The Voynich Ninja

Argent et azure, how long has it been? Azure is blue and argent is silver, which is also white, which is nothing. No pigment application is needed to represent an argent tincture.

In Koen's recent presentation "Too blue?" there is clear evidence of the extraordinary prevalence of blue paint in the VMs. Furthermore, there is the most interesting excessive presence of "white". Blue and white, what can it mean? Blue and white on the alternating petals of the flowers, what can it mean? Alternating blue and [tricky] camo stripes on the tubs of White Aries, what can it mean? Pick your interpretation. How about heraldry? Armorial and ecclesiastical heraldry combined with the history of the Fieschi popes. Does the investigator know the armorial blazon of the pope who initiated the tradition of the cardinal's red galero?

Why is the VMs so blue? In part perhaps, it is an effort to create a sort of sensory 'overload' for the presence of items that have been painted blue. You see so many that you get tired of looking at them. If the heraldic interpretation of blue stripes is to be valid, then the stripes *must* be blue. However, if the selected usage of blue paint is (near) unique, then identification will be more obvious. So, blue paint is found in numerous places.

VMs White Aries is by far the most carefully painted page in the Zodiac sequence, with plenty of color on the nymphs and their tubs. Plenty of blue to distract from the blue stripes. And all this thorough application of color also tends to emphasize the "whiteness" of White Aries.

In addition, there is the intentional association of the Fieschi popes specifically with the "White Aries" medallion, in that the popes and the white sacrificial animal were perceived to have celestial connections. This is one of several structural confirmations built into this illustration.

Plenty of examples of argent and azure:

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Absolutely.

Koen's presentation showed the inordinate use of blue paint in the botanical pages and also discovered the high prevalence of 'white' flowers.

Blue and 'white' are excessively represented. It's a simple fact. And the equivalent heraldic terminology, azure for blue, and argent for silver, (often represented as white [unpainted]) would have been widely known in the European Middle Ages (with linguistic variations).

Color combinations (tinctures) are only part of the representation of heraldic shields. The other part is pattern, as the multiple examples clearly show. What patterns does the VMs present? Koen found flowers with alternating blue and white petals. Alternating bands of tincture make several common heraldic patterns, and these patterns are variously designated according to their orientation.

Looking at VMs White Aries, there are two tubs painted with blue stripes. What is their orientation? Should they be interpreted from a radial perspective? What happens if the radial perspective is removed of ignored? The orientation changes. This creates a dualistic representation. There are two ways to interpret the orientation of the stripes built into the illustration. 

On the left side of the inner circle of nymphs on White Aries, there is a nymph in a blue-striped tub with a large reddish hat. For those sufficiently familiar with church history, blue stripes and a red galero might be suggestive of the historical origins of the tradition of the cardinal's hat.

Of the many argent et azure patterns provided, only 'Bendy, argent et azure', the Fieschi armorial insignia, is associated with this ecclesiastical tradition, both as pope and as cardinal, historically confirmed and also supported by structural factors in the illustration.

Fieschi does not seem to be mentioned also on this page:

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It suggests to me that there are many uses of this.

First of all, thanks for your interest and participation in this discussion.

Unfortunately, we have run into a point of confusion, and you have taken the wrong alternative. "Bendlets" and "Bendy" are not the same. The pattern of bendlets in your latest examples could be simply described as three diagonal blue stripes on a white background. Furthermore, these patterns consist of an odd number of stripes, consequently starting with one tincture (white) on the one side and ending with the same tincture on the other side. Bendy is not like that. Bendy consists of two paired stripes, argent and azure. The insignia pattern consists of an even number of stripes and consequently starts with one tincture and ends with the other one.

The description (blazon) of bendy (barry and paly) patterns contains a 'counting of parts'. Commonly this is six parts, or three sets of paired bands. However, four-, eight-, ten-, and twelve-part examples do exist.

How does this apply to the VMs White Aries illustration with its blue stripes? It doesn't. The nymphs are reputedly bathing in tubs, so the pattern ostensibly goes all the way around and has no beginning or end. Furthermore, the counting of parts was only instituted several centuries after the VMs C-14 dates, meaning it is irrelevant to start with.

Additional confusion occurs when a visual representation is drawn. Even Wikipedia has gone back and forth on this over the years. One general rule of heraldry is that the primary tincture should occupy the heraldic upper right portion of the insignia. This primary tincture is the one listed first in the blazon. Thus 'argent et azure' has the opposite tincture placement as 'azure et argent'.

A particular requirement of the bendy pattern is that the first stripe is the primary tincture. The first stripe can be determined by turning the diagonal pattern 45 degrees to vertical and finding the first stripe on the heraldic dexter side. 

The attempted combination of these two rules has caused a lot of confusion and incorrect representations.

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The 'Bendy, argent et azure of six parts' in the example above obeys the second rule, but not the first. This is because of a fundamental flaw in the way the pattern is constructed. The problem is that the top line is divided into three sections. Attempts to correct this will often divide the top line by three and a half, but this is awkward. The better solution, found in the tomb of Ottobouno Fieschi, who became Pope Adrian V., is to divide the top line by four.

Even with a definition of this clarity, the argument can still be made for the existence of multiple interpretations - not that many, but they do exist. And it can clearly be seen that the VMs does not match this standard of clarity. The VMs is a mess.

It doesn't matter. We have the blue stripes. Doesn't matter how many. We have the dualistic representation of their orientation. The more compelling radial interpretation is misleading. The other interpretation of how the blue stripes are oriented is the same diagonal pattern as the Fieschi insignia for both VMs tubs. That is how the tub patterns might be interpreted according to armorial heraldry, and - granted - it is not conclusive.

But don't stop with armorial heraldry, because that's not even the half of it. We have the nymph on the left side of the inner circle of White Aries in a blue-striped tub and wearing a reddish hat with a wide brim.

History of the Catholic church tells us that the ecclesiastical heraldic tradition of the cardinal's red galero was initiated by Pope Innocent IV. History tells us that Pope Innocent IV was Sinibaldo Fieschi. History tells us that in 1251, Sinibaldo Fieschi made is nephew, Ottobuono Fieschi, a cardinal. This is the history behind the dualistic, disguised representation of VMs White Aries. In a Venn diagram, these two historical, heraldic elements would coincide only tangentially. 

The point is: while neither of these examples of armorial heraldry or ecclesiastical heraldry is historically specific on its own, when taken together they are indicative of a unique historical situation.

Based on this provisional interpretation, examine the structure of the White Aries illustration. Structure provides an objective, built-in confirmation of identification. With the cardinal in the inner ring and the pope in the outer ring, this is the proper hierarchical placement. The pope is in a higher celestial sphere. Several alternative placements exist.

With both characters in the heraldic, upper right quadrant, this is the most favored heraldic location, (Even though it makes disguise more difficult.) Various alternative possibilities exist.

There is only one structure that satisfies both criteria simultaneously. That is the one that is presented.

With popes and cardinals having presumed celestial connections, these character representations are combined with the White Aries medallion, which has the historical, religious connection that only white animals were suitable for celestial sacrifice. None of the other Zodiac medallions share this celestial relationship.

In the quadrant between nine and twelve o'clock, in the outer ring of VMs Pisces and the inner ring of VMs Dark Aries, there are examples of tubs with a scale-like pattern. While omitted from many heraldic references, this pattern is another heraldic tincture. Tinctures consist of metals, colors and furs. This obscure fur is papellony. The structure of these Zodiac illustrations is such that the positioning of these two patterns corresponds in quadrant and in sphere with the two blue-striped patterns on VMs White Aries which have been identified with the Fieschi popes. (Both Sinibaldo and later Ottobuono were popes.) The structural association between papelonny patterns and popes (Pope is pape in French.), once recognized, would seem to be a clever bit of heraldic canting. Without the proper heraldic terminology, this association is impossible.

While these interpretations do rely on information that has become obscure over time, there is no way (IMHO) that these identifications and their structural confirmations can be attributed to chance, accident, or overly imaginative investigation.

Now, one could hear a pin drop, as they say. 

My question, to anyone who cares to comment: What more does it take?

Like the old Clint Eastwood line about "a mere scrap of information." That is what we get from the VMs.

The scraps of information provided on VMs White Aries involve armorial and ecclesiastical heraldry.  Armorial insignias depend on color and pattern. On White Aries, the color is blue, and the pattern is diagonal stripes from the dexter side. The heraldry of ecclesiastical hats also depends on color and on style. The hat is reddish, and the brim is wide. At the time of the VMs, the red galero was the "cardinal's hat".

While it is clear that a blue-striped tub and a reddish hat have been combined on a single VMs nymph, what has been lacking is the actual connection to particular historical events, along with the recognition that the artist has intentionally used ambiguity to create a disguise, as exemplified by the structural duality regarding the orientation of the stripes, etc.

Armorial and ecclesiastical heraldry taken together with historical facts of church tradition provide for only one valid interpretation: the Fieschi popes. Then there are the four, objective, structural confirmations in the illustration as listed previously. How does that compare with the proposed botanical identifications? What else is needed?

Following identification, there is the matter of purpose.

Heraldic interpretation is the key to finding verified historical information in VMs White Aries. While blue stripes have to be blue, the orientation of the striped patterns changes between radial and non-radial perspectives. It is the more subtle, non-radial orientation, as a pair of dexter diagonals, that match the events of Sinibaldo Fieschi's papacy particularly in regard to the origin of this tradition and the use of the cardinal's red galero (nepotism).

In the era of VMs C-14 dates, and until the 17th century, popes who had heraldic insignia had them because they were armorial insignia. Only subsequently were all popes given their heraldic insignias. The Fieschi insignia, bendy, argent et azure, is armorial and authentic. There's nothing to confuse with it.

In White Aries, two independent elements from armorial and ecclesiastical heraldry were brought together to create historical identifications. More generally in the VMs cosmic, mermaid and other examples, diverse elements were brought together to create ambiguity, disguise and deception.

The interpretation of the nymphs on VMs White Aries depends on a sufficient familiarity with heraldry, history, and intentions of the VMs artist. Armorial heraldry was designed and used as a medieval form of communication and identification. The VMs artist makes use of heraldic elements from armorial and ecclesiastical sources to create a visual reference to historical persons and events relevant to the origins of a well-known religious tradition.

The VMs representation is clearly dualistic. And intent is shown by the disguised representation of the historical reality. Obfuscation has been used by the artist, but the historical interpretation is confirmed by several built-in, structural factors. So, this is where it is necessary to make certain characterizations about the intentions of the VMs artist. Such as: the trickery is intentional. Wherever some level of understanding has been gained, particularly in the VMs cosmos, where the historical examples of pictorial representations of Earth have been replaced by vords. This use of a code shift enables the total removal of all visual similarities. That's pretty tricky.

Likewise, heraldic canting can tend to be somewhat tricky in the interpretation and is dependent on language. Interpretation is up to the investigator. Investigation depends on whether particular elements like the nebuly line or the papellony fur or the Fieschi popes can be correctly named, identified, or recognized. That's because the VMs illustrations were intended for those who recognize and know these things already, not for those who need to learn or whose gaze passes unknowingly.

If there's nothing further?? The identification of the Fieschi popes on VMs White Aries is uncontested.
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