In another thread, Searcher mentioned compass roses (or wind roses). When one looks for info on these, the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is unavoidable, since it contains the first compass rose on a map. I'll select some info from the wiki for those who are unfamiliar with the work:

Quote:The Catalan Atlas is the most important map of the medieval period in the Catalan language (drawn and written in 1375). It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to Cresques Abraham (also known as "Abraham Cresques"), a Jewish book illuminator [...] The Catalan Atlas originally consisted of six vellum leaves folded down the middle, painted in various colors including gold and silver. The leaves are now cut in half. Each half-leaf is mounted on one side of five wooden panels. n overall size of 65 × 300 cm.

The first two leaves contain texts in Catalan covering cosmography, astronomy, and astrology. These texts are accompanied by illustrations. The texts and illustration emphasize the Earth's spherical shape and the state of the known world. They also provide information to sailors on tides and how to tell time at night.
[...]
Unlike many other nautical charts, the Catalan Atlas is read with the north at the bottom. 

I touched on this in a blog, but didn't go into it in detail because I was more concerned about zodiac imagery at the time and didn't have time to talk about baskets, but maybe it's a good topic for the forum.

In the two depictions of "Taurus" (a red long-horned animal), the animal is eating from a basket with green stuff in it (or walking next to a basket with a green interior). I had noted earlier that one of the baskets has a diagonal weave (which is much less common than horizontal weaves) and that it's unusual for bulls to eat from baskets (this usually only happens in hot countries and not often).

Another thing I had noticed about the basket, but wasn't sure, is that it might be the kind that narrows at the bottom. It's hard to tell because it butts up against the edge of the circle that surrounds the drawing.

Here is a detail from f71v:


  TaurusCalathus.png (Size: 369.81 KB / Downloads: 141)

Here is an example of what I mean by a basket that narrows (I can't be sure it's this kind but I offer it as a possibility). I chose this one because it has a diagonal weave:


  CalathusDetail.png (Size: 79.1 KB / Downloads: 139)

These were general-purpose baskets but seem to have been mainly used for items associated with women, such as spinning and sewing tools, flowers, and sometimes fruits. It's called calathus, qualus, quasillus. Slaves who spun were called quasillaria.

This one from Tacuinum Sanitatus is narrower at the bottom (used for harvesting chives/shallots), but it doesn't have a diagonal weave:





So... is the diagonal weave significant?

Is it a basket with a narrow bottom?

Were diagonal (and possibly narrowed) baskets used for other purposes?

Are there any examples of bulls feeding from this specific kind of basket?


It's quite difficult to find images of bulls eating from any kind of basket (I only saw two or three) and especially difficult to find this in zodiac imagery (I can't remember whether I was able to locate any) but maybe the Voynich community can unravel whether the weave and shape of the basket has any significance.

In the other thread when discussing the "musdel" page we noted that the person depicted there is placed at an angle (somewhere between 45 and 90 degrees clock- or counterclockwise) typical to represent dead persons in contemporary manuscripts. Hence, s/he is possibly meant to be dead. In addition, Koen provided a keen observation that whenever dead persons are depicted at such angles in contemporary literature, they tend to be depicted with their eyes closed.

Consider the picture in the middle of f82r. The person to the right is depicted at an angle suggesting his/her death. Moreover, s/he lies upon what quite proclaims itself to be a bier, although a somewhat allegorical one.

Furthermore, while the person's right eye is definitely closed (as we would expect it to be), the left eye suggests a pupil, although probably not as marked as pupils of persons alive depicted elsewhere in the VMS.

Hence I thought that the eye may be opening or closing, and, respectively, the person to the right may be intended to represent the process of dying or, alternatively, the resurrection. This is corroborated with something allegorical depicted to the left, containing curious imagery of a star and, further leftwards, of yet another, more complicated, star (?), tied with a "thread". This system is emanated - or, alternatively, received - by some "apparatus" "operated" by another person ("operator"). The "system" may represent the soul leaving the body or returning therein, while the operator, in the case of resurrection, may represent a person producing the miracle. Whether it is death or resurrection - depends on the direction the "soul" is travelling. It is difficult to say if it's leftwards or rightwards.

I tried to locate a suitable story of resurrection in the Bible, but while there are many there, neither looks like "resurrection at a distance". However, there are apocryphal sources as well, I did not check them. Or it may be not Biblical at all.

The ONLY place where the two voynichese words of the sentence in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. can be seen exactly in the same combination is the eighth paragraph of f104r. I have found this “reading” carefully the entire manuscript page-by-page and “word”-by-“word”. When a Voynich Query Processor appeared on
the Internet he gave me the same result.But there is something more interesting. Taking exactly the crosses and the words between them, the two
words are in the same place in both sentences(I exclude the cross above “maria”). For more clarity, see the PDF file below.Whether it can be used
and how I leave it to the specialists.

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Milen Chakarov
22.07.2017

During the last couple of months I have been playing with various attempts to match Voynich labels with the nearby text. My hope was to understand more of word morphology, searching for words that match the labels but for some minor changes. I haven't done anything smart (e.g. writing some kind of software to automatically explore the search-space of possible word alterations): I just played around with voynichese.com and regular expressions.

