The Voynich Ninja

(04-02-2021, 11:47 AM)Pythagoras Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
If we assume only one scribe.... then he/she needed to know a whole lot of stuff.

First, we one has to make a distinction between scribes and illustrators. Scribes did not always know how to draw. Illustrators were sometimes also scribes but sometimes they didn't even know how to write. Rubricators were sometimes different from the person who scribed the main text.

There was quite a bit of division of labor in the Middle Ages. If you could read and write AND draw, you were considered special, but that does not mean that the manuscript studio ALLOWED you to do both activities, even if you were employed as a professional. The medieval guilds and some of the employers had a strong hand in who did certain activities.

The VMS is probably not a professional project (unless it was a draft for something grander). The best ideas I've been able to come up with so far are that it might be a family project (families did create manuscripts for their children), a school project (university thesis?), or maybe a sample for applying for Guild membership, but there are probably possibilities I've overlooked.

Quote:If we take the approach that it was made by more than one scribe, the knowledge base may be decentralized.


Decentralized systems are more resilient to attack and failure.
so one theory is it is a group of clever renaissance people who get together and made it together.
another theory is its just a lone genius who knew alot of information.

I have no doubt that there were at least two scribes. Whether there are more I'm not sure yet, but I almost have enough data now to really look at it. You should take a look at Lisa Fagin Davis's writings about how many scribes might be involved.

I don't know whether one of the scribes may also have been the illustrator and I suspect there are two illustrators (maybe relatives, or maybe trained the same way).

I don't know whether painters (I'm sure there were at least two) were also the same as the illustrator or the scribes. I think it's possible that the "careful" painter may also have been the illustrator but I very much doubt that the "messy" painter was an illustrator. Not enough patience to do all those tiny detailed drawings.

There had to be at least three people involved, at the very least. Perhaps there were five or six (e.g., a group of university students?, or apprentices in a scriptorium?)

Quote:if we take the lone genius theory, even such a master as Leonardo DaVinci may not have known some information in the VMS.
so he might've phoned a friend. or went and asked someobody at the local university.

No one could convince me in a million years that this was done by one person. There are definitely two hands in the script. There appear to be two hands in the drawings. I'm quite sure there are at least two hands in the paintings. However, I don't know how much overlap there is between scribes and painters/illustrators. Even two would surprise me. I think at least three people were involved (at a minimum).

I seem to find my connections with the VMs zodiac and quire 13. I believe that there are a number of illustrations that show certain oddball interpretations of things that would pass as common knowledge for people who lived in the 1400s. The Valois connection to the myth of Melusine (Luxembourg version), knowledge of armorial and ecclesiastical heraldry for example. Other information could be more limited to those familiar with the history of the Catholic church, such as the origins of the tradition of the cardinal's red galero.

The combinations of paired images in illustrations like the cosmos and Melusine indicate a level of sophisticated obfuscation. The clearly dualistic nature of heraldic elements on White Aries reveal that deception is intentional. Surely there is more trickery here than what has been taken into account thus far.

There seem to be two significant areas where the historical connections come to ground: the library of the duke of Berry and the library of the dukes of Burgundy.

(04-02-2021, 08:53 PM)-JKP- Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.[quote="Pythagoras" pid='43593' dateline='1612435679']

The VMS is probably not a professional project (unless it was a draft for something grander). The best ideas I've been able to come up with so far are that it might be a family project (families did create manuscripts for their children), a school project (university thesis?), or maybe a sample for applying for Guild membership, but there are probably possibilities I've overlooked.

There had to be at least three people involved, at the very least. Perhaps there were five or six (e.g., a group of university students?, or apprentices in a scriptorium?)

No one could convince me in a million years that this was done by one person. There are definitely two hands in the script. There appear to be two hands in the drawings. I'm quite sure there are at least two hands in the paintings. However, I don't know how much overlap there is between scribes and painters/illustrators. Even two would surprise me. I think at least three people were involved (at a minimum).

I'm not so sure it is not a professional project,
but that also depends on what we mean by professional.

It strikes me as possibly a group of intelligent renaissance people
got together with the sole purpose of making a dedication of knowledge,
possibly through an ancient platonic lens,
but including contemporary references.

If this was made to stand the test of time. Why no copies?
Possibly the intention was to make copies down the track,
but history prevented it from occurring.

A professional or amateur project?
It may not have been sponsored by a wealthy or noble figure.
It may have just been lead by the ancient motivation to pass on information.
The You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. worked in three to pass on information.

The drawings at some perspective seem immature or unnatural,
but at another level are particular and specific, hardly a first go.
Symbology abound. But yet, hardly any mistakes.
The lack of mistakes can be explained easily imo,
as opposed to correcting them on the MS
the page may have just been redone upon a mistake noticed,
possibly implying some peer review.

That the VMS doesnt look like a typical sponsored project
doesnt imply amateurish. All that glitters aint gold.
That it involves some elements of complex knowledge,
implies to me that it is indeed a project by several high level
learned students of their craft (perhaps "scientists" or "druids").
Maybe not Da Vinci, but imagine it is 1950s
and you got together just a few highly accomplished people in their different fields,
Einstein, Turing, Picasso.

Even without looking at the VMS from an artisan perspective
about how many hands there are,
just from the perspective of the types of information being conveyed,
even among renaissance figures of the time,
it seems like only a small group of people would have the skills and motivation
to be a single producer of the VMS.
But if its a group of people its more plausible,
but leaves the intention as the mystery yet to be explained.