The Voynich Ninja

Yes, you can definitely find some scenes from the monastery's decoration in VM

Thanks, Marco. It also looks to me like some of the swallowtail merlons are visibly of an old building layer. And there are indeed political reasons to assume that swallowtail merlons would be preferred in this area. I added it to the map, making it the most eastern and most southern addition so far (by a small margin). 

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The battlements—yes or no?
Whatever the case may be.
I’ve looked into all the possibilities.
The history of the island, the fortress, and the monastery.
One thing is certain: the fortress as we see it today was built in the 17th century.
But before that, it also had a curtain wall, as Marco shows in his drawings. Whether this wall had an inner wall is possible—or perhaps not. Venice was there.
Interestingly, there are four different types of battlements on the castle.

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(12-05-2026, 07:22 AM)MarcoP Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

• The swallowtail merlons ... had both a political and a military function.
  
• [...]The merlons [restored by the fascist regime] had the political nationalist function of underlining the ancient Italian dominion.
  

Are these attested facts, or just guesses?  

That Venetians and fascists saw the swallowtail merlons as a political symbol sound plausible, sure; but it seems equally possible that they were merely the Venetian standard design, and were restored as such because that is how they were when built.

All the best, --stolfi

This is a proven fact. Under Mussolini alone, seven castles were fitted with swallowtail merlons.
This can be verified simply by looking at photos taken before the renovations (1930).
Two castles were converted into prisons to lock up his political opponents.

(12-05-2026, 09:19 AM)Radim Dobeš Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Yes, you can definitely find some scenes from the monastery's decoration in VM

I'm sorry, but I don't see any scenes that are "definitely" in the Voytnich manuscript, can you please share some examples? 

For me, those are generic frescos

How on earth did I miss this thread?


The swallowtail merlons are present in a 1732 drawing of Vasilij Barskij. Source: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
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I suspect these merlons can be dated to the 17th-century Venetian occupation.
Sotiris Voyadjis only dedicates one paragraph to the battlements, in which he dates the stepped merlons to the 20th century. He also consistently paints the merlons together with the layers below them in his diagrams, often including swallowtail merlons in the initial 11th-century layer. However, he does not indicate any layers from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, which makes it unlikely that the merlons were added in that period. The island was self-governing in the Middle Ages and was never garrisoned by any of the Latin powers.
Furthermore, 16th and 17th-century plans of the island do not show any merlons on the monastery. 
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The same authors often draw Guelph merlons on modern walls, so their absence demands an explanation. For instance, the consistently-drawn merlons on the old fortress of Corfu (rebuilt after the siege of 1537) are confirmed by an anonymous 16th-century print and an engraving from 1689, in which a few of them are still present.

The only exception is also the earliest: Camocio 1574,  who draws Guelph merlons on the monastery. However, he is also the only author who distinguishes swallowtail merlons: they are present on the largest bastion in the fortress of Porto Kagio (built by the Ottomans in 1568 and taken by the Venetians in 1570), and on the front wall in Split.
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I'm thinking of changing Pierre's forum rank to "Master of Merlons"

I still consider myself an apprentice.

However, I would love it if we could remove the monastery from the map.

I'm still traveling and don't trust myself enough on mobile to edit the map now. But you should just add or remove things from the map at your own best judgement - which is better than mine on this subject.