The Voynich Ninja

Hi, Koen and Cary:

Thanks for the obvious hard work on this -- very interesting observations.  I greatly appreciate the detailed analysis.  

I'm obviously pushing the next posting, but of course the biggest issue is that a seemingly very important reason why the "top-down" viewpoint was chosen was the ease of explicitly including the 12 gates and/or 12 angels (or apostles) etc. in the work.  This seems to be the most consistent text-based description provided in these top-down illustrations but not provided in illustrations done from other viewpoints.  And this is precisely what is missing from the Voynich fold-out, if the most visually striking component of the illustration -- the rosettes, are gates.

I do look forward to your discussion of why each rosette is not a gate or if they are gates why three of them are otherwise represented or whatever line of reasoning you and Cary decide to address this.  But it is always going to be an issue for me that what all the other illustrators of that time focused on (top-down = providing very clear cut representation of all 12 gates) was not obviously followed by the Voynich fold-out.

I suppose it could be the result of poor planning on the part of the Voynich illustrator (shoot, I've run out of room) -- but other aspects of the illustrations and text placement suggest some pretty detailed pre-planning was done.  The Voynich illustrator has his or her artistic quirks, that's for sure, but running out of room without accommodating it (e.g. the two Aries and the two Tauruses) seems to be something actually considered.

Thanks, Michelle. I agree that the gates are definitely the most obvious omission. But exactly this is the subject of the second post, which will be published this weekend. As will be demonstrated in that post, manuscript illustrations slide between depicting the gates as described in Revelation, and depicting something else instead. The latter category focuses on the standard interpretation of the gates, their meaning for the medieval audience. 

The absence of literal gates is of course not the only issue, and there is much more going on. I don't think any attempt to explain the Rosettes foldout as just x or just y can ever be sufficient. It must be more than a straightforward illustration.

But these concepts are complex and, especially, foreign to the average modern reader. This is why we decided to pull out separate threads one at a time.

There is a representation of New Jerusalem in the Angers Apocalypse tapestry.

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The Paris provenance is late 14th. But apparently did not get the message about the 12 gates.

What is interesting is the very elaborated representation of a nebuly line version of a cosmic boundary.
Elaboration consists of the fact that the line that forms the basic nebuly-line pattern is not a plain and regular line. Instead, it is a line with its own pattern, a pattern of running arches. A pattern that must be reversed on either side to keep the arches outward.

The same pattern of running arches is seen again in Paris in the illustration of Venus and many other examples from Christine de Pisan's "Epitre d'Othea". The same running-arch version of a nebuly-line cloud-band is found in the VMs Central Rosette. Clearly drawn and painted with blue paint.

Is there a prior thread looking into the imagery of New Jerusalem?

That's a really nice example of the city descending from the sky. And of a nebuly line, of course.
It's interesting to see that they didn't at least try to put three gates in the most visible side - such examples are a minority. I can't blame them though. If anyone here is good at drawing, I would invite them to read the text of Rev. 21 and try to draw the city as it is described, keeping the details visible to the viewer. It's quite the challenge..

(01-02-2022, 09:18 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Is there a prior thread looking into the imagery of New Jerusalem?

It must have been mentioned when discussing examples from manuscripts, but I don't recall a specific thread. There has been some confusion of terms as well, with people saying "Heavenly Jerusalem" while referring to the earthly "old" Jerusalem on medieval maps.

The first time I read about it was after visiting Aachen last summer. In the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. I saw this mosaic (I only had my phone with me but the picture came out fine). So when Cary and I were mailing back and forth about the rosettes foldout, we started noticing certain similarities with the biblical description.

[attachment=6189]

(This city looks round, but they did show three gates. The gold and gems are references to Revelation.)

Civitas Dei surrounded by the Four Rivers, that's quite spectacular. Also, an unusual choice to use the four rivers.
Do you have a date when it was made?

The walls, foundations, clouds and light seem to make a coherent package, and even though the absence of the 12 gates seems problematic, a lot of variation is plainly allowed. It is the vast extent of this variation which causes similarity to be so unusual.

