The Voynich Ninja

Konrad Kyeser's Bellifortis is a compendium on war. It features many images of war machines, trebuchets, catapults, batterming rams, swords, javelins, ... 

But it also features water supply systems, springs, tubes and naked women.

The Bellifortis was copied many times in many countries, across the 14th and 15th centuries. Some illustrations were made in Diebold Lauber's classic Hagenau workshop. Here are a few examples.

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There are also water pumps.

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Here are springs.

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Then there are some weird water system schematics.

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And naked women together in a pool.

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In one of the manuscripts we see the mysterious SATOR square, a magical device of the Templars, and also some text that reminds one of the incantation-like marginalia on the VMS folio f.116v.

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We also have the classic "Lauber lobster", albeit its legs are not on its tail like in the VMS. However, it does have 4 pairs of them.

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Finally, one copy has handwriting that reminds one of the VMS "aiin" token.

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And some classical Wolkenbands, that appear around some of the VMS diagrams.

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Here are the manuscripts, browsable in their entirety:

Besançon, Ms. 1360:

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Ms. germ. qu. 15:

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BSB Clm 30150:

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FB 32009:

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Colmar 0459:

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MS B.26:
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There's definitely something in the Bellifortis/Taccola tradition that's influencing. Whether directly or indirectly I'm not sure.. the bad copy idea somehow requires an additional layer of abstraction...

Thank you for this overview of the various manuscripts!

There's something in Besancon specifically that I'm missing in Taccola, which is a decorative, scalloped trim on metal edges. Q13 is quite fond of this.

You have developed a good eye for Lauberlobsters 

Just for reference, perhaps the most complete list of Bellifortis manuscripts:

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(13-02-2026, 02:59 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Just for reference, perhaps the most complete list of Bellifortis manuscripts:

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Thank you. Now my weekend is gone

(13-02-2026, 02:59 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Just for reference, perhaps the most complete list of Bellifortis manuscripts:

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 look at page 314 and the stars on the flag, and then look at the stars on f67v2 - there's a mix of 6 and 7 pointed stars drawn in exactly the same poor way...

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(13-02-2026, 02:59 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Just for reference, perhaps the most complete list of Bellifortis manuscripts:

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One of the links off here is an academic study on Bellifortis and on page 94 of the pdf, there's a rather nice diagram showing links between all of them going back to 1400. Should help narrow down the manuscripts to look at.

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This is another really interesting one..not because it matches Voynich, but because to me at least it provides an analogue for what Voynich could be: A personal (small group) collection, and I do wonder whether there's a German/Jewish angle here. Highly educated, multi lingual people with a penchant for making multi source manuscripts for the community and personal use.

"The manuscript was written in four languages: Hebrew, Yiddish, German and Latin, by an erudite Jew in the last quarter of the 15th century in South Germany. His sentences, mostly a mixture of Yiddish and Hebrew, are often written in a negligent hand and closely fill many margins, rendering the text illegible. This suggests that the treatises were copied for his own interest and for no one else. The drawings in the main follow those of the Bellifortis by Conrad Keyser (1402-5) and the Firework Book by an anonymous author of 1420. The immediate exemplar has not been identified. It would be worthwhile studying the language and collating the texts.
"

(13-02-2026, 12:08 PM)DG97EEB Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. 

 look at page 314 and the stars on the flag, and then look at the stars on f67v2 - there's a mix of 6 and 7 pointed stars drawn in exactly the same poor way...

That's a great find

These nude kids playing pretend knights are from the 1423 Bellifortis You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
There's a similar kid in the work Taccola dedicated to the emperor. A sign that he had a Bellifortis as a source, or convergent evolution?

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