I believe it is a mistake to attribute a 15th-century European work to a book from the ancient Jewish tradition. Setting aside theological aspects—which are absent from the Voynich manuscript—the Book of Enoch bases its cosmology on the doctrine of a flat Earth.
Any educated man or woman in 15th-century Europe knew that the Earth was a sphere. By then, the works of Aristotle and Ptolemy had been part of university learning for more than two centuries. Even a Doctor of the Church like Saint Thomas Aquinas took the sphericity of the Earth for granted. What we see in the Rosettes foldout are the spheres of the Greek tradition, with the sphere of the fixed stars at the center.
As I previously mentioned, the author sought to suggest the Earth's sphericity through a metaphorical device—such as those high walls and the houses clinging to the cliffs.
Regarding the Earth's sphericity suggested in the Rosettes foldout, we can see that two suns have been drawn—one in the upper-left corner and the other in the lower-right corner. This indicates the existence of two hemispheres, with the sun alternately warming one of them.
On folio f67v2, we also see two suns and two moons, reflecting the same concept of the Earth's sphericity and the alternating positions of these celestial bodies. What is striking about this folio is that we see the sun and moon emerging from tubes, revealing how the channeling of light and astral influence is intrinsic to the conception of the Voynich.
The tubes, as I have already said, are an essential part of the Voynich's conception. In addition to those I have already mentioned in previous posts, we see tubes in the cosmological diagrams on folios You are not allowed to view links.
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On f69v, we also see a large central star with points that fill the entire circle, set against a background filled with small stars. All of this suggests the channeling of astral influence through the tubes.
There are tubes or cylindrical shapes in almost every section of the Voynich manuscript. In the pharmaceutical section, alongside ornate vessels, we see others shaped like tubes—albarellos—and in the herbal section, we also observe roots with tubular forms.
Mary D'Imperio was the first researcher to observe that certain plant roots resembled pipe-shaped sculpted blocks and bore a resemblance to the piping in the section featuring female figures.
There is a clear interconnection among all parts of the Voynich manuscript which, in my interpretation, aims to show how astral influence is channeled into herbs to endow them with virtues—whether medicinal or magical.
In 2011, the husband-and-wife team of Lincoln Taiz and Sandra Lee—renowned plant biology researchers—published an article in a specialized American journal in which they interpreted the images from Quire 13 of the Voynich manuscript as a plant physiological process. It was the first time an alternative interpretation had emerged for this mysterious section of the Voynich.
This interpretation has the merit of linking the section of female figures with the herbal. For these authors, the naked women could represent the soul of the plant, and the green color, the sap flowing through the plant's vessels.
My interpretation differs in that I believe the female figures are the personification of astral influence; as for the color green—while I do not rule out the possibility that it represents water—I am increasingly inclined to view it as the vital force of the cosmos that gives the plant world its color.
Hildegard of Bingen called viriditas to the force of nature, the sap flowing in plants, the regreening power of the cosmos, and ultimately of God. Setting aside theological aspects, an author like Albertus Magnus—steeped in Aristotelian philosophy—maintained that for a seed to awaken and produce green leaves, it needs to be animated by heat, light, and the movement of the celestial spheres.
(14-07-2026, 04:35 PM)Antonio García Jiménez Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. As I previously mentioned, the author sought to suggest the Earth's sphericity through a metaphorical device—such as those high walls and the houses clinging to the cliffs.
Yes, you said it before, but I still don't understand how houses on cliffs are a metaphor for the earth being a sphere.
(10-07-2026, 05:18 PM)Antonio García Jiménez Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. Some maintain that it is a map, and various locations on Earth are proposed. I believe this stems from a misinterpretation of the drawing—which depicts a high wall, what appear to be cliffs, and small houses clinging to the faces of those cliffs. While this seems to describe real places, it is actually a metaphor intended to convey the idea of Earth as a sphere suspended in space, just like the other spheres. The entire image is a representation of the skies.
The "Rosettes" foldout is a representation or map of the medieval cosmos. Instead of placing the circles one inside another, as most medieval manuscripts do, the author of the Voynich presents them unfolded. He does this because he wants to show the connection between them all, and above all, he wishes to highlight the sphere of the fixed stars at the center—where essences are created—which explains the presence of the ornate vessels also seen in the pharmaceutical section.
We see the sphere of the Earth in the upper right, with a castle inside and walls and buildings extending outwards. We see the walls extending down into the abyss, and buildings clinging as if to a cliff, stacked one above the other. What the author does is use a radial projection to simulate the Earth's curvature. This extreme curvature creates that sheer, vertical drop.
We can also see an example of this in a 15th-century French manuscript of the work
De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. It is a T-O map in which we see buildings rising vertically from their base along the curvature of the Earth, creating an effect similar to that seen in the design of the Rosettes.
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I recently remarked that I am increasingly inclined to think the green fluid seen in Quire 13 corresponds to the vital force transmitted by the stars—the force that brings new life to the plant world. This idea belongs to medieval thought, to the way the world was viewed at that time.
If we look at the first page of Quire 13 (f75r), we see female figures, together with the green fluid, cascading down from a platform shaped like a tent roof. That tent roof is a metaphor for the roof of the medieval universe. It is a drawing that appears elsewhere in the Voynich, and I would venture to say that its interpretation is quite certain.
The ceiling of the medieval universe is the sphere of the fixed stars. Beyond it lies the realm of God. What we see on You are not allowed to view links.
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(02-08-2026, 07:02 PM)Antonio García Jiménez Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I recently remarked that I am increasingly inclined to think the green fluid seen in Quire 13 corresponds to the vital force transmitted by the stars—the force that brings new life to the plant world. This idea belongs to medieval thought, to the way the world was viewed at that time.
If we look at the first page of Quire 13 (f75r), we see female figures, together with the green fluid, cascading down from a platform shaped like a tent roof. That tent roof is a metaphor for the roof of the medieval universe. It is a drawing that appears elsewhere in the Voynich, and I would venture to say that its interpretation is quite certain.
The ceiling of the medieval universe is the sphere of the fixed stars. Beyond it lies the realm of God. What we see on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is that the green fluid is produced in that sphere by the stars and descends to Earth alongside the female figures, which likewise represent astral influence.
I really like what you're writing.