The Voynich Ninja

After reading threads here I couldn't help but to join the "gold rush" here. I have a theory about possible authors of the MS and I didn't found it here so I decided to post it. Excuse my lack of knowledge in this field, I am just another wannabe expert throwing unnecessary opinions, so if you don't have time to spare, skip it. Else if you are open to the new theories and want to help me understand the history of he manuscript, leave some comments and thoughts.

In the year 1360 at the imperial court of the Charles IV. among other courtiers, there also lives his personal pharmacist Angelo de Florencia. Angelo is an expert healer and Charles took him to Prague from Florence, Italy. He had established a local apothecary there and also a small garden. Charles liked the small garden so he offered a plot to Angelo (approx. 1ha) in the New Town. The garden was named after him - Hortus Angelus - and had properties of a botanical garden and was the first of its kind in Central Europe. In the garden, Angelo grew vegetables, fruit trees, fragrant and medicinal herbs and ornamental bushes. According to the records, most of the species have never been seen before (species from Asia, for example it's possible that Ginkgos were also planted - so somebody had sources to travel far away)
Side note: It is also said that Francesco Petrarca was every now and then visiting the garden, which testifies to its worldliness.


After the death of Charles IV. Angelo still held the position of the personal pharmacist for his son, Wenceslas IV. Angelo died in 1408. All of his estates and rights were given to his nephew, Ludovicus de Florentia.

Is it possible that the manuscript was written by the two or other people from theirs inner circle? In my opinion, Angelo started writing the manuscript at a time when he was dying to pass on the informations and know-how to his nephew in some coded language that only initiates could read. Ludovicus then expanded the manuscript with further knowledge and experience. 

Unfortunately, in the 17th century, Count Špork had Hortus Angelus destroyed and instead built a Celestine monastery there and no paintings of the Hortus Angelus have been preserved, so we can only imagine about how the garden was structured. The garden was placed where todays Czech Post office is now (map You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).

Possible look of the Hortus Angelus (the renaissance geometry was typical for the gardens)

Horti Ankelmanniani, early 17th century. 
(KLUCKERT, E.: European Garden Design. Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne 2000.)

In the very manuscript, there are few signs showing the House of Luxembourg presence.

For example the known You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and the nymph holding the cross and ring(f79v) or the globus cruciger and the scepter in the center of the f85r2. I am sure there are more signs, but as I stated above, I am no expert.


Sources and more(in czech):
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Well, you've certainly done your homework on Angelo.
Did the house of Luxembourg ever use Melusine as an emblem? We've discussed her before but I don't remember this House ever being mentioned.

I don't think they did, but as far as I know, the Melusine was only a legend told by the House so they could be seen as a descendants of a divine origin - According to the legend (which was written in 1393 by Jean d'Arras), the knight Raymondin and a beautiful princess Melusine started the lineage of the Luxembourgs - Which we now know is a lie.

What is weird is that Melusine was often pictured with a fish tail, but there were also interpretations of a Melusine being a half-dragon or a snake.

(07-08-2021, 07:41 AM)Ranceps Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.According to the records, most of the species have never been seen before (species from Asia, for example it's possible that Ginkgos were also planted - so somebody had sources to travel far away)

This is important. There once was thread about You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (the supposed Dracaena), and we discussed that in early 15 century Dracaena was very new to Europe, so the author describing it must have been on the cutting edge of "botany". Unfortunately this discussion was lost in the lamentable server crash in Coventry.

I posted about him in 2009, so you might want to have a read on Cipher Mysteries:

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Melusine was a mythical ancestress of several lines of European nobility and in each she took on certain characteristics. In Lusignan, she was more dragon-like and for Luxembourg, much more like a mermaid - when she wasn't in her fully human form.

Was she ever an emblem? Well, not exactly, not in any heraldic sense, that I know of. However, the Valois lines of France were connected to Melusine through their mother, Bonne of Luxembourg.

In the Hundred Years War, one of her sons, John, Duke of Berry, took control of the Lusignan castle as represented in an illustration from "Tres Riches Heuers" - complete with dragon. He also commissioned a book on Melusine as a gift for his sister.
[He is also connected to the 'Oresme' cosmos and the nebuly line investigation.]

Two generations later, in the Valois line of the Dukes of Burgundy, Philip the Good had a device at the Feast of the Pheasant in 1454, a kind of table display that featured Melusine. It shows that the Melusine connection was maintained through those generations.
[He is also connected to the Order of the Golden Fleece, La Sainte Hostie de Dijon, and the Colettine Poor Clares.]

So, perhaps this was an emblem- or not. It seems that it would have been clear what was represented to those in the past who were part of those events. However, from the modern perspective, these elements cannot be reconnected without the recovery of the essential details.

(07-08-2021, 03:42 PM)nickpelling Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I posted about him in 2009, so you might want to have a read on Cipher Mysteries:

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Thanks nick, but you are talking more about the Antonio of Florence, not the Angelo or Ludovicus. I also think that alchemy is not present in the MS. In my opinion, the astro-pages of the MS are just a tools (maybe connected to the Prague Orloj or the predecessor) to help to determine what plants to plant during seasons more precisely.

I don't know why, but to me, if there's any prototype of author that could write such an MS, it would be one of the likes of Abulafia who was so well versed in grammar that he might be tempted to create a conlang and share valuable knowledge from various trips in a single book.