(06-11-2021, 12:37 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.For the majority of the nude figures though? Would they really do that, draw so many nude portraits of women they knew? Is there any precedent, apart from characters in stories?
Well, if many ( or even all ) nymphs should depict real persons, then that would certainly be unique. It would be against some ( medieval ) conventions and surely a good reason to hide the content of the VMS.
Nudity was considered taboo by the church with real people. On the other hand, it was also considered ascetic, but this does not affect the visual language of the VMS.
Here is a blog post by Monica Valentinelli titled "Why I Believe the Voynich Manuscript was Created by a Woman". As far as can be seen, she bases her thesis on social circumstances in the Italian Renaissance (?).
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(06-11-2021, 11:54 AM)bi3mw Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Here is a blog post by Monica Valentinelli titled "Why I Believe the Voynich Manuscript was Created by a Woman". As far as can be seen, she bases her thesis on social circumstances in the Italian Renaissance (?).
Hi, bi3mw:
Thanks for this. Although Ms. Valentinelli seems like a very interesting person with lots of interests and creative pursuits, this thesis is incredibly thin and reads like the pitch for a work of fiction rather than anything seriously researched. In my opinion it is yet another example of the Rorschach blot effect of the manuscript on people who become interested in it. They see in it what they personally need to see for it to have meaning.
That’s not to say l am not personally aware of this issue, but in my own defense l have worked hard to understand the historical time, read many publications of experts in the myriad of fields that touch on this endeavor to understand it as a historical artifact, and have developed a very healthy skepticism for this “shallow hit and publish” attitude that is also so prevalent.
She ends her blog lamenting the lack of time and l totally get it - but l also hear an echo of not wanting to dive in - hopefully at least subconsciously due to a realization of the kind of effort it would take to move her modern mind into a second-hand place of understanding that is needed to get the job done authentically.
But l am preaching to the choir here. Thanks for finding it - but l remain completely and utterly unconvinced that the Voynich was written by a woman or group of women. If anything, l lean the opposite way - that the Voynich was written and illustrated by men who produced it as a reflection of their place of societal power over women. But l am still gathering that information and don’t want to commit the research sins l’m criticizing here.
(06-11-2021, 01:33 PM)MichelleL11 Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.this thesis is incredibly thin and reads like the pitch for a work of fiction rather than anything seriously researched.
You are right, the blog post is really thinly researched. Already the uncommented marginal note about Dorotea Bucca shows this clearly. It is not even certain that Bucca really existed or gave lectures. Nowhere is there written evidence for it. She is actually mentioned only once, in the edition of Giovanni Boccaccio's "Delle Donne Illustri". - The remark about Christine di Pizan ( quote: "
Christine di Pizan challenged the idea that women were inferior to men by publishing the City of Ladies in 1404.") is probably meant to suggest that Pizan's attitude was widespread in late medieval Italy. This was not the case, of course; rather, there was a basic patriarchal social order. Pizan took a special position within this society as a financially independent (i.e. financed by writing) widow.
Perhaps I am uninformed, but the comment about Christine de Pizan's influence in 'medieval Italy' seems to be out of place.
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Her 'Book of the Queen' went to the queen of France. Other works went to John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, for the education of his daughters. See the KBR library, which has several books, one or two of which that are evaluated as being written by Christine herself.
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Her connections are clearly Valois.
On the work "Le Livre de la Cité des Dames" (Wikipedia):
Quote:....
Completed around 1405, it is now considered one of the first feminist works in European literature and the starting point for the "Querelle des Femmes", a debate about gender order that took place in Europe since the 14th century and especially in the 17th century.
....
So it can be assumed that this work was discussed in the upper classes (!) of Europe, including Italy. Of course, as I said, the social order in the Middle Ages was anything but characterized by equality.
To be honest, women were treated as second-class citizens until far after the Middle Ages. An extreme example: "In 1991 following a decision by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, Appenzell Innerrhoden (AI) became the last Swiss canton to grant women the vote on local issues". (wiki)
When I was in kindergarten, there were women in the centre of Europe who were not allowed to vote, just for being women.
Anyway, I agree with Michelle's assessment: claims about female VM authorship often appear motivated by sloppy, theory-driven arguments.
I found the following comment in a blog post:
Quote:And if the Voynich manuscript was the work of a woman?
Voynich's colorful designs intrigue as much as his writing. Especially his feminine figures in the bath. And if the book was the work of a woman? "The first European manuscript on care for women" De passionibus mulierum curandarum Trotula Salerno "( XI century) describes the use of therapeutic baths that can be likened to the drawings of Voynich", argues Antoine Casanova.
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I have found papers by Antoine Casanova, but they referred to the text. I have not found a paper that contains the statement quoted above and possibly explains it in more detail. Maybe someone else has more luck. It would be interesting to know what connections in the figurative representation Casanova sees.
P.S: @Marco has made a comparison You are not allowed to view links.
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There's a "video tour" of the Dutch copy of the Liber Trotula that Marco mentions You are not allowed to view links.
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Does the Liber Trotula offer evidence for female involvement in the manuscript's production? Or is a female medic invoked as an authority about feminine medicine, regardless of the gender of the people who actually made the MSS?