The Voynich Ninja

In the examples of MarcoP, I agree that the last two (1444 and VMs) are the more similar in artistic style. And they also share a separate similarity in that both have written text in the circular band, whereas other examples with circular bands shown here have no written texts. Are there other examples from the same general time that show written text in bands around zodiac images?

Darren Worley has posted a great image You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..

PS: I agree with Rene, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. on the subject collects a number of very interesting examples.

That is an interesting image, different than any I've seen. Any idea what it depicts? Royal betrothal?

(13-05-2016, 10:16 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.That is an interesting image, different than any I've seen. Any idea what it depicts? Royal betrothal?

I interpret this crown as something like "the mutuall crowne of godly, loyall, and chaste Marriage".
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Vatican Pal. Lat. 411 was mentioned in the ring section, but if you scroll down the page in the manuscript, it includes this:



Note quite crossed arms, but certainly the suggestion of crossed arm (on a page related to matrimony).

Astrological Treatise
c. 1300
Manuscript (Reg. lat. 1283)
Biblioteca Apostolica, Vatican



The manuscript contains an astrological treatise translated to Spanish from an eleventh-century Arabic text. 
The decoration consists of the signs of the Zodiac accompanied by the constellations situated to their north and south.
On folio 2v, shown here, the sign of Gemini is represented in the centre surrounded by the constellations related to this zodiacal sign set in the outer segments.

another picture that crossed my path today, has nothing to do with gemini, but nevertheless...



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del Duomo di San Rufino in Assisi:  [font=arial]del Duomo di San Rufino in Assisi[/font]

I'm going to add this image here, although it is too late for the Voynich, just because I see several parallels with the Gemini illustration:

(Rosarium Philosophorum, Frankfurt, 1550, now at Glasgow University. Woodcut colored by Adam McLean, image from his website.)

What I find interesting is that we have the idea of a handshake with additional crossing going on.
Also notice how the Moon's dress hangs much lower than the Sun's feet, just like in the Voynich illustration.

In this 1578 Czech version by Jaroš Griemiller (National Library of the Czech Republic, image from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), the crossed arms thing is even more visible, although the proportions of the characters are obviously different:




I wonder what the inspiration for the 1550 version may have been. Perhaps it can be found in an earlier depiction of the alchemical marriage between the male and female principles?

(09-10-2016, 12:38 PM)VViews Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I'm going to add this image here, although it is too late for the Voynich, just because I see several parallels with the Gemini illustration:

(Rosarium Philosophorum, Frankfurt, 1550, now at Glasgow University. Woodcut colored by Adam McLean, image from his website.)

What I find interesting is that we have the idea of a handshake with additional crossing going on.
Also notice how the Moon's dress hangs much lower than the Sun's feet, just like in the Voynich illustration.

In this 1578 Czech version by Jaroš Griemiller (National Library of the Czech Republic, image from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), the crossed arms thing is even more visible, although the proportions of the characters are obviously different:




I wonder what the inspiration for the 1550 version may have been. Perhaps it can be found in an earlier depiction of the alchemical marriage between the male and female principles?

LOL!! Before I saw the caption, as soon as I saw the first image, I said to myself, that's alchemical symbolism. It's all there, the sun and moon, male and female, three colored flowers (with the red and white being male and female), the descending bird (condensation from the distillation process), the six-pointed star.

Much of the alchemical symbology is actually pretty easy and surprisingly consistent for something that was supposedly "secret".

JKP,


Yup, that's because the main secret is knowing what actual ingredients to use. This is never referred to explicitly.
The rest is pretty much open, and of course consistent: its chemistry after all, just not yet packaged as such.

I think I've found an earlier version of the male/female with crossed arms pair.

F 16v, British Library MS Harley 2407, England, 2nd half of the 15thC (cropped by me):


Granted this image has superficial differences: nudity, standing in liquid, no crowns or obvious suns and moons, but it's the exact same idea.
It is the first instance that I could find (so far) of the crossed arms twins image in alchemy.
MS Harley 2407 (a collection of alchemical treatises) was subsequently owned by John Dee and Elias Ashmole.

The entire emblem is repeated almost exactly, in 1652 in an alchemical emblem in Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum.