The Voynich Ninja

(12-05-2020, 07:47 PM)Searcher Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Just try (everyone) to draw the seven-pointed star quickly. You must have a very good coordination or skill. 

I'm pretty sure my attempt would be horrible, but I am not the one illuminating a 200-page manuscript

In my opinion the six-point explanation is the most elegant one and requires the least amount of explaining. The top line of the phantom star is pooled paint, something we often see in the VM. The bottom is created by a slight bend in the spiral.

I agree that this is hard to call for certain, but my money is on six.

(12-05-2020, 08:58 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I'm pretty sure my attempt would be horrible, but I am not the one illuminating a 200-page manuscript

Haha! Drawing a star, recall the VMs nymphs! 
It's not an easy task, indeed, if you draw either 6-pointed star or 7-pointed one with the continuous line. All the people begin drawing of a star from the upper ray, on my expirience, the last ray(s) appear the most horrible. 
Although I don't think this is too important, it's just interesting how differently people see the same things.

What's wrong with ambiguity? The iron gall inkster could have cleared this up with a few strokes if it was important. What does it matter in this context as to whether there are six rays or seven?

(12-05-2020, 10:25 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.What does it matter in this context as to whether there are six rays or seven?

Well, the question is whether it may stand for Venus, or Mars, or both at the same time. My idea is that planets are represented with stars having the number of rays in the order of exaltation, Venus having six, and Saturn eight. Mars would have seven.

Each star point has a spiral line coming out of it.

I'm going to say 7 even though the blue/amber colors follow a different pattern from the star points.

[attachment=4357]

(13-05-2020, 01:37 AM)-JKP- Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Each star point has a spiral line coming out of it.

Yes, but as I wrote above, there are also spiral lines which are not connected to the star points. E.g. the one at 5 o'clock.

(13-05-2020, 01:49 AM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(13-05-2020, 01:37 AM)-JKP- Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Each star point has a spiral line coming out of it.

Yes, but as I wrote above, there are also spiral lines which are not connected to the star points. E.g. the one at 5 o'clock.

It's possible for something to correspond in one direction, but not another.

For example, dad plants a tree when each child is born. So each child has a tree, but that doesn't mean the number of trees in the yard corresponds to the number of children. Some trees might have been there before the kids were born.

So, the relationship from child to tree holds true (each star point has a spiral line at the tip), but not from tree to child (total spiral lines may not match the star points).


When I was counting points, I ignored the amber and blue areas because there are 5 of each, sort of. At 5 o'clock, the area appears to share both blue and amber, and the top one looks like an accidental fingerprint of blue painted over with amber. But basically, if the blue spill or blot is ignored, there are five more-or-less distinct areas of each color.

Five does not correspond to six or seven (or to 10), so there's no direct relation between the paint blobs and the star points regardless of whether there are 6 or 7 star points. And there is no direct relation between paint spots and spiral sections (one section bottom-right shares two colors), so I looked only at the star points and the spirals directly attached to the tips:

[attachment=4358]     [attachment=4359]


It's a very asymmetrical star. It's almost like there wasn't enough room for the last narrow leg on the left when they came around to the beginning and they tried to squeeze it in (assuming there are 7 star points). Plus the bottom of the star legs at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock are curved, while the others are straight, which is a bit odd also. It's like the person got confused about whether it was a star point or part of a spiral.

I looked at this for a few minutes because the top-right corner is so weird. It doesn't look like a normal drawing... Then it occurred to me that it looks more like fabric that has been pulled or shrunk so that it doesn't lie flat any more:

[attachment=4361]

f67v2 is a strangely confused drawing, with the individual parts not holding together or matching very well. Could the illustrator have been trying to copy something like this:



Comet embroidery, Bayeau tapestry

As a reader who faces a riddle and has to solve it I would say that there are two notions here. The spirals suggest some kind of rotation or cyclicity (ochre and blue suggest day and night, but I'm not sure), the curved corners suggest the notion of transience or instability.