The Voynich Ninja

(28-07-2017, 10:38 AM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Thanks, Marco! It is certainly valuable to extend the amount of examples in this thread. So it looks like the blob is usually Earth, at least in the clearest example (Harley). Would this be some wind-inspired representation as well?

It seems that a lobed "flower" at the center of a diagram is not significant of anything in particular (the various examples above are rather different in meaning of the overall diagram and number of lobes / shape of the central object).

If the "flower" in the Harley diagram is in any way meaningful and not simply decorative, its four lobes could possibly hint to the four elements that typically appear at the center of circular geocentric illustrations of the universe. Unluckily, I didn't take note of the source of that illustration.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. there is a diagram which I think is from the same Harley ms. The four-lobed rosette is still different. The diagram illustrates several sets of four-fold entities, but most prominently the winds. The other entities are the cardinal directions, elements, seasons, humors, ages of man.

Might the "blob" on the rosettes foldout be something else than the one in the centre of the diagram, then? There are other images where a lobed shape with stars and a marked centre is meant for the celestial pole. 

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Men observing the stars, from Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De Proprietatibus rerum, Italy (Mantua), c. 1300-1310, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., f. 108v

Since this thread touches upon the blobby thing in the middle, I'll add this here:

From MS Royal 20 B XX f.83, c. 1420 Paris
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So many of these motifs correspond to architecture.

Nice example. Fancy containers too.

I too had the impression that many of the patterns have an architectural feel.