The Voynich Ninja

As you know, the VMs contains some strange stuff. Generally speaking, it's hard to quantify just how weird things can be, but in a few examples some determination can be made. The VMs cosmos is an example of the pairing of unrelated elements in an intentional, visual oxymoron. White Aries is also an example where built in duality is used to disguise historical references. Trickery is intentional, but an interesting (potentially valid) path of investigation can be based on the laws of Deuteronomy which require two or more witnesses - in other words - pairing. [Deut. 17:6 & 19:15 (a pairing)] Lots of pairing in the VMs Zodiac.

Red hats and a pairing of blue-striped insignia are essential for the Fieschi identification. Both of these elements are found on a 'nymph' in the upper left of the white Aries inner ring. While many of the hats were drawn with a raised crown atypical of the galero, the 'nymph' in question is ambiguous because the crown in this case is obscured by the brim. Ambiguity is a form of intentional trickery. Gender is also more in question on White Aries as most nymphs are painted in a way the indicates clothing.

Historically, in 1250 Sinibaldo Fieschi, as Pope Innocent IV, made his nephew, Ottobuono Fieschi, a cardinal. That seems to be a good analogy for the VMs illustration. Putting a papal tiara on the pope would be a dead give-away. Ambiguity and trickery have no use for unnecessary, superfluous revelations.

That being said, here are a number of factors relevant to the proposed identification. Those based on position are objective facts and alternative constructions do not present the correct relationships.
1) With the cardinal in the inner ring and the pope in the outer ring, this is the correct placement for hierarchical positioning in the celestial spheres.
2) Both figures are located in the more favored heraldic upper right quadrant.
3) The choice of *white* Aries as the medallion figure is the only zodiac animal suitable for celestial sacrifice. Pope and cardinal are in the celestial spheres. All celestial elements are together.
4) In the preceding Pisces and Dark Aries illustrations, corresponding in both quadrant and sphere to the blue-striped tubs of White Aries, are tubs with scale-like patterns. This is an obscure heraldic fur known as papelonny. The structural correspondence, and the French word "pape" for pope make this look like an extended version of heraldic canting.
5) Does the number of stripes matter? No, the heraldic counting of parts comes much later.
6) What about the markings on the unpainted stripes? Has anyone found painting and hatching used in combination? The use of an invalid technique makes for an invalid objection. It's another trick.
7) The prolific painting of the White Aries zodiac page serves to disguise the two tubs involved and to emphasize the 'whiteness' of White Aries.

(11-09-2025, 07:18 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The choice of *white* Aries as the medallion figure is the only zodiac animal suitable for celestial sacrifice.

Again, the colors are almost certainly apocriphal.  In the VMS as originally scribed, all illustrations were "white" (unpainted).  

The light yellow transparent paint may have been applied at an earlier stage than the more opaque (tempera) paints.  But there is evidence that it was not applied by the original Scribe either.  On page f72r2 (Gemini), for example, the Scribe apparently forgot to draw the stars and left arms of two nymphs: the inner one at 02:30 and the outer one at 04;30.  The Yellow Painter apparently noticed the first omission, and provided a crude star which is only painted in that light yellow, with no outline.  If he was the same person as the original Scribe, and thought that the omission of the star was a mistake, why didn't he draw the outline too?

This same situation occurs again on page You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (the Scorpiosaur), with the inner nymph at 05:30.

Quote:blue-striped insignia

However, the blazon of the Geonese Popes had the stripes oriented NW-SE while the tub of the 10:00 outer nymph on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. has stripes oriented the other way, NE-SW.  Isn't this detail important in heraldry?

Quote:blue-striped insignia

But the stripes on the inner 10:30 nymph are vertical, with horizontal hatching.  (And that cardinal definitely has breasts...)

Quote:This is an obscure heraldic fur known as papelonny [connectng to] the French word "pape" for pope

Sorry, but this is quite a bit of a stretch. It is as convincing as the tubs being a veiled reference to the city of Tübingen.

Quote:What about the markings on the unpainted stripes? Has anyone found painting and hatching used in combination?

Again, the colors are apocryphal.  If the decoration was original, it was originally diagonal stripes, alternately hatched and blank.

But didn't you say that the use of hatching to indicate colors was developed only centuries later?  (I suppose that there was no need for that code before heraldic manuals became printed books, since in a manuscript it would be easier to just paint the blazons with proper colors.)

To restate: now that you suggested it, I think it is quite plausible that the decoration on each tub was meant to be a blazon.  But I find much more likely that they were just fantasy designs, than reference to specific actual blazons.  Like the hundreds of uniforms of imaginary soccer teams that my kids took to drawing after they started playing and following soccer.

All the best, --jorge

Though I have alluded to it several times, let me say that <IMHO> the VMs artist is a tricky (person) who is not beyond using visual deception, and your reply only confirms his/her skill.

The patterns of the blue-striped tubs are oriented exactly as you've said *IF* you look at them from a 'radial' perspective. That is, you turn the orientation so that the nymph is upright. It's a natural thing to do. But it is not the only possibility.

Take another look at the White Aries page and mentally erase everything except the patterns on the blue-striped tubs. What do you see? A pair of insignia that are correctly oriented in the same diagonal as the armorial insignia of the historical counts of Lavagna. Bendy, argent et azure.  This interpretation may be less apparent, but it leads to some serious historical connections when combined with the red galero. Yes, the depiction is rough, but it's not the quality of the depiction that counts - it's the interpretation. The structural confirmations are all built into the ink-drawn images, and the color is just the icing on the cake.

The fact that there are two competing sets of interpretations is duality - or deception, or trickery or whatever you want to call it. It's not an accident. The artist has created a façade and behind it there is something else - an alternate interpretation, a historical connection for those who know the relevant historical tradition.

Once the radial cloaking device has been disengaged, it becomes clear that there is an alternative interpretation built into the White Aries illustration. There are two nymphs' tubs with blue stripes, best oriented in the heraldic bend direction and the nymph in the inner circle has a reddish hat. The key to this interpretation is 'recognition'. Identification depends on recognition to make the historical connections. Built-in factors of confirmation include examples where structure is objective and correct, while potential contradictions are flawed and invalid - on purpose, and all as part of a complex visual construction.

While it may be tempting to call the built-in duality of VMs White Aries an optical illusion, it really is just a simple and very effective example of visual misdirection. Everybody falls for it. And if the mind is a blank slate, the alternative is just an unavoidable artistic artifact without meaning or consequence. But that is not the case. There is a clear path of interpretation to verifiable, historical grounding. There are additional contributory factors in Post #31.

Furthermore, there is a connection and association to a pair of patterned markers, in the circular text bands of VMs White Aries. The simplicity of visual appearance disguises a level of structural complexity that has not been fully defined. The significance of the VMs artist's use of heraldic interpretations has not been recognized.