The Voynich Ninja

Picatrix is an Arabic treaty about astrological and talismanic magic. Like the often mentioned “Astromagia” ms You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., the Catalan translation of the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (from an Arabic original) was produced at the court of Alfonso X of Castile (XIII Century).

A few years ago, Darren Worley provided a few details about the Illustrated Latin Picatrix (Jagiellonian University Library, Poland, Ms. Krakow 793 – or BJ 793) on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. He included a link to the digital scans.

Prof. Ewa-Śnieżyńska Stolot of the Jagiellonian University (also author of a brief but very informative You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) edited a monograph about the ms in 2009 (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).

An extensive discussion of the Krakow ms (that contains several other texts) can be read in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. by Benedek Lang.
Lang (pg.97-98) points out that the Krakow manuscript, although incomplete, “is the earliest surviving Picatrix that is longer than a few folios”. “This Krakow manuscript is the only illustrated Picatrix known to us”. “According to the art historian [Zofia Ameisenowa], the clothes in the pictures point to the fourth decade of the [XV] Century, depicting the Bohemian style. In contrast -as it happens- the text editor supposes that the codex was copied from one or several Italian sources. The only certain fact is that the manuscript was copied by a Polish scribe....”

Marco, do you remember reading something about the separate illustration in the middle of the manuscript? It's the one with the three really weird figures, including this guy:



They are drawn in a different style than all the illustrations at the end..

(05-07-2017, 03:56 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Marco, do you remember reading sonething about the separate illustration in the middle of the manuscript? It's the one with the three really weird figures, including this guy:



They are drawn in a different style than all the illustrations at the end..

Hi Koen,
I haven't read anything specific. These figures are certainly in a less skilled hand than the figures at the end. I guess they might have been drawn by the scribe himself.

A transcription of the Latin text is available at the Warburg institute site.
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The corresponding text is titled (in red)
Capitulum secundum. De figuris celi et earum secretis.
Second chapter. About heavenly images and their secrets.

Ascensiones figurarum celi sunt duobus modis, quorum unus est 48 formarum ex stellis figuratarum.  ..
Secundus modus est figurarum celi estimatarum secundum opinionem Indorum  [Judeorum?]. qui in eis taliter sunt locuti: quod ascendit in prima facie Arietis homo habens oculos rubeos magnamque barbam et portans lineum album convolutum, faciens gestus magnos in incessu sicut coopertus magna clamide alba ac fune precinctus, stans in uno pede ac si aspiceret quod tenet ante se. Et ascendit in 2 facie Arietis mulier clamide cooperta linea, rubeis vestibus induta, unum tantum habens pedem; et in sui figura est similis equo, habens in animo iram. et querit vestimenta. ornamenta ac filium. Et ascendit in 3 facie Arietis homo colore alba et rubeo. capillos rubeos habens, iratus et inquietus, habens in dextra ensem et in sinistra perticam, vestibus rubeis indutus; et est doctus et perfectus magister laborandi ferrum, et cupiens facere bonum, et non potest.

Rough translation:
There are two kinds of heavenly images rising in the sky. One is the 48 images formed by the stars. [I guess these must be the Ptolemaic constellations] ...
The second kind is the heavenly images according to the opinion of the Indians [of the Jews?] which describe them in this way: in the first face of Aries rises a man with red eyes, and a great beard, wearing a dress of white flax, making wide gestures, as if wearing a great white mantle, wearing a rope at his waist. He stands on one foot, as if observing something in from of himself. In the second face of Aries rises a woman wearing a cloak made of flax, covered in a red dress, having a single foot. Her figure is like a horse. She has anger in her soul, she wants dresses, jewels and a son. In the third face rises a man of red and white colour, with red hair, angry and troubled, having a sword in his right hand and a pole in the left hand, wrapped in red cloth. He is a perfectly learned master of iron works; he wants to do good and cannot.


These figures are the three decans of Aries, very famously illustrated in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (Ferrara).

In the Krakow ms I read Judeorum rather than Indorum, but the original reference was certainly to the Indians (see Warburg's 1912 paper ‘Italian Art and International Astrology in the Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara’).

Thanks, Marco (invisible thanks added). The images are actually rather faithful renderings of the text then.

A reservation I had about these three figures was that they were very irregular in proportions, which might point towards lack of skill rather than purely stylistic preference. So I think you're right about that.

It seems that “Picatrix Latinus. Ikonografia planet i planet dekanicznych w rękopisie krakowskim” by Ewa Śnieżyńska-Stolot can be read You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..

