The Voynich Ninja

(20-12-2020, 05:40 PM)RenegadeHealer Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Speaking of which Koen, I spent a few minutes staring at Q13 seeing if I could come up with a good possible candidate image for the Serpent. So far no epiphanies, nor even any apophanies. You'll be the first to know if I change my mind on this.

I'm just starting to think about these things, so I don't have many refined ideas either. One complicating factor is that the serpent is supposed to undergo a metamorphosis before it becomes the animal we know today, when god punishes it. It is often represented as a snake with a woman's head (sometimes wearing a crown), with arms, sometimes a whole human body. Sometimes a bird-monster. Sometimes a dragon-like creature. 

Here's my favorite, by Van Der Goes (1479) 



Or something like this:



There are many wonderous incarnations.

(If further interest is expressed, I will split this thread).

Koen G Wrote:Now where is that serpent?

Koen G Wrote:One complicating factor is that the serpent is supposed to undergo a metamorphosis before it becomes the animal we know today, when god punishes it. It is often represented as a snake with a woman's head (sometimes wearing a crown), with arms, sometimes a whole human body. Sometimes a bird-monster. Sometimes a dragon-like creature. 

Something dawned on me last night as I was falling asleep: If one intended layer of meaning in Q13 is the story of Adam and Eve, our much-discussed fish woman at the bottom of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. could play the role of the serpent in that layer.

(27-12-2020, 07:27 PM)RenegadeHealer Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Something dawned on me last night as I was falling asleep

I tend to get my Voynich epiphanies in the shower (probably appropriate for Q13)

I don't know yet about the fish, but there is certainly something going on on f80v, where that other notorious scaly creature is located. I will split this thread and discuss further.

I'm developing a theory where the "Christian layer" on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. refers to Genesis 1-3. Supposedly, these would be the events that lead up to the banishment from the Garden top right on f80r.

Now Genesis 1-3 is a tricky "narrative", since it included the infamous double creation. God creates everything, and then in the second chapter this first chapter is ignored and God just creates everything again. This is one of those passages where you notice how the Bible was a book that formed over centuries.

I'm still in the process of starting to think about this, so this is just some loose theorizing.

First of all, I wondered: could there be a serpent somewhere on this folio? There is a scaly creature, but this is not what we would describe as a serpent. That said, the serpent in medieval art took on a variety of forms, most of them including a (crowned) female head, sometimes arms (for apple-handling) and sometimes even a whole human body. Just google You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and you will see its many bizarre incarnations.

Moreover, the serpent will undergo some kind of change, since God punishes it to live on the ground and eat dirt.

I think the nymph holding out the red orb (from which a bite has been taken exposing the white flesh?) may allude to the serpent. Note the nymph's strange tail. The VM knows how to draw braids, and prefers loose hair with strands. However, this nymph's hair is tightly bound and sectioned.

[attachment=5062]

(more to follow)

In Genesis 1, man and woman are created apparently simultaneously:

So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.


Genesis 2 rewinds a bit and zooms in on the creation of man and woman. 

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

These events are often depicted in medieval art, often with Adam sleeping and God kind of birthing Eve out of Adam's body. 

Assuming the images in Q13 are artificially created layered constructs (which is in my opinion the only way to make sense of them) then both of these from the bottom half of this folio may allude to these scenes.

[attachment=5063]

Finally, in Genesis 1, God's spirit (a feminine word in Greek) hovers over the waters. God first creates light and then starts separating various zones:

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

In manuscript art, depictions of these abstract events vary. God is either standing next to the thing he is creating, or he emerges from a cloud band.

At the top of this folio, we have two figures on cloud bands, with under them a variety of distinct layers, elements separated into separate bands/zones. Remarkably, the figure on the right has a deep blue band separated from the rest. The figure on the left holds an object. I think on one layer of meaning, this indicates a spindle (the highest point in the heavens, at the axis of the celestial pole). But the top of it also resembles a candlestick with a pricket and drip tray. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is an example from 1445 France. Let there be light.

[attachment=5064]


That is about all I have so far. It must also be noted that there is a prominent river on this folio, clearly differentiated from the pools. Obviously rivers were obligatory in depictions of Paradise.

I trust you've seen the recent mosaic from the Pompeii: the nymph, the sea horse, and various fish.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.;

Very similar content and structure occur in the example of Harley 334 f 57 and the two Lauber illustrations. The Roman nereid has become a mermaid, and the 'intent' of the illustration is to show the 'hypothetical' sea creatures which most certainly would include a mermaid. 

