The Voynich Ninja

For the headband, what about a heraldic 'Torse' ( though it is a bit unlikely ).
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The scattered origins of the examples depicting headbands seems to indicate their relative absence in favor of hats, hoods, helmets, crowns, or just plain hair in preference to some type of headband. And indeed, there are a number of different types of headbands.

The pair of VMs celestial heads are even more distinctive because they appear to have headbands of a particular type - a modest band of fabric called a fillet. The problem with headbands depicted in historical images is that they may be either the wrong kind of headband, or it is simply unclear what type of headband was intended. In a little image, it is just a small detail.

I don't think that works for the VMs. The inclusion of the fillet style headbands is more than an incidental detail. The depictions are relatively obvious and pushing for unprecedented. There may be various celestial faces and a variety of headbands, but the VMs combination opens a new perspective. How did this representation come to be something the VMs artist would draw? It must have had some significance.

Here is a different pairing of headbands. One is blue. In the VMs pairing, one is blue.

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Interesting source - "from the Upper Rhine(?) in the second quarter of the 15th century." Yet another independent item that is coincident with the VMs parchment C-14 dating.

The illustration itself is said to depict the clothing of the Samaritans. The implications are momentous. The headbands identify the two VMs celestial faces as a pair of solar Samaritans.

I'd say more generally that the headband is used as orientalizing garb in that MS. If this is a more general tendency, then I guess a case could be made that the sun wears eastern headgear (that's where it comes from, after all). I'm not sure at all about any of this though.

Some snips from de sphaera mundi, examples from 1491-1500
An earlier (much more fancy) copy thought to be owned by the sforza family from around 1450-60 just has the sun with a face. 

Images in diagrams are mapping an eclipse 

Here's an early German example with the sun and moon fully personified. First half of the 9th C.

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The distinctive element of the VMs example is still the headband.

Good example. This is what I mean with the lingering Greco-Roman influence.

I wonder if the c.1500 example harkens back to those kinds of images.

It's an interesting combination of early dating and the 'fullness' of the sun and moon personifications. There are Sol and Luna depicted like they could almost be mistaken for Apollo and Diana. It's just a choice of semantics.

There's another factor involved in that the image is an illustration of the Crucifixion. Having 'secondary deities' tends toward problematic. Perhaps there was a trend, leading up to c. 1400, where celestial personifications became progressively more simplified and restricted to just generic faces. However, there are also various early representations of the Crucifixion where the sun and moon are not present, as well as a few examples where they are present, but not personified. So, there are multiple aspects to consider, but they don't all apply to the VMs. The VMs has celestial faces.

The particular aspect of the two VMs illustrations not seen in the various religious depictions of all the solar faces is the inclusion of a headband. Here is a solar depiction of Apollo with a headband - 11th Cent. from Bern. 

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The Bern charioteer sounds interesting. I think it could again be an image derived from classical models, where headbands / diadems were possibly given to winners in chariot races (I am going from memory and I may be wrong).


These sun and moon are from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., England 12th Century (another relatively early exampe):

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The same page includes a bizarre image illustrating a passage from the Psalms, “the wicked, who are mere dust that a wind blows from the face of the earth” (non sic impii, non sic; sed tamquam pulvis quem proicit ventus a facie terrae).

[attachment=10161]

England is a bit outside the box, but it is another example of earlier sources having a fuller personification of the sun and moon. A representation of a person with a head, arms and shoulders, not just a face as in the examples more contemporary to VMs C-14. The early examples are Biblical, frequently representations of the Crucifixion. But in the Lauber Bibles, the sun and moon show up as just faces at Creation and are absent at the Crucifixion.

Celestial faces also occur in astronomical / astrological illustrations and rarely just there in the sky. The VMs faces are part of the cosmic section, plus the later sun and moon. [f85r2-f86v6] VMs celestial faces are seen as solar, lunar or other interpretations rather than being used in a standard religious representation.

The distinctive factor for the two VMs illustrations is still the representation of the headbands. First because there are so few examples of headbands in general artistic representations (re: C-14), and then because the combination of headbands and celestial faces adds another level of complications.

The Bernese Apollo demonstrates the same combination found in the VMs, a solar "head" wearing a headband, preferably a fillet. It seems an unlikely source of influence on the VMs artist. I agree that the representation of headbands seems to have a classical connection, but I wonder how the representations were transmitted when there are so few examples of the combination.

The St. Omer version of the Aratea. Apollo has a headband here as well. f. 032v

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