The Voynich Ninja

Let's introduce terms "recto" and "verso" for bifolios. The "recto" would be what faces down in the above figure (taken from Rene's website), and "verso" would be what faces up.

I would say that the versos of the balneo bifolios consistently demonstrate the same motif within a bifolio. However, this is not so consistent with rectos. For example, I'm not sure that the folios f84v-f75r are linked together - although they share a common motif of the progression of nymphs, 84v is all about blue and 75r is all about green.

Most notably, 83v and 76r do not make a pair at all. I would be more comfortable if 76r made the first or the last page of the quire - serving as an "introduction" or as a "conclusion".

Quote:However not for the three pharma bifolios, judging from the containers.

Neither for the Zodiac, otherwise Scorpio and Sagittarius would not have been placed on both sides of f73.

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Continuing the discussion of the first vords uniqueness as conducted in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., if we review the picture on a bifolio-side (recto or verso) basis, then only one pair out of ten, namely 78v-81r, would exhibit uniqueness of the first vord of a bifolio side with non-uniqueness of the first vord of the second folio of a bifolio side. In other words, the first vord of 78v is unique, while the first word of 81r is not unique. For other bifolios, either both of the vords under consideration are unique (4 cases) or both non-unique (2 cases), or the first vord is non-unique while the second is unique (3 cases).

Given that the bifolio-basis is mostly supported by the imagery analysis (as shown by David), this circumstance suggests that balneo (bi)folios are not dedicated to some specific subject each (that subject having been designated by the first vord of a bifolio side).

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(31-03-2016, 11:52 AM)Sam G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Sure.  To be clear, I think that the the bifolios were intended to form a bound book, I just don't think they were intended to be nested within one another.

Yes, that could certainly work for these three bifolios.

If f 88v and the f 89r foldout were actually one large loose page (they seem attached on top), that means that f 88r and the f 89v foldout were actually supposed to be viewed as one whole "set", while now you have to turn a page twice to view them both. Seeing these pages in their original "sheets of vellum" form, even if it's just a hypothetical option, could open a whole new way of viewing these plants.

I am looking at these folios again and I must say that the 76-83 foldout is a problem for me.
I fail to see any internal coherency within this bifolio at all, whereas 83r ties in quite nicely with 82v (the "rainbow"-like tubes theme) which precedes it, both in the current foliation order and in the reordering proposed in the Reordering task subforum.

(31-03-2016, 03:43 PM)VViews Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I am looking at these folios again and I must say that the 76-83 foldout is a problem for me.
I fail to see any internal coherency within this bifolio at all, whereas 83r ties in quite nicely with 82v (the "rainbow"-like tubes theme) which precedes it, both in the current foliation order and in the reordering proposed in the Reordering task subforum.

This one?
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I see on both sides:
* three paragraphs, each illustrated by a single "nymph", in the top half;
* a longer text illustrated by a couple of "nymphs" in the bottom half;

It seems to me to be symmetrically arranged.

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MarcoP,

Yes, that is the one I mean.
Now that you point them out I do see some similarity in structure of the text & side nymphs (but even then we have to ignore the guy in the small tub in the middle of the paragraph), however the illustrations on 83r are much more similar to the ones on 82v: "rainbow" tubes, and the trefoil-like lower points of those cone shaped things some nymphs stand in near the binding on both, as well as the squiggly-tube ended small tubs that are featured on either side (this is all hard to accurately describe with words, I hope that was clear-ish).

And when we move on to the "recto" of this bifolio, the structural elements you describe, which give some similarity to 76v and 83r, are totally absent in 76r (obviously) but also in 83v, which has a completely different structure.

Again, although I understand the elements that lead david to his proposition  this particular bifolio still poses the most obvious problems for me, which is what I've tried to express here.

The more I look at these bifolios, the more I am convinced that the blue and Green wáter is not arbitrary, but instead a specific choice by the illustrator to illustrate a point.

I have already mentioned my theory that the descending pipes on 79-80 (esp f79v) represent a progression of some sort (I have used the example of the nymphs being assorted from the most holy at the top to the most base at the bottom, caverting with the beasts of the fields). In that illustration we also see how the wáter changes from blue at the top to Green at the bottom.

This is repeated over the bifolio.

We see it again on 78r, at the top of the page (remember the wáter goes to the other three pages here), where it is initially blue but changes to Green when it hits the water of the first pool.

Again on 77-82, some pools are Green and others blue. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.especially the right hand matriarcal figure who is standing in a personal bath of blue wáter, dipping her hand into a blue pot, but everyone else is in Green.

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