observe this nymph carefully and take in all the details, what's different about her, compared to other nymphs? Which facial and bodily features stand out? What does her pose seem to suggest?

For my first post on this board, let me try to describe this nymph:

My first imperession is that she's bigger than the rest of the nymphs on the page, by about a third. Her long fine hair suggest someone female, and she also has a strange headgear with bulbs, which is found multiple times on different nymphs. The hair is nothing special, as far as I can see.  Her face looks more content or somehow satisfied to me, especially compared to the rest of the figures, who look more angry or sad. Her arms are stretched back, like one would to when stretching in the sun, recieving nice and warm sunshine. Because one leg is raised, this doesn't look liek a cross though. Her base suggest something wavy or cloudy to me. It is touched by her left hand, but I don't know what this could mean. 

Do you see anything else?

Do you mean she invites to follow her? 
Maybe. Or, maybe, she is dancing 

P. S. 
To the point, I think that the nymph's headdress is nebule (a goffered veil). I didn't look for a separate  thread about headdresses in the VM. Were the headdresses in the VMs discussed separately, carefully and widely on the forum? 

Hi Raven, those are some very useful observations already. So you say she is:

- Relatively tall
- Relatively happy
- On a wavy/cloudy base

About the "headgear with bulbs" you are correct, this is a very common one. The appearance and length of her veil (or loose strands of hair?) is uncommon though, shared by only a few nymphs (I can think of only one at the moment, another large one at one of the pools).

Searcher: I also think the long strands are supposed to be a veil, since her hair is done up. So you say such veils were called nebules? That's very interesting indeed - a pattern emerges

About a hats overview, I made one a while ago, but not on the forum: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. . It could always serve as a starting point for a forum thread if desired - there's plenty of room for improvement and discussion since these things are often ambiguous.

Now to get back to the nymph; there's more to her that sets her aside from the others, not only from those on this page but in the entire manuscript. And another strange feature she shares with a few other nymphs.

(04-07-2017, 04:43 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Hi Raven, those are some very useful observations already. So you say she is:

- Relatively tall
- Relatively happy
- On a wavy/cloudy base

About the "headgear with bulbs" you are correct, this is a very common one. The appearance and length of her veil (or loose strands of hair?) is uncommon though, shared by only a few nymphs (I can think of only one at the moment, another large one at one of the pools).

Now to get back to the nymph; there's more to her that sets her aside from the others, not only from those on this page but in the entire manuscript. And another strange feature she shares with a few other nymphs.

I don't think it's a veil (as on 77v, upper right for example), but more like loose strands of fine hair, like on the uppermost nymph on this page, 80r lower left, 80v upper left, 82r lower right,... to me, those hairstyles are all similar. Other than that, her nose also looks different, more like aaquiline/roman/hook nose, with a bigger bridge.

About the hair/veil: I agree that it looks more like loose strands of hair. The difference with the other examples though, is that this nymph has her hair done up in a bun or whatever, while most of the others have their hair somewhat loose. This one seems to combine both a tidy and a "wild" hair style, which is why I thought it could be a veil instead. But I agree it looks more like hair. Anyway, this is not essential to my reading of the figure, though it is likely an important aspect of the image. 

But yes, the nose indeed. It's not only hooked, but as you say the bridge is quite large. Now, one more thing: what about the hand on the (viewer's) left?

(05-07-2017, 11:16 AM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Now, one more thing: what about the hand on the (viewer's) left?

It seems she's the only nymph that's drawn with her palms up, doesn't it? Also, they mostly have at least one hand touching their hip. 

You seem to already have a hypothesis about what this nymph represents with all these memonics, and as i have basically no idea about constellation myths myself, what do you think?