The Voynich Ninja

(31-05-2018, 01:24 AM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....
In page 6, where, according to the contemporary tradition, we could expect the coat of arms of the man Schedel (if he was of nobility, which I'm not sure in), we find something strange instead, namely - an ornate frame with the shield missing. Probably, this is the logo of the printing house. The central part of this "logo" is a picture of a person of indeterminate mood, who is notable in that he holds a Voynichese-like star in his hand and wears an Eastern-looking turban loosely resembling that of the Voynich archer. I guess this symbolizes the light of arts and knowledge carried forth by the printing house and its authors.

The "logo" is followed by a praising verse authored by one Franciscus Orszeti, "stud. grammatices".
...

I have only partially followed this thread, but I was curious of this star-man.
I have attempted a translation of Orszeti's verses: I am not sure I understand correctly lines 5 and 6, but the rest is simple enough. The green leaves in line 6 likely allude to the academic or poetic laurel.

About the coat of arms of a respectable
and very prudent Lord

I see young men inflamed by the heat of Phoebus,
I note their cheeks covered in a black colour.
A band surrounds their temples, bound by a tie,
bright stars adorn their hands:
they are difficult to tolerate, but they illuminate things
[if?] one desires to encircle his hair with green leaves.
The heat of heaven, of the Sun and of fire must be endured,
the coat of arms of Schedel says just this.

Thanks Marco!

"The green leaves" are surely laurels of fame. (Remember the book is called "Laurels of Pallas").

Black cheeks make little sense for poets, unless they are of negroid race, which is seemingly out of place here. My Latin disctionary says "gena" can also mean "eye", if that's appropriate, that would be a better fit to the context. On the other hand, the verse is about the exact figure, so how can one notice if the eyes here are black or otherwise?  This line is really hard to interpret.

Little as I understand in heraldry, I think this figure cannot stand for a coat of arms, perhaps it's just sort of an emblem?

Apparently, the device with two moor's heads belongs to (the descendants of?) You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., author of the famous 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle.
The attached example, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., is the only one I have found which also includes a star.

All this is quite puzzling... Indeed, as it turns out, the painter Sebastian Schedel was a relation of Hartmann Schedel, but why Moors? As wikipedia suggests, in the original emblem the heads were not Moors. And the general idea with two heads is curious as such.

Hermann Schedel studied at Padua. He was a medieval physician and ardent book collector, and was the kind of person who might be interested in owning a book like the VMS.

His books were inherited by Hartmann Schedel (Nuremberg Chronicles) who was one of his relatives and who was raised by his uncle Marcus after his parents died. Note that Hartmann studied Greek in addition to medicine and thus would have been able to read the ancient herbals.

I believe the version of the Moors' heads with horns is meant to represent Hartmann Schedel as conqueror (a common reason for the Moor's-head motif). His emblem and his mother's emblem are on the shields on emblems specific to him, with a cross and bell in between (one of which might be interpreted as stars on sticks), so I'm guessing the version posted upthread, with Moors' heads and the horns, is one of his relations (maybe Sebastian was a direct descendant)?.


Sebastian was an engraver and contributed to Besler's Hortus Eystettensis and created the botanical illustrations for Calendarum, so an interest in art, plants and medicine has long been in the family if Sebastian is related to Hermann and Hartmann (which seems likely with that emblem).


Relevant codices on the older Schedels include Col Lat. 224 and Lat 441. The Schedels are on my list of "persons of interest" regarding the VMS.


...
I'll see if I can find a copy of the elder Schedel's emblem online, I can't find the one in my files... back in a few...

Okay, this is Hartmann Schedel's arms. If I remember correctly the shields at the bottom represent his paternal and maternal ancestors and note that the one on the right could almost be interpreted as "stars on sticks" (which is a motif found on quite a few arms, actually, and which is also seen on some early watermarks in the paper-making industry between a bull's horns):

I was trying to figure out how Hartmann Schedel might be related to Sebastion Schedel. If I remember correctly he had a couple of brothers (at least) but one joined the clergy.

Hartmann Schedel had 24 children, 18 of whom survived, most of whom probably aren't well documented, and at least one of his siblings may have had children, so it might be a bit of a puzzle to unravel.

