The Voynich Ninja

I want to point out something else about the above clip. See the gallows in the top-left corner? Years ago I clipped it and added some letters. It has been sitting in the upper-left corner of my desktop for many many years, with letters that I superimposed upon it. I've enlarged it and colored the text red so it shows up better for people on the forum:



It does not work as a substitution cipher, it is not a key, as far as I can tell, but it is (to me) highly suspicious that it works so well. Okay, the "e" doesn't look like e, it looks like e with a tail (except they never added one in that direction and it's not a terminal letter), but maybe it's obfuscated or maybe it's a big coincidence. But, if it's not a coincidence, it's almost like a signature tucked into the manuscript. It reminded me of the Frederick cipher (Frederick's name has come up many times in connection with the VMS because he was interested in ciphers but I don't remember anyone pointing out the similarity between this clip and a sequence of vowels).

Here is the Habsburg logo (courtesy of Wikipedia). Note the stars (I'm always on the lookout for star emblems) and the vowel sequence, and a Frederick illumination with the vowel sequence (if you mirror the underline in the vertical direction, it would over-reach the vowels similar to the way the VMS p stretches over the glyphs:

 

Might as well include this one as well, since it's a sundial that includes zodiac figures (from Italy, courtesy of Wikipedia):

You can find Frederick's A E I O U sprinkled around Graz (he lived there for a number of years):

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What particularly struck me about this, is that is by the spiral stairs. The first time I saw the VMS rosettes folio, I wondered whether the top-right rosette might represent a plant spiral (a hill with spiral terraces for the plants) or a spiral staircase. I even looked into the spiral staircase in the mansion at the Villa d'Este as a possible analog, but the Habspurg spiral fits better with other aspects.

Another A E I O U example from Graz (Wikipedia):

The a e i o u emblem on a book clasp, from ÖNB ms 1182 (1446, courtesy of Österreichische Nationalbibliothek):



And from the cover of ÖNB ms 338 (1441):



Whenever I see this version, with the line spanning the letters (with loops in the corners), it reminds me of a vertically-mirrored gallows shape.

These are fascinating observations, thank you for sharing JKP!
Not to derail the discussion on tails but a few further comments about AEIOU.
As You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. article explains, the use of AEIOUby Frederick was as an acronym for "Austria Est Imperare Orbis Universo" or other variants of similar meaning.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. page is also interesting: 
"In the notebook we can read in Frederick’s own hand that all the artworks and liturgical items he owned and the building projects he had initiated were to be marked with the vowel sequence (together with a framing loop)." [Emphasis mine]
Of course this is very interesting considering the gallows.

Another instance of AEIOU is in the Cathar chant You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., but there it is repeated throughout the song, whereas the Voynich vord only occurs once. Still I find this use interesting as it carries a rhythmic component which might relate to the dots above the vord.
There are possibly other uses too, this is just what a quick search turned up.

VViews, the information about the song is fascinating. Songs get around, especially in noble circles where there was always entertainment. It appears to have originated in the 13th century?, so it predates the VMS and Frederick's vowel sequence. I wonder if a song could have inspired Frederick's use of the emblem.

In the Wiki article, this caught my attention: "The vowels seem to be meaningless, though they have been suggested to form a phonic pyramid pointing to heaven."


AEIOU from 1457 (courtesy of Wikipedia):



Here's an earlier one (courtesy of Wikiwand) from 1439, all in lowercase:

If I understand it correctly, "AEIOU" was a kind of "marker". The famous series of vowels can be found on a variety of art objects, books, buildings, etc., which date back to Frederick III. Unfortunately, researchers do not agree on the meaning of the characters.

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If you hadn't pointed this out, I wouldn't have noticed in a thousand years.

I've been reading a bit about the origin of AEIOU and I must say the possible explanations, even those offered by Frederick's contemporaries, feel like backronyms. I would guess it's just the vowels of the alphabet in order. 

Interestingly, his grandmother was Viridis Visconti, who owned one of the early Tacuinum copies.