The Voynich Ninja

Nice collection of images, Marco, this allows for a thorough comparison. I don't know what the "umbrella" is, but based on your observations, I'd say that it is independent from this tradition. Two more differences I noticed:

- Voynich is the only one that has alternating colors for the pieces that radiate out from the centre. Two of the other examples do use shading, but all "pieces of the pie" look the same. In the VM you get either a white piece or a yellowish one (painted in the "original" color even).
- The older examples show a clear dome in side view. The other examples give a top view. Voynich, however, gives a side view with little to no dome effect. Kind of like a squashed umbrella.

That is what I have called in the previous post, "  the tower for tensioning of canopy" can actually be braided network.

Then the "bumps" under the umbrella can be bags, that is filters. Bags are filled plants.

MarcoP,

First of all, you really are a master of images. Particularly interesting are the medieval dome interiors. They all have that perfectly symmetrical, spider web structure. And the Greek image is a nice one as well. But what is this discussion about? No one questions the existence of canopies. It's a question of whether the three types of things that are designated by the term 'canopy' are (or are not) interchangeable. And as I see it, despite certain similarities, they are clearly not the same thing. But there is a linguistic history of conflation. Did the ancient Greeks, or the medieval Italians for that matter, also use the same term for all three types of things?

As to the Vms image in this latest comparison, I see that as a representation of some sort of object, something that might be held in the hands rather than any sort of covering, dome or canopy. But I really have no idea what that VMs object is. Half of a pine cone???

And , if I may say, that is a compelling reason for dealing with knowns, instead of unknowns. Heraldry defines the nebuly line. And that pattern is used in various parts of the VMs. It's not too difficult to draw a plain nebuly line. Many artists have incorporated elaborate nebuly lines in their cloud bands. The VMs artist and Winand von Steeg are the only two known sources to provide examples of this jagged nebuly line and they both use a very similar technique. If there is a place where further comparison would be of interest, this is it, though I do realize that relevant data is quite difficult to find.

Apparently, Voynich illustrations represent something similar to classical "canopies", but they don't follow the same visual tradition.

Putting together Koen's observations (italics) and mine, these are the main differences when comparing You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. with classical canopies:

• Voynich is the only one that has alternating colors for the pieces that radiate out from the centre. 
  
• The older examples show a clear dome in side view. The other examples give a top view. Voynich, however, gives a side view with little to no dome effect. Kind of like a squashed umbrella.
  
• The central pole that appears in the Voynich ms is absent in all other cases;
  
• The curves on the border are convex in the VMS, while they are concave in all other cases.
  

I think You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (Bern Cod. 246, 900 ca) overcomes three of the four problems (the alternating colors are still missing). 
I found the image here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.



In the Bern manuscript:

• There is a central pole (shaped like a cross).
  
• The curves on the border are clearly convex (even if much less so than in the VMS).
  
• The "squashed umbrella" shape is there (but steeper in the Bern ms).
  

We are back to the proposals made in the first posts: tents and pavilions can also provide examples with alternating colors. I think that also better matches for the other details could be found (pole shape, convex borders, steepness of the "cone").
In my opinion, Wladimir's observation is a nice addition to the subject: there appear to be tents also in the Rosettes page. On this specific idea, there is a very interesting blog post by Ellie about You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..

If we assume it's a tent top, the alternating colours do indeed become a non-issue. 

In that case though, the next question would be: what to do with the bulbs underneath? I see three broad options:

1) This depicts a real physical object, i.e. a kind of tent top with a roundish bunch of bulbs or scales underneath.
2) It's partially symbolical. For example, the objects are real but they don't really appear in such a composition.
3) It's a purely symbolical representation.

It's possible to come up with several plausible interpretations for the tent top in all scenarios, but I honestly have no idea what to do with the scales. Personally I'd lean towards a symbolical interpretation as clouds, since they do appear to be the source of the water. But that would almost certainly impose a symbolical interpretation upon the canopy as well...

@Marco you know i investigated with this being a pinecone and not a canopy (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) but let's assume it is.

Look at the knob on top of the pinecorn in the vms, that is not a very natural thing on canopy. 
What could this oddly shaped knob be on a canopy?


You can see this knob also on the other vms pages in the "bathing" section in the center of the pinecorns.

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is she also holding that knob? 
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and
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Or could that be the top piece-knob of her walking stick / magic wand?
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(29-04-2016, 10:06 PM)Davidsch Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.@Marco you know i investigated with this being a pinecone and not a canopy (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) but let's assume it is.

Look at the knob on top of the pinecorn in the vms, that is not a very natural thing on canopy. 
What could this oddly shaped knob be on a canopy?

I agree. As we discussed above, the absence of a pole suggests that these are not classical canopies, but tents or pavilions. On the top of tent poles all kinds of knobs appeared. Voynich knobs do not seem odd to me, when compared with other examples.

Quote:You can see this knob also on the other vms pages in the "bathing" section in the center of the pinecorns.

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I agree, but they don't seem pine-cones to me.

Quote:is she also holding that knob? 
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If you are referring to the second "nymph" from the left, on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. this object was interpreted as a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. I think that interpretation is the best one I have seen so far.

Quote:and
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She seems to me to be holding a spherical object. It could be a number of things.

Quote:Or could that be the top piece-knob of her walking stick / magic wand?
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I have no idea. I am not sure that the spindle, "apple" and walking stick are related with our "umbrellas". Maybe they could be better discussed in specific threads?

Hey, I never noticed the spindle thing, that looks plausible indeed.

Has it been noted that the line running under the top images starts at the rightmost lady's foot? Also, it's hard to see, but this lady appears to be holding a spindle of her own behind her back.
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The thread then runs to the left, touching all the ladies apart from the one in the middle, ending in the one on the left. It's kind of lie a thread of life, which would connect well to the mythology of spinning and weaving in various cultures and times.

At first sight this line seems like a meaningless design element, a border to separate the image from the text, but the VM never does that. It's an actual thread connecting all the ladies.

Edit- I know which story it is, Ovid strikes again

Since MARCO supported my hypothesis, I will continue to explain their views. In my opinion all the unified sheet of rosettes is a "defense plan" of alpine castle. The top middle rosette and especially the lower middle rosette (clearly visible knots of rope), They represent a large canopies to collect water, because during a long siege at the castle alpine there are no other restocking sources of water.
 
 PS. Please note that  the "x" symbol  on rosettes sheet meets more times than in other sheets. I think that this character has more relevant to construction (defense) and is indirectly related to plants (recipes).

A picture of the ceiling of one of the underground rooms in the baths at Pozzuoli, from Adam McLean's You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. of the "balneo" pages.