I'm not sure what stars on sticks are intended to represent, but perhaps a star mace?

A star on a string (one with a chain) would be a star flail.

(05-06-2018, 05:49 AM)-JKP- Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I'm not sure what stars on sticks are intended to represent, but perhaps a star mace?

A star on a string (one with a chain) would be a star flail.

They are morning stars. Just like moors, not uncommon in German heraldry. But it would likely take a local historian to find out how all elements ended up in specific coats of arms.

I think morning star and star mace are equivalent, but I'm not certain. My knowledge of weapons is rudimentary.

Some new information pops up about the man Wroblicius.

There are proceedings called "Sborník historického kroužku", and number 1-2, volume XXIV, 1923 contains the article "Bursa antiqua et bursa nova Rosensis v Čes. Krumlově" by Hynek Gross, pp. 121 - 126.

The volume is available here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

My limited knowledge of Czech coupled with limited powers of Google Translator produce the following understanding of this article (Czech speakers are most welcome to introduce corrections, if any).

In XVI - XVII centuries, there was an Jesuit school in Český Krumlov, which is a town up the river from Prague, but it is higher than even České Budějovice, near the modern Austrian border, closer to Linz. In that school, education was provided, among others, to pupils from poor families (domo pauperum). They were admitted free of charge, but, in return, they were obliged to sing in a choir.

The article quotes three lists of pupils "in domo pauperum" for years 1599 and 1600 (more precise dating is provided, but I'm not able to interpret, except for the third list which is for 18th December, 1600).

The first list, 1599, features "Albertus Wrublicius" (sic), who is in category of "Czyzopansstij a niekteržij czyzozemczy" - that is, folks from other provinces and lands. Quite fortunately, the lists provide roles of pupils in the choir. Albertus Wrublicius is attested as "discantista". The list contains also one Petrus Wrublicius - apparently, his brother, - who is "altista".

The second list, 1600, contains "Petrus Wrublicius, Polonus", who is now "Tenorista, mansit pascis tempore" (don't know what is "mansit pascis tempore") and "Albertus Wroblicius, Polonus", who is still "discantista". The fact that Petrus progressed from "altista" to "tenorista" while Albertus was still "discantista" means that Petrus was the elder brother of the two. Also note that both are reported as "Polonus" (Polish), while later in Prague Albertus is reported as "Silesius" (Silesian). "Polonus" in the list of 1600 does not seem to be a mere generalization of all Polish, because e.g. one tenorista Johannes Palumbus is reported specifically as "Silesius". This induces me to think that maybe it was more prestigious, for some reason, to be a Silesian than a Polish from other region, so that later, having moved to Prague, Albertus declared himself a Silesian.

The third list of December 1600 lists Albertus Wroblicius and Petrus, who is still "Wrublicius", both of them as "Polonus". This list does not detail their roles in the choir.

Several considerations can be inferred from this new information. First, the fact that Albertus was still "discantista" in 1600 reliably puts his birth year no earlier than 1588, since it is typically at 12yo that a boy's voice begins to mature. So in 1604 (when the book was inscribed), he was still very young, no older than sixteen. Conversely, in 1646 our "venerable" Wroblewski would be no older than 58, still.

Second, the fact that Albertus and Petrus descended from a poor family makes it unlikely that Albertus could have owned, in his teens, a vast collection of books. More likely, the book #4 was one of his very few books. The fact that he put his exlibris on it and took care to calculate the age of this supposedly not very peculiar book, - this coupled with his young age which is inclined to various forms of vain decoration - suggests that he took more than average interest in books. Such people are usually industrious students - so we may consider Albertus as such.

The existence of Petrus opens a new avenue of research of biography of Albertus. It is curious what may have induced a poor family to move from Poland to Český Krumlov. Were they refugees? I think in those days such migration was not commonspread among the poor, was it? Or they were not poor but lost their wealth in running away?

The lists contain some other poor Polish people, as follows:

Johannes Palumbus, Silesius (1600 lists only, tenorista)
Matthaeus Svatecius, Polonus (bassista in 1599 and 1600)
Albertus Missius, Polonus/Poláczy

The idea is that there may have been a connection between those and Wroblicius (friendship, career ties...), so the context of his should be monitored for occurrences of those names.