The Voynich Ninja

Yesterday lelle posted:
*"R Sale,

It's hard for me to follow the line of thought in your various threads regarding tradition, white Aries, heraldry etc and how it's connected to the VMs.

Can you please summarise your thoughts on the VMs (preferably accompanied with images) and explain the above points? It would help me engaging in the discussion.

Thanks in advance."*


If I had to say in a single word, perhaps 'synthesis'. While the record of proposed VMs solutions covers a range from Aztecs to Cathars, the results of several different investigations have found apparent evidence of a more centrally located European origin. Taking these results in combination, rather than individually, promotes a stronger indication than any single item on its own.

Tradition is defined as a belief, opinion, custom or usage coming down from the past.  It applies to us and it also applies to the creator(s) of the VMs. Obviously things have changed over 600 years. The recent example of this is the myth of Melusine. It is one thing to discuss whether the VMs You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. image *looks* sufficiently like a representation of Melusine to justify that interpretation. It is another thing to recognize and recover the tradition that various noble houses claimed Melusine as an ancestress, mythical or otherwise during the time that matches the VMs parchment dates.

The recovery of tradition in the VMs also benefits from the investigation of medieval heraldry - that is heraldry as it was practiced up to the time of the parchment dates. The VMs uses three different aspects of heraldry: armorial, ecclesiastical, and linguistic (heraldic canting). This investigation focuses on the first three pages of the VMs cosmos and begins with the tub patterns around the outer ring of characters on VMs Pisces. Comparison of these tub patterns with the standard patterns of heraldic ordinaries and sub-ordinaries reveals several examples of similarity. Alternating vertical stripes are similar to a paly, horizontal stripes to a barry, diagonal stripes to a bendy or bendy sinister. The chevrons are surely heraldic. There are circles, like roundels, and rings like annulets, There are tubs with a looping line across the upper portion that look like an engrailed chief. But in Pisces these are followed by more complex images that do not fit standard definitions. This gives an impression that the comparison has faltered and need not be taken seriously. Besides which, heraldry is more than just the pattern, it is a combination of pattern and color, and color (tincture) designation in VMs Pisces is problematic.

Then there is VMs White Aries, the best painted page in the VMs Zodiac sequence. This was done for two reasons. Having so much that is painted disguises the things that need to be painted. Having so little that is unpainted emphasizes the 'whiteness' of things that were not painted. This is where history and heraldry come together with the recovery of tradition. And here is the same old problem. How does the reader recover tradition if the reader has no knowledge of the tradition put forward? On White Aries the VMs creator puts forth a question which I have called the Genoese Gambit. Does the reader know the armorial, heraldic insignia of the pope that started the Roman Catholic tradition of the cardinal's red galero?

History reveals that Pope Innocent IV first granted the red galero to the cardinals about 1245. He was previously known as Sinibaldo Fieschi, and the Fieschi coat-of arms is Bendy, argent et azur, diagonal stripes of silver and blue. This was from a time long before all popes were retroactively granted heraldic insignia. Looking at White Aries reveals some blue-striped tub patterns and red hats, and a lot of obfuscation. Innocent IV appointed 2 or 3 of his relatives to the office of cardinal. Is this really a historical reference? Appearance would seem to cast doubt. In the radial presentation, the orientation of the blue stripes is wrong. However the more subtle, page-based orientation is correct for both. The combination of blue paint and ink work appears wrong. It is wrong. D[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]ifferent systems of tincture designation are never used in combination, and doing so looks like an intentional violation of rules in order to create obfuscation. Intentional obfuscation then requires a knowledge of traditional rules in order to reverse the violation. Position and placement, on the other hand, serve to confirm the Fieschi identification. Pope and cardinal are in their proper hierarchical locations in the celestial spheres - the pope is in a higher sphere. Both figures are located in the most favored heraldic quadrant, - which is the upper right - as seen from behind the insignia, looking out. The page chosen is White Aries, with white animals the only proper, traditional choice for celestial sacrifice.[/font]

