The Voynich Ninja

Here is what I think the imagery means on this page, I've called it Illyria because the name was evidently in use until after the mid 15th century when the Ottoman Empire took over most areas, but leaving behind an area under Venetian control.




Basically I believe the page is showing the Danube River going across the top to Belgrade, and the east side of the Adriatic shoreline going down the page.



Lake Constance, close to where the Danube begins.




Belgrade is the point at which the Danube turns convex, at the bottom of the straight line in the centre. There is a confluence with the river Sava, as indicated in the diagram by the split in the "runoff" on the right side.


It also lines up relatively nicely to include the shores of the Adriatic to the south at this point, hence basically covering the Illyrian area shown earlier. The Danube was also the line for various other empires, including Roman.

I see the watery bits coming from the left side of the tube as the area of Liburnia, but representing the water flowing into the ocean from the same mountains which feed the Danube on the other side, flowing between the islands rather than representing the shore or the islands themselves.



The next nymph is, I believe, representative of of the Bay of Kotor, a winding bay that is a ria of now dry rivers, hence the tube system the nymph is touching. I believe what this diagram is trying to outline is that the inlet that is usually drawn on ptolemy style maps similar to the container shape she is standing in, is much more complicated than it seems on most maps.

The area shown below is approximately the area of the shoreline within the rounded mountain ridge at the bottom right of the map above, which was the most detailed map I could find in the Ptolemy style, most don't include Lake Scutari, the largest lake in the Balkans. In this 1664 map below the Gulf of Kotor is drawn in a far more complex way and somewhat resembles the path of the tubes.



The bottom nymph has her hand in Lake Scutari, or Skadar Lake, which is currently located in both Montenegro and Albania. The nymph is standing in a container that seems attached to the lake. Note that both maps above connect the lake to the Sea as well, although it does not look like that from today's satellite views. I think she is standing in a body that stands between the lake and the sea. In fact the lake does drain into the sea via the Bojana River. The lake is fed by rivers from the mountains and also via underground springs, and generally remains filled above sea level. I think the drawing is showing this feature as well by indicating the mountains below the lake, as though the rivers flow upwards through the tube into it. The shape of the mountains follows the same curved features as those represented in both the above maps. I also think the item to the far left feeding both nymph areas is suggesting that both areas share the runoff and underground springs from the mountains.

The area ascribed to these two nymphs has also been subject to various political changes many times in the past. Venice had various control over the shore areas around the Gulf of Kotor since the 9th century. Note the shape of the Gulf of Kotor, two points towards the east, three toward the west, just as with the diagram's tubes.  Altogether the two nymphs are standing in the area of control by Venice, this may well also be indicated, they took control of Kotor especially once the surrounding areas were falling under Ottoman control in the late 14th century.




Churches in the Bay of Kotor: 1) from the 9th and 2) 10th and 11th century