The Voynich Ninja

(27-09-2016, 05:45 PM)-JKP- Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(13-09-2016, 03:33 PM)Davidsch Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.>> There were quite a few resins (some of which roughly resemble cubes) and a few minerals represented in de Materia Medica and others. There are also some specifically represented as cubes as they are crystalline in nature.

I was curious, could you please mention the names of the chemicals or herbs or pastures that :

* have been presented before in a MS as such or as small cube
* have a bright green or blue color
* have a herbal or root origin

Sorry, David, I tried to look up the answers to your questions on the weekend, but I have tens of thousands of files, not all of them organized yet and cannot easily put my hands on the names of these resins and minerals, especially since the herbals are in many different languages and these items are labeled differently in each one (and some are not labeled at all, but they are recognizable by context).

Even when I can find the right document, one has to know the name of the item to find it alphabetically, or to know where it was when it's not alphabetical. In a 300-page manuscript, this means going through each page. I remember some of the resins were frankincense, myrrh, balsam, etc., but it was the minerals that were more often drawn with angular sides. Sometimes a picture of a miner with a pick-axe is shown but other times the mineral itself is shown as a small drawing without a miner (or mine) nearby to give context.

The alchemical mercury can be found with a Google search and I think I posted one of the pics (with mercury cubes in the sky) on my blog a while back.

Davidsch and JKP started this discussion in another thread.
The blue cube appears at the top of f102v2 labelled EVA:okeos okeos
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Something vaguely similar can be seen in ms Français 12322, Livre des simples médecines, France, 1520 ca, fol. 191

I think the large stone at the center could be labelled "La pierre de lazur" and the smaller one above it "azeur".

Is it possible to remove the coloring of the cube. I can not see it but i would like to look underneath.

The cube is actually colored in blue and yellow (now faded yellow).

[attachment=672]

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Looks like a book with blue covers

(28-09-2016, 03:41 PM)EllieV Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The cube is actually colored in blue and yellow (now faded yellow).

Thank you, Ellie. I have asked the admins to rename the thread accordingly.

(28-09-2016, 03:45 PM)MarcoP Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(28-09-2016, 03:41 PM)EllieV Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The cube is actually colored in blue and yellow (now faded yellow).

Thank you, Ellie. I have asked the admins to rename the thread accordingly.

This is not necessary. Everybody knows the picture as 'the blue cube'. I was thinking it may be cheese cube - blue cheese mold is actually penicillin

So, something like this work of art. But what is it, it does not look like a piece of "la vache qui rit"
[attachment=676]

(28-09-2016, 10:15 AM)MarcoP Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.... [deleted for brevity]


I think the large stone at the center could be labelled "La pierre de lazur" and the smaller one above it "azeur".

Terms like that were usually applied to Lapis Lazuli (and sometimes to Sodalite). I'm not sure why there are two with almost the same name, but it's possible they used different terms for the same stone, based on the proportions of minerals/colors. In English, we call the red gemstone "ruby" but if the same basic stone is more pink, it's often called "pink sapphire". Perhaps Lapis was distinguished the same way, with different names for different compositions.

Lapis can be quite variable from a pale whitish blue to a deep, bright azure. Sometimes it has silvery-gold speckles. Bright blue is highly prized. Lapis with a high proportion of Sodalite tends to be more brittle and breaks apart more easily.


If it's Lapis, it has been used since ancient times for dye, medicine, powder (makeup), and sacrificial tributes.

Possibly, the smaller one above is azurite, and the larger one below lapis lazuli.

(28-09-2016, 08:14 PM)-JKP- Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Terms like that were usually applied to Lapis Lazuli (and sometimes to Sodalite). I'm not sure why there are two with almost the same name, but it's possible they used different terms for the same stone, based on the proportions of minerals/colors.

Lapis is the Latin word for stone in general. However, in the old times some things were called lapis that were not stones - for example in Materia medica Lapis judaicus is actually a fossil. Also Lapis pilosophorum (philosopher's stone) can be a substance that is not necessary a stone.