The Voynich Ninja

Investigations of certain VMs illustrations have produced connections with particular historical sources such as artistic images and records of actual events, along with other documents. In several individual lines of investigation, the connections are grounded to sources with good historical provenance. Taken in summation, the details of historical provenance, from Melusine to the Golden Fleece, either imply or strongly suggest a connection to the historical Duchy of Burgundy in a period after 1430.

Investigation of the VMs rainbows in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is discussion of long standing. Rainbows can be connected to anything from T. Rex to a '57 Cadillac, not to overlook Noah's arc, though the best suggestion was the medieval artistic use of a double rainbow as a divine throne. However, the VMs throne is empty. Is the missing occupant Christian of Classical? The evidence is insufficient.

Now, limit the investigation to Burgundy in the time after 1430 and what can be found? Nothing - should be the expected result, but history provides information about La sainte Hostie de Dijon. Quite a significant historical event at the time, The throne is a rainbow.

Every VMs investigator has wondered about the 'nymphs'. Are they personifications of this or that? Are historical or mythical characters hidden among them? Is that Lady Bertilak? What if the prior conditions [Burgundy post 1430) are taken into account?

Well, you read the title, here they are.
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And here is Colette of Corbie.
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They clearly were in the Duchy of Burgundy at the time selected. Colette died in 1447. They were supported by Philip the Good and his wife, Isabella. In the KBR library of Philip the Good, there are two books titled, Vie de soeur Colette, authored by Pierre De Vaux, produced about 1460 in Flanders. [ms. 6048 and ms. 10988; the second has a couple illustrations.]

This is not to say that there was a connection, real or imaginary, between these religious women and the VMs nymphs. However, this is intended to open a window to historical facts and events which were occurring at that time.

Additional info: #1
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Additional info: #2
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In which it says: 
[font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]St Colette reformed the Order of Poor Clare's and founded a branch of the Order that is still known as the Colettines.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]St Colette had a special devotion to St John the Apostle, who appeared to her on one occasion to place a miraculous ring on her finger. As he did so, he said: "by my own right and on behalf of the sovereign King and Prince of virginity and chastity." This ring was visible to all, and was a beautiful and very precious ring of gold.[/font]


[font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]St Colette had a great desire for a relic of the True Cross. One day when she was contemplating Our Lord's suffering in the midst of her community, she was drawn into an ecstasy. When her contemplation was over, she realized she was holding a small gold crucifix that had not been there before. It contained a small relic of the True Cross. Years later, upon preparing for her death, she gave away her few possessions. The abbess of Besancon received this cross as St Colette told her: "Keep it and treasure it, for it is from Heaven.[/font]
[font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]***[/font]

[font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]And so - the point here is that <according to the story>, she gets a ring and a cross. Things that have been considered in VMs investigations.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]And secondly, her devotion is to St John, and it is the illustration in the Apocalypse of S Jean, (1313) [BNF Fr. 13096], in the library of Philip the Good, Duke of [font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Burgundy, that serves as a structural model in the discussion of the Golden Fleece and VMs f80v.[/font][/font]

[font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Who is the VMs nymph who holds the ring? Ehh! - could be anybody. Or it could be another subtle reference to events of the earlier decades of the 1400s with certain connections to the history of the Duchy of Burgundy. Colette of Corbie would add another connection.[/font][/font]

[font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]It's interesting that her reforms caught on in some areas (Burgundy, Savoy), not in others (France). Somewhat similarly, the Premonstratensians (Norbertines) <[font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]White Canons with the white galeros> held on in the Burgundian state after they had otherwise moved on to parts of eastern Europe. Obviously the Colettines were female, though they apparently associated with the Coletans. The Premonstratensians also had a fair proportion of women during this era.[/font][/font][/font]

Anna Campbell's biography of Colette of Corbie:

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With recent interest the religious aspects of the VMs, Colette was a part and a significant indicator of the current religious situation during the C-14 chronology.

Hadewijch is an earlier example of religious influences.
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Additional references provide an improved understanding of the timeline of events.

Page 121 +

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So, it would seem that anyone looking for some historical basis for an era of strong feminist influence need look no further. Here is a group of women that were the "Widows of 1415 and Others". That year was the battle of Agincourt and the loss of much of French male nobility. 

The 'Others' include two groups: those whose husbands were captured at Agincourt and held for ransom. Specifically, Marie, Duchess of Auvergne, who was born Marie de Berry, after her trinubium, presumed owner (after 1416) of the Oresme text [BNF Fr. 565], significant in its comparison of cosmic illustrations with the VMs.

The second group of 'Others' consists of notable women who were 'otherwise' widowed in this time period. Specifically, Yolande of Aragon, whose husband missed Agincourt because of illness, then died in 1417 and she became Duchess of Anjou and was involved with Jeanne d'Arc [1429] and all that. She is also interesting because she was a third-generation descendant on the maternal side of Bonne of Luxembourg and the Melusine connections (equivalent to Philip the Good).  Another widow was Margaret of Bavaria, whose husband, John the Fearless, was assassinated in 1419, Which goes back to other events and widows before 1415.

Colette of Corbie made her first four religious establishments in the Duchy of Burgundy (1410-1422). Margaret of Bavaria, Duchess of Burgundy died in 1424. Colette's next patron was the Duchess of Auvergne, Marie de Berry. There were three establishments 1422-1425; Moulins, Aiguepurse, and Le Puy-en-Velay.

Colette then went to Nevers, Savoy, Languedoc, then back north to Heidelberg and then to Hesdin, Ghent, and Amiens in the early 1440s, under Burgundian patronage of Philip the Good and his third wife, Isabella of Portugal. [Golden Fleece 1430]

An interesting aspect regarding medieval Auvergne is the number of Black Madonnas.

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Considering Colette and the Black Madonnas as two aspects of religious life in the first half of the 15th C., is there any common ground? As far as I could see, there were only two Colettine establishments in towns that had Black Virgins. Those towns are Moulins and Le Puy, both of which were reputed to have had statues dropped off by the French King Louis IX, aka Saint Louis.

Is there a connection between Colette and the Black Madonna? Colette is a patron saint relating to issues regarding pregnancy.
Apparently there was some connection at Le Puy.

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Fille de [b]sainte Claire d’Assise[/b] et réformatrice, [b]sainte Colette[/b] vint au Puy en 1425, munie d’une bulle de Martin V, en vue de fonder un couvent de Clarisses. Elle y revint en 1432 pour y installer les religieuses dans un établissement tout neuf. Le 2 juillet, la petite troupe de 15 religieuses vénéra la Vierge Noire à la cathédrale, et l’évêque « mit les soeurs en possession » de leur monastère. Il est encore aujourd’hui le cœur du quartier où sainte Colette avait choisi de l’implanter il y a plus cinq siècles.

Of course, there are no madonnas in the VMs, but the church in Le Puy is interesting in a sort of radical, botanical, sideways interpretation.

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