This subject / topic of representation has nothing to do with the myth of Melusine. Harley makes no mention of Melusine and in Lauber there is only a generic mermaid - not one with a name.

Unfortunately, there is the contemporary rise (through the C-14 dates) of the Melusine mythology and her ancestral connections. There is also a confusion and conflation of images, particularly because the of Valois Melusine of Luxembourg is described as being a mermaid.

So what's with the VMs? It's another example of a VMs illustration that combines essential elements from separate sources. In this example, there is the basic structure of a mermaid and her companion sea creatures, but this is not a generic and nameless mermaid. She is special because she has knees. Generic mermaids do not have knees. VMs You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is Melusine inserted in the standard 'sea creature' illustration. (Oresme is inserted into the Shirakatsi wheel to make the VMs cosmos. Heraldry is inserted in the VMs zodiac sequence to connect with ecclesiastical tradition. It is an intentional trick of disguise. It works because two part identification requires both parts in order to  be fully resolved.)

Another difference in VMs You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is that the sea creatures have sort of shifted from being *sea* creatures. The fish are gone. These creatures have legs. Get it? Sea creatures with *legs*! This helps identify Melusine. It also helps provide a disguise for another bit of deception. And that is the potential representation of the Golden Fleece. It was not my discovery, nor was the second proposed interpretation on f80v. However two examples do make a pair, and pairing is part of finding a pathway in the VMs. The Golden Fleece of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. was inserted in a structurally similar, visually altered representation of an illustration of the Agnus Dei. (BNF Fr. 13096 f 18)

At the same time, I can see the nymph below the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. 'critter' as possibly holding an apple and thus being a representation of Eve. And the reason her hair is bound is to increase the ambiguity. VMs trickery is intentional.

Hi Voynich ninja, this is my first post here! My long interest in the manuscript has primarily been directed into sculptural form, as I am currently working on a project where I’m making porcelain and glass sculptures inspired by the manuscript’s imagery. But over the past year I have also taken an interest in the research side of the Voynich (So it was bound to happen eventually that I would chime in here  )
 
I wanted to comment on this post because I had a thought about Koen’s suggestion that the nymph holding the red orb on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. may allude to the serpent in Genesis. The “segmented” braid of this nymph’s hair is an interesting detail to consider, but I think there is also something else that may be relevant regarding the red orb.
 
Several months ago, Koen wrote a blog post about how the imagery on this folio may allude to the constellations of the summer hemisphere. This included the proposal that the red orb held by the nymph likely refers to the star Aldebaran, part of the constellation of Taurus. This star, sometimes known as the “Bull’s Eye” was described by the ancients as bright red in color, and the way the constellations are arranged, this eye of the bull seems to “look across the sky” at the constellation of Orion, which faces it.
 
Now, setting aside that idea of the star for a moment, the idea that this manuscript imagery relates to the serpent in Genesis would introduce a completely different layer of meaning. However, these two suggestions may not be at odds, rather they may support each other. The “Bull’s Eye” star may be highly relevant in connection to Adam and Eve. If this nymph alludes to the serpent holding out a piece of the “forbidden fruit” we know that this part of the story represents sin, when Eve eats the fruit.. Looking into the origins of the word “sin,” it apparently relates to the Greek word “hamartia.” This term has multiple meanings, but one of them is something along the lines of “missing the mark” as in an archery term—in other words, “missing the bull’s eye.” Additionally, the Hebrew word for sin has a similar meaning of “the missed mark.” Could the red fruit, the original sin, be also the red eye of Taurus, the bull’s eye?

(I speak neither Greek nor Hebrew, so I acknowledge that there is probably more nuance in these translations than what I gathered from a quick search. If anyone has a better understanding, please do correct me or add to this. But it does seem, from the little bit that I have looked into this so far, there is a connection between words for “sin” and words for “missing the mark/bull’s eye”) I thought this could be relevant when considering that there may be deliberately layered meanings going on with the “red orb.”

Ah the talented artist! I am a big fan!

I like your thinking about bullseye - Bull's Eye. Does the pun hold across different languages though? I am sure there are people here who could assist.

Welcome to the forum, Cary! Into the fray

Interesting about the etymology of sin in Greek. The bulls-eye as "target" is tricky though. In English, the meaning certainly came too late (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ) but I don't know about other languages...

By the way, there is a thread about your artwork in the news section, feel free to keep us up to date there.

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About references to the Garden on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , I obviously forgot this one chilling with a piece of vegetation next to a river