There are several basic types of cosmic boundaries: cloud-based, solar-based, angelic and others. There are various ways to draw cloud-based 'wolkenbands'. One set of possibilities is based on the different variations of the nebuly line. These three examples all use a similar version of a cloud-band that is based on an elaborated nebuly line. Two examples were made in Paris leading up to the VMs dates. The third is in the VMs.

The clue here is Paris - a Paris which is no longer French, but from 1420 to 1435 was held by an alliance of the English and Burgundians. VMs sightings of the Golden Fleece clearly connect to the era of the Duchy of Burgundy starting in 1430. The VMs illustrations play a game of hide and seek with certain iconic images of the era - prior to 1450. The artist hides and the reader seeks. The fun begins.

That's an interesting example from the Angers Apocalypse tapestry. The style of nebuly-line with the pattern of running arches, pointing outward on each side, does look very similar to the one in the central rosette. It also looks similar to the one in the middle right rosette, which has the same kind of cloud-band pattern as the central one, but scaled up a bit.

While we've been researching this subject and I've been comparing many different representations of New Jerusalem I'm really struck by how much variation there is. But this is also not surprising given the complexity of the biblical description (and the fact that no one on earth has actually seen this heavenly city with their own eyes, so it requires some imagination!) It would certainly be a challenge to include everything in a single image. They had to choose which details to focus on, or which were the most important to emphasize. I also noticed that certain Apocalypse cycles handled this challenge by making a series of illustrations on different pages, each focusing on different aspects of the biblical description as they are shown to John. A good example of this is from MS. Bodl. 401, which we used as an example of the twelve foundations with a "tiered design". The two images we used are from different pages of that manuscript, and they both include twelve foundations, but f064r shows the twelve gates, and then f066r shows the twelve angels in place of gates:

[attachment=6190]

There are also some interesting examples of the opposite approach, where the artist did try to combine different elements of New Jerusalem into a single image. Just for an example, like this one where the twelve gates and the twelve precious stones (or maybe twelve pearls?) occupy the same space:

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Certain elements of New Jerusalem became closely associated with each other, so it made sense to combine them. This is one aspect we are going to elaborate on in the next post.

(02-02-2022, 12:42 AM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Civitas Dei surrounded by the Four Rivers, that's quite spectacular. Also, an unusual choice to use the four rivers.
Do you have a date when it was made?

In the case of the Aachen mosaics, they are late copies of the original Byzantine scenes, so it is kind of tricky to figure out what was original and what they may have changed. Either way I wouldn't use this as a reference, but it is a beautiful mosaic nonetheless. I think they chose the four rivers because, following Augustine, there was often the thought of New Jerusalem "merging" with the whole world, the whole Christian community (Ecclesia) becoming the "Civitas Dei". The Latin has the advantage that "civitas" can be read as both "city" and "society". And four is the number of the world (four winds, cardinal directions...), hence also the importance of the square shape.

As you say, in manuscript art there is a lot of variation when depicting the city. There is some degree of artistic freedom and challenge. But I think an important factor is also that many illuminated manuscripts of the Apocalypse are actually commentaries, like the Beatus tradition. So the text of the commentary may influence which items they emphasize, which symbolism they add and so on.

(01-02-2022, 10:02 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.If anyone here is good at drawing, I would invite them to read the text of Rev. 21 and try to draw the city as it is described, keeping the details visible to the viewer. It's quite the challenge..

 

Now I'm sick, so I can hardly write a clear and consistent answer. In this regard, it is easier for me to draw a diagram. I apologize for the non-artistic angels and the lamb, if anything, then the strange figures at the gate are angels with pearls.
I divided sections by elements, but, generaly, I think it is not necessary in the Christian iconography. Probably, they are just four seasons.
I'll try to comment on this when the temperature subsides and I become a little more alert.

I need to note that the correspondence between tribes, gemstones and months is quite problematic. I saw many tables and diagrams, and almost all of them differ in this relation. Therefore my version of the tribe sequence with regard to zodiac signs or months is just one of.

When you look at it with a magnifier as I do, the perspective is quite remarkable, as if looking from below through a transparent floor as it descends from the sky.