The Voynich Ninja

VMs You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is the mystery of the half-arcaded pool. As part of the balneological section, the centrally placed illustration shows another group of women in a green pool. That's something which this section of the VMs depicts, the different groupings of nude female figures in green or blue pools.

The question here concerns the pattern that is found on the left-hand portion of the tub wall on f78v. A series of several rounded arches that the so-called "ignorant" artist has absent-mindedly painted blue. There is no other example of a patterned tub in this section. To discover that these arches might be interpreted as blue windows is slightly amusing. The pattern is "arcaded", and the tub is only half patterned, only on the secondary portion, you might say. That is the intentional creation of ambiguity - where this claim is not unique to this example but occurs in other VMs illustrations.

Not only is this patterned tub a unique occurrence, the number of women in this tub is nine and there is no other tub in the VMs balneological section with nine occupants. The number nine may prompt the speculation that these women might represent the classical Muses in their mythic pool.

Here is another example, like the cosmic comparison, where history provides quite an interesting example. Harley 4431

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Nine Muses in an arcaded fountain in an illustration with good historical provenance: Paris, 1410-1414. There are a few other versions of the Muses, but not in an arcaded pool.

Of course, the provenance of BNF Fr. 565 is Paris c. 1410. So, the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. illustration is another independent element with a chronological match to the other VMs indicators of 15th Century information.

Here is a A full text edition for Harley 4431:

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(12-11-2025, 08:46 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.A series of several rounded arches that the so-called "ignorant" artist has absent-mindedly painted blue. ...  To discover that these arches might be interpreted as blue windows is slightly amusing.

I think we can assume as certain that the text and the outlines of the drawings were creatd at the same time, by the same Scribe, with the same pen and ink.  But there are reasons to believe that color paints were applied much later -- decades or centuries -- when the Author and original Scribe were no longer around.  AFAIK there is one bit of solid evidence for this claim, and no evidence for the paints being contemporary with the outlines, or directed by the original Author.

Thus, when interpreting the images, one must ignore the colored paints.  Which is not easy, I know...

Those openings look totally like they were meant to give access to a compartment under the pool where a fire would be lit to warm up the water. 

Quote:the tub is only half patterned, only on the secondary portion, you might say

Maybe they should have been present all arount this and other pools, but the Scribe got tired after those 7 and assumed that the readers would imagine the rest.  Or maybe the fire was limited to that part of the pool only, and the rest of the pool and other pools just received hot water from that section.

Quote:the number of women in this tub is nine

Page You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is notorious for being one half of what should have been a two-page centerfold image; the other half being f81r.  It seems to be consensus that bifolio f78-f81 was meant to be at the center of its quire, but the bifolios were scrambled before the folios were numbered and the bifolios (re?)bound in their present order.

In the combined f78v-f81r illustration, water flows out from the bottom of the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. pool and feeds the two pools on f81r. The outlets of these pools are not shown, so presumably their overflow went to the waste water drainage.

But then maybe we should consider all the nymphs in those three pools as a set. There are seven in the top pool of f81r, and six in the bottom pool.  So maybe the number that needs explanation is 9+7+6 = 22, not just 9.

However, the nymphs in this two-page illustration, unlike those in other Bio pages, do not seem to have names.  So maybe their number is not significant; maybe the Scribe just kept drawing nymphs until each pool was full...

Quote:Here is another example, like the cosmic comparison, where history provides quite an interesting example. Harley 4431 ...
Nine Muses in an arcaded fountain in an illustration with good historical provenance: Paris, 1410-1414. There are a few other versions of the Muses, but not in an arcaded pool.

Indeed, it seems quite likely that the VMS Scribe was inspired by contemporary illustrations like that one.

Is it certain that that drawing depicts the nine Muses?  Or is that just an interpretation by some paleographer?

All the best, --stolfi

Painting is not relevant to the arcaded structure. Perhaps the blue paint is only there to indicate the shadows on the incised parts of the arched structure. And if the pattern went across the front as well, wouldn't that be an even stronger connection with Harley 4431 than when it was left as being halfway ambiguous. That <clearly indicative completion> is not what the VMs artist did. The ambiguity is intentional, even though the two-factor combination of 'nine women' and 'arcaded patterns' is so specific in the extant examples. [Similar to 'solar faces' and 'fillet headbands', etc.]

While I'm sure there is a logical sequence of events involved in VMs "construction", I am not convinced that there is any reliable way to measure the length of time that passed between those events. Did the person with the paint know what to do? Most of the leaves are green and there is a lot of blue and white alternation. Pattern and color are coordinated in the red hats and blue stripes in VMs White Aries. Two elements combine to designate specific historical information. It's the Genoese gambit.

(12-11-2025, 11:49 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I am not convinced that there is any reliable way to measure the length of time that passed between those events.

The "only bit of evidence" I mentioned was on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. [IIRC].  Microscopic examination, including by Rene, shows that the green pigment lies on top of the ink of the folio number.  That is evidence (if not proof) that the painting occurred after the folios were numbered.  And those numbers must be rather late, both because of their style and because the folios were nested and numbered in the wrong order.

All the best, --stolfi

There are two examples of the arcaded pattern found on tubs in the VMs Zodiac sequence. One is in Dark Aries outer ring at 8 o'clock. The other is in Pale Taurus inner ring at 12 o'clock. Another example of pairing in the VMs Zodiac.