I was unable to copy and paste the text, so I typed the passage that discusses the three figure on f.180r (it's on the first page, search “180r”).

Polish:
Tekst karkowskiego  Picatrix Latinus jest niekompletny i zawiera tylko ksiegi I i II (rozdzialy 1-11), a umieszczony jest w rekopisie 793 (k 171r 197r) obok innych zebranych tam tekstow o charakterze astrologicznym, alchemicznym, medycznym i magicznym. Krakowski Picatrix Latinus spisany jest na papierze dworm charaterami pisma: pierwszy od karty 171r do gornych wersow karty 186r oraz drugi od karty 185r do karty 192r.  U dolu karty 180r zanjduje sie odreczny rysunek trzech planet dekanicznych zodiakalnego Byka wykonany minia zapewne przez jednego z kopistow (Ameisenowa 1958 s.181). Glowny zbior ilustracij, czesciowo tylko wykonczony, znajduje sie na koncu tekstu (k. 189v-197r) i zawiera wizerunki 28 planet (zachowanych 26) wedlug czeterech tradycji ikonograficznych (k. 189v.192v) oraz wizerunki 36 planet dekanicznych wedlug systemu Teukrosa z Babilonu, zgodnie z ktorym Mars rozpoczyna i konczy porzadek tych planet (k.193-197r).

Slightly tweaked Google Translate:
The text of the Karkow Picatrix Latinus is incomplete and contains only books I and II (chapters 1-11), and is located in manuscript 793 (f 171r - 197r) alongside other astrological, alchemical, medical and magical texts collected there. The Krakow Picatrix Latinus is written on paper with two characteristic letters [different hands]: the first from the 171r to the top 186r and the second from the 185r [186r] to the 192r. At the bottom of folio 180r, there is an odd drawing of three decanal planets of the Zodiac Bull made probably by one of the copyists  (Ameisenowa 1958 p.181). The main collection of illustrations, partially completed only, is at the end of the text (c. 189v-197r) and contains images of 28 planets (preserved 26) according to the fourteen [XIV Century?] iconographic traditions (f.189v-192v) and images of 36 decanal planets according to the system of Teukros of Babylon, according to which Mars begins and ends the order of these planets (f.193-197r).

The reference to Bull (Taurus) seems an error to me. The text mentions Aries and the images seem to me those of the decans of Aries. It would be interesting to read Ameisenowa's work (also mentioned by Lang). But I guess we need help from Poland for that.

I hadn't noticed before, but the fact that the hand changes at the top of 186r is quite clear (the reference to 185r must be a typo, since she says one hand ends at 186r and the other begins at 185r). Since the second hand also wrote the captions of the good-looking figures at the end, it seems reasonable to think that the first copyist (180r) was a much worse illustrator than the second one.

Likely two or more scribes wrote this copy of the Picatrix. The three mentioned figures seem to be only one illustration of that scribe, a few folios after it to the end of the manuscript - another hand and, probably, his images.
It is notable that the scribe, who wrote the text with those three figures, used many abbreviations, which are used as characters in the VMs (s, r, ch, l, in, iin, iiin, as well, the combination similar to the Voynich k, and a few cross-symbols). Same region and time? Supposedly, it is written by You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (and his scribe(s)), which lived and studied in Italy some time (mid 15 c.).

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(06-07-2017, 07:46 PM)Searcher Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
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Thank you, Searcher! Several texts I would be curious to know more about are mentioned.

E.g. “Experimenta” later known as “Liber aggregationis” attributed to Albertus Magnus. … it describes the marvelous virtues of plants, stones and animals.

“De occultatione annuli” (the hiding of the ring?) attributed to Dorotheus Sidoneus.

Petrus Gaszowiec certainly sounds like an interesting person....

Quote:Petrus Gaszowiec certainly sounds like an interesting person....

Agreed!

(06-07-2017, 07:34 PM)Searcher Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....
It is notable that the scribe, who wrote the text with those three figures, used many abbreviations, which are used as characters in the VMs (s, r, ch, l, in, iin, iiin, as well, the combination similar to the Voynich k, and a few cross-symbols). Same region and time? ...

I wish it were that easy. I've been chasing that needle in the haystack for years, but unfortunately they wrote this form of Gothic cursive in many different areas, all over Europe, from the UK all the way to Naples, between c. 1380 and c. 1520. Same abbreviations, same tails, same ligature for "Item" (which looks like VMS gallows), same EVA-j shape for -ris, sometimes -rum, and sometimes as an end-paragraph marker. I haven't been able to pin down one specific area or scribe yet.