The Voynich Ninja

If I am not wrong, it is a detail of f71v-r3, in june. It could be Apollo, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. 
Apollo is the God of sun and light. He could represent the starting of the summer along with the summer solstice.

You are right. I just read that Apollo was associated with medicine. And the drawing represents Gemini or June. However, it’s very possible that it includes the day of summer solstice. 
Thanks for this - it’s definitely something new for me. 

Now I am wondering - where could be seen the image of Apollo in Middle Ages?

(13-03-2022, 08:15 PM)davidjackson Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.My apologies, I meant Balnealogical section, not Zodical. f80r.

This image always made me think rather about a man walking (forcefully) a woman rather than chasing her. Anyway, there are other male images but always asexual while women are always designed with all anatomical details. That’s one of reasons I tend toward the idea VM was written by women.

It's certainly possible, but the difference may simply be a result of the low proportion of male vs female figures. There is just a much lower amount of male figures, and one of those has exposed genitals. Maybe if there were hundreds of male figures and a handful of females, we would be saying that male anatomical details are represented more often.

There are various examples of illustrations, in resurrection scenes or depictions of bathers, where men were represented as pretty much featureless all the way down. Seems to me there's a strong influence of 'cultural expectations' at play in these instances, where the artists were often male. There's always the old fig leaf or some fabulously floating flit of fabric to provide the essential coverage. Of course, that isn't *always* the case, but it does predominate.

It also goes back to the discussion where feminine gender nouns are given female presonas.

Did a woman write the VMs? Did a woman draw the VMs illustrations? Were there women scribes? Any and all are certainly possible, but the VMs retains its ambiguity.

(14-03-2022, 12:08 AM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.There's always the old fig leaf or some fabulously floating flit of fabric to provide the essential coverage. Of course, that isn't *always* the case, but it does predominate.

I feel like this is especially common after the Middle Ages. But what often happens in medieval images is that they simply don't draw the genitals, even if they would be visible. Or they'll draw a line, even for male figures. Constellation images are a good source to see a range of options. Here is Hercules (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.):

[attachment=6320]

They knew Hercules was a male figure, but this was just one way to draw the nether regions if they didn't want to go full phallus.

Exactly what I meant by "featureless".

Several illustrations of Apollo in Harley 4431. Always well dressed. Head in flames. VMs illustration has no identifying attributes: harp or bow and arrows.

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(14-03-2022, 04:21 AM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Exactly what I meant by "featureless".

Several illustrations of Apollo in Harley 4431. Always well dressed. Head in flames. VMs illustration has no identifying attributes: harp or bow and arrows.

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A dressed Apollo wouldnt fit in the VM with the rest of undressed women.  He is not in a context as God of music or acthery so harp and bow arent needed. He is as God of Sun.
Undressed bodies represented in medieval art or earlier art, Are most of them biblical and mythological or non-biblical and non-mythological?

Gab19 wrote, "Now I am wondering - where could be seen the image of Apollo in Middle Ages?"

Harley 4431 is an example of such a source, and it fits in the VMs C-14 dates. There are plenty of different representations, but so much is after 1450. And too far after 1450 means that the use of the VMs parchment was not contemporary with its manufacture. This would move VMs investigation into a different situation.

It is proposed that the male nymph might represent Apollo. That is an interesting possibility. Among all the 'stellas', (Latin female for star), here is 'der Stern" in the nude. Does that make him Apollo?  I don't know, it might.

What relevant evidence is available? That is the first question. Is there something more to substantiate this interpretation? If the identification is accepted as valid, does it provide any further insights?

A lot of medieval art doesn't include human forms. Then there are religious images, classical representations and numerous depictions of battles. There are various examples of "undressed" or nude bodies, mainly in the first two examples. The other part is how to define 'nude'. Does 'critical coverage' still qualify as "undressed"? Dressed figures are the majority, and among the undressed, they are mythical and fewer biblical - depending on definitions. Or perhaps there are sufficient naked bathers to turn the tide. And there's another problem. How to count the "featureless"??

Here I found another indication that illuminated manuscripts were definitely written by women. Notes were left in the margins by women, and one manuscript ended with a request to the reader to pray for the scribe, using the feminine pronoun. This suggests that women also wrote complete manuscripts and not just individual parts of them.

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Of course, there is Christine de Pizan, and her group. Several of her autograph mss. in the library of the dukes of Burgundy - KBR. It's not the possibility, but the probability of female composition / construction. Yet the VMs itself is a specific and unusual document - not so much subject to probability as it is to the interpretation of its illustrated content.

And what about the content? Does it tend more toward the feminine or the masculine? Here there are the starry nymphs named Stella, very few appear to be masculine. Yet which stars, beyond the Pleiades are actually named for women?

In the VMs Zodiac medallions, there is the bride in VMs Gemini. This is the heiros gamos, the sacred marriage, the pairing of complementary opposites, which is an important topic, but not relevant here. And there is also VMs Virgo, an illustration which has been interpreted as containing clues to a crescent moon and connections to certain medieval representations on the Virgin Mary. The use of the combined image technique is also demonstrated in the VMs cosmos. If this interpretation is accepted, then the wreath of VMs f86v4 would be the wreath of the Virgin and be indicative of a current church tradition. [Also: Red Galero]

Melusine is another female indicator. The VMs mermaid illustration (f79v) is also an example of combined images, where Melusine of Luxembourg is substituted for the generic mermaid of Harley 334 and the Lauber illustrations. Melusine is associated in the VMs illustration with one version of the Golden Fleece, originated 1430, through the Valois family ancestry of Berry, Burgundy, etc.

The myth of Philomela is another female-centered story. Probably because of its violent nature, it does not appear in Christine de Pizan's works. However, it did exist, separately from the rest of Ovid, and a ms. was part of the Berry library, along with others that have certain cosmic (BNF Fr. 565 and the Berry Apocalypse [nebuly line]) and Melusine [Lusignan castle, Tres Riches Heures, etc.) related historical, mythical, and textual connections.

The other part of the Golden Fleece pairing (f80v) leads to the Agnus Dei that was in the Burgundy library as BNF Fr. 13096.

Pizan produced several versions of the Muses, nine women in a tub with those big white hats, but in the two versions of this image from the KBR, the representation is more naturalistic. Of course, there are groups of women in various numbers in the pools of the VMs. Is it only the presence of nine at once, that makes them Muses?

In amongst the nymphs there are examples holding a ring or a cross. Such items figure prominently in the biography of Colette of Corbie, who reformed the Poor Clares. Her efforts began in 1410, were mainly in the state of Burgundy and were supported by the dukes and duchesses, continuing after her death in Ghent 1447.

Among the nymphs of VMs White Aries upper right is a beauty in a green dress. Does she represent an image to be interpreted as Lady Bertilak, wife of the Green Knight, a popular tale?

In summation, a very wide variety of female situations to be represented by a woman - or a man. The focus of these interpretations for these examples clearly seems to be feminine and not masculine.