The Voynich Ninja

Another way of understanding/interpreting the Tau letter as symbol:

As a Franciscan symbol, the TAU, resembling the Cross, is a sign of conversion. Because of his affection and devotion to the cross of Christ, St. Francis used this sign as his personal signature. For Francis, conversion implies a turning toward God and turning to one’s brothers and sisters.

Thus the TAU becomes for us a symbol of permanent conversion, the seal of the Kingdom of God, a call to the service of others. 

With this sign, Francis recovers a tradition that goes back to the prophet Ezekiel. The TAU for Francis and for us is a sign of hope and a reminder of the goodness and love of God. 
It challenges us to live as peacemakers and to promote the healing of all creation.

(15-02-2022, 01:45 PM)Scarecrow Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Thus the TAU becomes for us a symbol of permanent conversion, the seal of the Kingdom of God, a call to the service of others. 

Yes! I did not know about the meaning of this symbol, but apparently it was quite popular. There was also one of the popes who was obsessed with it.

Cary and I debated for a bit whether or not we should include the tau reference. This is what we learned from the literature:

* What we Voynich reseachers are used to calling "T-O maps" are nowadays called "T-O diagrams" by specialists. This is to distinguish them from actual maps with a T-O structure, like the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
* T-O diagrams are an indicator of Christian culture and a Christian worldview, especially by the 15th century.
* While the origin of the diagram itself is debated, there appears to be some consensus that the T would have been seen as a form of the cross.
* We know of no medieval sources explicitly linking the TAU cross in T-O diagrams to the TAU used to mark the elect, converts and so on.

This is why we chose to present the information about the meaning of TAU, but as an advanced possibility. The T-O diagram as a representation of the Christian world is the basic, uncontroversial assumption.

--- 

Michelle kindly alerted me of a duplicate image, which has been fixed now. This is the castle-with-stars in the Dominican's fresco:

Still. Why the words inside of the tripartite globe are written upside-down in relation to the circle in t/o interpretation? Did you met any other "t/o" diagram with inscriptions written upside-down?

Could this be attributed to a sort of sophisticated trickery on the part of the VMs artist? What was drawn is a standard T-O, but the words are inverted.

Then, if the opposite version is considered, an *inverted* T-O and standard words, then that would be the interior of the VMs cosmos. This unusual depiction of cosmic structure is best compared with the cosmic representations of BNF Fr. 565 and Harley 334 - both produced in Paris in the first half of the 1400's. These pictorial versions of the inverted T-O structure, with the lower half drawn and painted to represent water, tend more toward being elemental representations of the Earth, rather than being geographical maps of the continents.

At the same time, the preferred *elemental* representation of the earth was adapted to the poly-concentric structure of standard cosmic illustrations of that era. Three elements encircle earth, then Luna, the planets (sun), and the heavens. The differences in comparison with the VMs structure are significant. The presence of 43 undulations is a clear connection, but the interruption of the eight curved spokes creates ambiguity.

Could it be that the image with the inverted words derives from the cosmic representation? Has anyone determined what these vords are and whether they are found elsewhere in the text?

(15-02-2022, 02:52 PM)Searcher Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Still. Why the words inside of the tripartite globe are written upside-down in relation to the circle in t/o interpretation? Did you met any other "t/o" diagram with inscriptions written upside-down?

They aren't exactly upside-down, more like diagonal. And inconsistent. I'm not sure what the meaning of the diagram would be if we were forced to treat the baselines of its labels as indicative. 

[attachment=6215]

We also don't know if the images and the text were done in the same pass, by the same person. If the rest of the MS is an indication, the text was only applied after the images were drawn, and there is evidence for several people writing the text. Moreover, the text on the relatively large rosettes foldout seems to have been drawn as the sheet was sometimes rotated, so baselines in a certain direction or a certain "pass" cluster together. For certain, studying this may teach us something, but I don't know what.

The fact that the "T" is blue and the rest blank seems pretty standard for the regular T-O diagram.

Yes, the words are placed diagonally, but their bottom is unquestionable. 
We can think about few scribes and their mistakes, but the inverted t/o diagram on the same folio (the other page, f86v3) and on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. confirm that its orientation isn't coincidental. 
I didn't see inscriptions oriented randomly. If there are cases of such ones, I'd be glad to take a look at them. 
I think direction of the text is important and not accidental. For example, I probably will agree with that the spiral inscription among star rather shows the rolling up, not rolling out, as words flow from the outer circle to the center of the spiral. If it is opening, I think, it would be formed of words flowing from the center to the edge of the spiral. I'm not sure what this mean, but also reminds me a funnel.

If you turn the T-O diagram upside down, the label in "Asia" stands almost vertically. I'm really not sure if these labels had the function of indicating the orientation of this detail. One might also wonder then why the T-O diagram is not placed as intended in relation to the rosette itself.

For the spiral, I think a good case can be made that it would have been seen as a scroll being rolled up, as in the text of Revelation. They were familiar with this concept, for example on banderoles (scrolls as speech bubbles). We included some examples in the post.

(15-02-2022, 10:41 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.If you turn the T-O diagram upside down, the label in "Asia" stands almost vertically. I'm really not sure if these labels had the function of indicating the orientation of this detail. One might also wonder then why the T-O diagram is not placed as intended in relation to the rosette itself.

 
And I wondered. I wrote about this in my You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. It (orientation of the text and details) may point out direction of movement through the diagram. 

Quote: 
For the spiral, I think a good case can be made that it would have been seen as a scroll being rolled up, as in the text of Revelation. They were familiar with this concept, for example on banderoles (scrolls as speech bubbles). We included some examples in the post.

Yes. It is really a good example. I only don't understand, why only sixth seal is here. Maybe, you will reveal the rest in your further posts. For now, I don't see the same sequence of events of the Revelation in the Rosettes diagram.

(15-02-2022, 01:45 PM)Scarecrow Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.As a Franciscan symbol, the TAU, resembling the Cross, is a sign of conversion. Because of his affection and devotion to the cross of Christ, St. Francis used this sign as his personal signature.

Yes, this is a good example of the sign's popularity. And as you say it is still to this day an important symbol for Franciscans. A recent You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. about the modern faith states that "many Franciscans wear such a cross on a piece of leather and Franciscan pilgrimage programs often begin by giving each participant such a cross". It explains that the TAU reminds Franciscans of St. Francis' saying: "Let us begin again". 

Also, after St. Francis' death in 1226, St. Bonaventure's writings popularized the idea that St. Francis was associated with the "angel of the sixth seal" of Revelation.

(15-02-2022, 11:26 PM)Searcher Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I only don't understand, why only sixth seal is here. Maybe, you will reveal the rest in your further posts. For now, I don't see the same sequence of events of the Revelation in the Rosettes diagram.

We don't intend to make the argument that all events of Revelation are necessarily present in the Rosettes diagram. Although we think that references to the sixth seal in the top right rosette are only a piece of a larger puzzle, that larger puzzle may reference certain aspects of Revelation without including its entire sequence of events.

Following R Sale's comment about the Sacred Host of Dijon in another thread, I ended up with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. by the Morgan library. At ca. 1:12 they show a priest holding a host in front of a monstrance, which holds another host. 

[attachment=6226]

This is the first time I noticed that hosts can be tripartite. (There is a lot of damage to the miniature and both hosts are damaged, but it looks like they are marked with a TAU cross). The priest appears to hold a "regular" T-O while in the monstrance it is upside down.