The Voynich Ninja

Man I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about Jesus I have a problem.

The curse of the Voynich...
(or blessing ? )

(07-08-2019, 09:44 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.It's frustrating that I don't have time right now to write this up. I'm telling you, all Arma Christi are on just a few large plant bifolios. They are grouped.

It's almost ridiculous, they are all together. There's a plant like a chalice. The 30 coins (athough the VM plant has only 29). The pillar with ropes, the flails, the clubs, the torches, the rooster, the ladder, the lance, the wounds, and more and more.

The grail like plant on page f35r, through semitic definitions, talks about the 'source of origin' (placenta) the 'worm' (umbilical cord) and the 'life blood' to gather and is used in medicine for a 'deep sleep' or to 'renew oneself/repair'. 

"Other byproducts of labor were also reported to have great mystical properties. The placenta was considered by some to be an aphrodisiac and, if eaten, could be used to treat infertility, a practice that the church condemned.

These and other concerns regarding what the midwife-witch might do with human flesh and body fluids motivated regulations in German (Wurzburg, 1555) that clearly specified how the midwife was to dispose of all biological bi-products during the delivery."
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(08-08-2019, 10:46 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The curse of the Voynich...
(or blessing ? )

Curse for me, blessing for science

Quote:A surprising amount of Arma Christi pages include a mean-looking man with a long beard shown in profile

Unfortunately, the image represents the Jews and is a common anti semitic trope of the era. Medieval Arma Christi imagery followed the common belief that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion. The Jews and the Romans get confused in the middle ages. 

The imagery was almost always linked to Arma Christi prose, a retelling of the biblical story. There are several versions out there. Maybe you could run your ttr experiment for those pages against them? 

On a related note, the imagery of the Wound is called the Mandorla shape. The wound was often shown in a vaginal tradition, as it was through this wound that the church was born.

Remember that a.c. depicts a story. You need to find all the common items, otherwise it isn't there. You will usually expect to see the whole story up to the climatic death (wound) followed by the death, resurrection and ascension. It doesn't make sense to stop the story half way.

David, I think you are confusing the Arma Christi tradition with the story of the Passion. Arma Christi does refer to the Passion story, but in a single image.
The objects represented in Arma Christi are very variable. They don't even need a Jesus to be present. Nor resurrection, nor ascension. 

What it does show is the most important physical objects that were involved in Christ's torture and death. Certain more abstract items like "spitting", "mocking" and the wound can also be represented, but in a way that you can see the whole story in the blink of an eye. In the VM, these have been pulled apart.

There is absolutely no required set, and the number of items can vary from under ten to over thirty. In the VM large plants there is a large set

But let me be clear, we are looking for a specific strand of an illustrative manuscript tradition (JKP might be able to say more about this). These Arma Christi pages are often included in "personal" commissioned works like books of hours. JKP already mentioned that they had an unusually strong talismanic appeal as well, so an Arma Christi page could be added to any kind of manuscript. I've mentioned an example where a "scientific" manuscript was copied precisely, but an Arma Christi page was somewhat randomly added at the end. Randomly, at least from a modern point of view.

Below an example of a limited Arma Christi programme, without any human figures:

I missed an obvious one, the Holy Lance got its own page. This explains the weird tiny leaf, it's a spear with a horizontal guard.

[attachment=3127]

Koen I just wanted to say I think the research you have been doing on this is really, really interesting.
If these Arma Christi plant identifications are correct, the implications could be pretty massive..

It's certainly interesting, but so far I really don't know what to think about it.