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Furthermore, back on VMs Pisces, if the investigation continues on around the outer circle of tub patterns, instead of breaking off as the odd patterns were intended, there is a dark, scale-like pattern at about 11 o'clock. This is the obscure heraldic fur, the tincture known as papelonny - the scales of a butterfly's wing. A similar pattern occurs in the inner ring of Dark Aries. This is an intentionally hidden construction. The paired papelonny patterns correspond in sphere and in quadrant with the two blue-striped patterns on White Aries. The structure constitutes an example of heraldic canting between the papelonny tincture patterns and the subsequent, blue-striped patterns of the Fieschi insignia, based on the French word for pope, which is 'pape'. It turns out that the nephew, Ottobuono Fieschi, made a cardinal in 1251 by Innocent IV, was later elected pope as Adrian V, so there was a historical pair of popes with this armorial insignia.[/font]

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Maybe all of this is just circumstantial and hypothetical, and if the history behind it is unknown to the investigator, then it doesn't mean anything at all. Of course, there is an actual physical connection between one of the blue-striped patters and one of the two deluxe versions of Stolfi's markers found in the circular bands of text. It might seem as if this entire papal narrative was created to add emphasis to the markers and to the marked bands of text, but why would someone do that?[/font]

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Sorry, to run on, but the topic is complex with lots of little details - intended to be tricky - a modus operandi also seen in the VMs Cosmos.[/font]
[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Willing to discuss things further.  Sorry, no pictures.[/font]

Thank you for writing this up. 
I can't say I fully see what you see. Pictures would be a great aid.

Do you know of any documents where concealment had been made in a similar fashion?

Maybe you could be more specific about any of the things you would line to see.

On the other hand, here's a primary source on heraldry.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Much of this is not very relevant to VMs investigation.
Best parts are from page 75 > Tinctures, page 92 > lines of division, and pages 97 to 99 > divisions of the field.

There are no other documents like the VMs, as far as I know. Canting is sometimes used in heraldry and its a process similar to 'reading' a rebus. The relative degree of concealment is determined by whether the proper interpretation can be recognized or not. Those familiar with the relevant traditions will see things as being a lot less concealed than those for whom the relevant traditions are totally unfamiliar.

PART II
(After all, it is an encore.)

Another clear example of the association of tradition and heraldry is found in the recovery of traditional terminology based on heraldry, as seen in the VMs cosmos. In a simplified description there is the central, inverted T-O Earth, the stars that surround the Earth, and then there is this strange sort of line. It's kind of all over the place, yet it manages to make a circle - of sorts. And the line has a sort of pattern - going *squiggly*, back an forth. How is it that we understand the nature of this line unless we properly interpret the relevant description? 

A set of terms developed to describe the nature of this pattern characteristic. Terms with their denotations and their connotations.
wobbly > unsure and unsteady - that fits.
undulating > like waves on the waters
meandering > like a river in Asia Minor
serpentine > line a snake

All terms are reasonably adequate descriptions of what can be seen, but there's not a particularly strong connection to explain why the line is there. Is there a snake surrounding the cosmos?, a river or a sea, perhaps? There was no particular connection with any traditional interpretation. However, it must be noted that heraldic tradition (usage) provides an example of the same pattern, in the heraldic lines of division, which is denoted as a *nebuly* line, and alternately called "gewolkt" in German. And the etymology of either the Latin or German term reveals a connotation connected to the respective word for "cloud".

The recovery of traditional terminology means that the line in the VMs cosmos is best described by use of the traditional terminology *because* of its connotation which is 'cloud-based' and this is a valid and relevant motif for the times preceding the parchment dates. This is information that was known and used by the creator of this cosmic illustration.  The nebuly line equates to a cloud-band (Wolkenband) and a cloud-band equates to a cosmic boundary. The terminology recovered from heraldic tradition clearly provides the only associated connotation that is compatible with the illustration. This is a cosmos, after all.

The use of this interpretation, that nebuly lines are able to represent cosmc boundaries, provides an interesting additional dimension to the investigation of the VMs critter (f80v). While as for the rest of Quire 13, nebuly lines are ostensibly combined as cloud-bands and cloud-bunnies. The real problem comes with the use of nebuly lines on various plants, as leaf margins or to represent roots. This is disingenuous. It does not occur in nature. Maybe rayonny lines will pass as palm leaves, but not nebuly lines. The question here might well be, how does the reader reconcile strangeness and confusion when these might well be the desired effects?