The Voynich Ninja

Full Version: It doesn't *look* like a galero.
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In response to a recent 'question' about the appearance of certain ecclesiastical hats.

We can start with some information here in a separate section: Ecclesiastical hat

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It specifically says: "The depiction of the galero in arms can vary greatly depending on the artist's style. The top of the hat may be shown flat or round. Sometimes the brim is shown much narrower; with a domed top it can look like a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. with tassels, but in heraldry it is still called a galero."

Given that the VMs is known to have added a touch of ambiguity, it is difficulty to see how the hats in the VMs White Aries illustration can be held to an even higher standard than the heraldic traditions of the Catholic church. That standard, from the quote above, is pretty ambiguous in itself.

Given these factors of ambiguity, absolute identification of particular objects in the VMs is difficult. What strengthens and promotes identification then is when different items have proposed identifications that can mutually support each other.
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What you see in the VM is not a cardinal hat. (Galero).
Ecclesiastically, it is a biretta. Specially sewn.
These come in different shapes and colours.

Specifically:
French beret
Scottish beret (Tam o Shanter)
Luther beret.
Landknecht beret.
Which one exactly is unclear.
Some examples:
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Those are interesting , but they get increasingly diverse. You've seen that big, black hat on Philip the Good?

I am not suggesting that all 'headgear' seen in the VMs is identical and equivalent. I am not even saying that all hats need to fit the perfect definition of a galero. As you can see, the definition itself, as expressed by the artists of the time, is pretty much as big as a barn door. Anything goes, unless it's really pointy or hangs down the person's back.

So there are all these hats out there on the 'nymphs" of the VMs pages; some hats are red, some are green, some are unpainted. And there are several examples found on VMs White Aries that fit into the 'wide' definition of "heralldic" galero and were painted red. What else should they be called, according to traditional terminology? So that is just a simple fact. 

And on VMs You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. White Aries there is a single character wearing a suitable red hat placed into a barrel that was decorated with blue painted stripes. Now it may not make any particular difference at the start, whether the stripes are red, or the hat is green, but historically there is a story behind this. There are blue-striped patterns on the page and that is a separate fact.

Separate facts are great. However, in isolation, they are not as informative as when they can be combined. And what would still have been a fairly obvious bit of information, among those familiar with church tradition at the time of the VMs C-14 date, would have included the cardinal's red hat and its associated origins with Pope Innocent IV as referenced ambiguously through the armorial heraldry of the blue-stripes. This is a clear example of intentional obfuscation. There are alternative interpretations built into the illustration.

What it boils down to is the association of the blue stripes and the red galero. This is an historically grounded situation. This is the Genoese Gambit. This is a question, posed by the artist; Does the reader know the origin of this ecclesiastical tradition? In other words, can the reader / investigator discover the historical association that has been obfuscated and positively referenced in this depiction or pick out the disguised reference to red galeros and blue stripes, because they already know the relevant history?

Heraldry was immersive in the C-14 era. Heraldry in the VMs may not be fully appreciated. Surely there is no conflict with using heraldry, heraldic patterns, heraldic interpretations, and heraldic means of interpretation in the attempt to further understand something that purports to be of that era. The fuller understanding of the nebuly line informs VMs investigation.

The two elements, red galero and blue stripes, as separate facts, occur in a single VMs zodiac nymph. The same two elements occur in the history of the church tradition of the cardinal's red galero. The historical combination is quite rare. It represents a very restricted set of circumstances, not absolutely unique, but close enough. And if both blue-stripe characters are later seen as popes, it matches history quite well, as that is what happened.

And look out for the papelonny pun. It is not simply interpretation, it is structure in combination with language. It is not my opinion that a clear structural relationship exists. The structure was built-in by a person who possessed the necessary 'perspective'. It needs to be seen and interpreted as such. Sometimes this can be rather difficult to do because the clues can be hard to find and the clues can be tricky. Just look at the comparison of the VMs cosmos with the Oresme image from BNF Fr. 565.

This is an involved comparison, so just consider the central Earth. Oresme [c, 1410, Paris; owned by Jean de Berry (d. 1416)]  The Earth is an inverted T-O with a pictorial representation. In the VMs, the Earth is an inverted T-O with linguistic, nominative or descriptive, written terminology. The comparison continues, but this sets the tone for a lot of the VMs. Structure remains the same. Appearance is totally altered. Identity is unchanged.

The change between pictorial and linguistic is called code shifting. To change the medium, but not the message. It is an intent to do as much as possible to alter the appearance - to the ambiguous limits of possible interpretation - and yet to retain basic structure and color, the patterns are plainly blue-striped. This structure is a clear part of the VMs, not like microscopic writing and whatnot. The difficulty is not only with the items, with their identification, but with their associations. And the problem with associations is with their origins and interpretations. How can the association of red galeros and blue stripes be recognized without prior input of historical facts.
There are some additional pictures of berets on the hat thread: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
There are two factors to be considered. First is the definition and second the specific representation. The definition of a galero is unexpectedly wide open. And the specific representation of VMs White Aries can clearly be seen as ambiguous - intentionally lacking in sufficient detail. Therefore the heraldic interpretation, a cardinal's 'red galero' cannot be ruled out! The heraldic interpretation existed as part of an on-going tradition for those who were educated through the church system.

Interpretation depends on familiarity with history and tradition as seen from the second quarter of the 1400s, with several ties to the Duchy of Burgundy (Dijon, France).

The VMs 'nymph' on White Aries, the one that combines the separate, ideological representations of armorial, blue stripes and the ecclesiastical, red galero, either touches the live wire of historical familiarity or it has no effect.

The discussion of the representation is about the 'presence' of the proposed, historical interpretation; the real question is about the purpose.