For a change, the results are not brilliant, but I thought I'd share them anyway. Maybe discussing with others will provide new ideas on how to proceed.

I have tried the approach on two sets of data:

• quire 13 (the “balneo” / “biological” section)
  
• the pharma / jars-and-small-plants paragraphs (discussed You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.)
  

• otedal (top right)
  
• otedy (top left) is also similar but not associated with a rainbow
  
• okedor (the only one I could match with a word on the recto)
  
• otedol
  
• oteedy
  

Attached Files

  OTOLY.JPG (Size: 56.9 KB / Downloads: 95)

During the last couple of months I have been playing with various attempts to match Voynich labels with the nearby text.
The “pharma” or “small-plants”  section looked like a promising area: a lot of labels and not so much text. If the labels were mentioned in the text, they should be easy to find. It turns out that they are not easy to find.

I have searched the “pharma” section for labels matched in the corresponding paragraph. Out of more than 200 labels, I only found these close matches:

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As you can see, the second match depends on the hypothetical equivalence between k and t. The first match has the word split on two lines and with a different suffix. The other two are only split into two words.

Some of the results seem intriguing to me (in particular, the dol-dam blue mushroom), but they are too few to formulate any positive hypothesis. However strange, my basic experiment seems to suggest that the paragraphs do not usually mention the specific illustrated items. I guess one could try a different, more sophisticated, approach.

I decided to open a dedicated thread about this man, so as not to flood the other thread #2009 with particulars of his life not directly related to his report to Marci (about 600 ducats, you know).

I wondered why the man is called "Mnišovský" while in the 18th century Plezl's book he is called "Mischowsky" (without letter "n").

(to be precise, his was born as Sobiehrd but later he took on his mother's surname M(n)išovský, supposedly because "Sobiehrd" was too tough for his fellows abroad).

It appears that "Mnišovský" is a valid form of his name. Contemporary sources such as the German Wikipedia You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. confirm that.

And quite a number of old references can be found in old books via Google books if a search is performed against "Mischowsky" keyword.

I do not know yet whether the actual name (i.e. his mother's name) was with the letter "n" or without, and when it was that the other form of the name appeared. Screening of Google books suggests that the form of "Mnischowsky" was already in use at least as early as 1709.

However, it is particularly interesting that a third form of his name existed - namely, the Germanised form "Meisch". See "Beiträge zur Geschichte der böhmischen Länder", You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., page 73:

Quote:Dr. Raphael Meisch oder Mischowsky (Mnissowsky oder Mnischowsky) von Sebuzin

Quote:Sehr viele Einwohner Jglau's verließen ihre Vater stadt und versügten sich rößtentheils nach Ungarn. Die zurückgelassenen Realitäten fielen dem k. Fiscus zu und wurden theilweisse zur Abstattung des städt. Darlehens von 90,000 Gulden verwendet, theilweisse zur Erbauung des Collegiums und der Kirche der Jeſuiten überlassen. Als Inquiſitions - Commiſſäre wurden (1625) die kais. Räthe Raphael Meisch von Herrnstein und Ronsperg und Georg Bacher abgeordnet.
Ein weiteres Reformationsmittel war die Abforde rung aller Bücher aus der Stadt und den Vorſtädten, welche der Cardinal Dietrichſtein auf das Rathhaus bringen ließ (2. Febr. 1626).

Quote:Die Doctoren Raphael Meisch und Georg Bacher nahmen als kais. Commissarien am 31.August u. ff. 1622 in Iglau mit der ganzen Bürgerschaft die Untersuchung vor.

Our knowledge of the VMS once belonging to Rudolf is based on the report by Mnišovský, which, in turn, is referenced in the letter by Marci to Kircher, in the following words:

Quote:Retulit mihi D. Doctor Raphael Ferdinandi tertij Regis tum Boemiae in lingua boemica instructor dictum librum fuisse Rudolphi Imperatoris, pro quo ipse latori qui librum attulisset 600 ducatos praesentarit, authorem uero ipsum putabat esse Rogerium Bacconem Anglum.

• that this report of Mnišovský to Marci (for brevity, let me call it "the Report" hereinafter) indeed took place (i.e. it was not invented by Marci or distorted by him in any way);
  
• that Mnišovský did act in good faith - in other words, whether the contents of the Report were true or false, he believed it reliable enough to be reported to Marci;
  
• that they all are talking about the Voynich Manuscript, and not some other book (which is quite not self-evident).
  

• any kind of the book's perceived relation to Rudolf;
  
• supposed Mnišovský's ownership of the book at some moment in time.
  

• he observed the de Tepenecz's signature and recognized that de Tepenecz had been a man of the court;
  
• he knew the circumstances of Baresh's getting hold of the VMS, and those were somehow related to the court or to the  persons of the court.
  

• it was clear for Marci and Baresh to observe;
  
• it was difficult for Marci and Baresh to observe (i.e. already erased or faded out).
  

• Marci observed the de Tepenecz signature and he also knew that Mnišovský was somehow connected with de Tepenecz (I don't know if the two were actually connected or not, but anyway). Actually, this simply resolves to option D;
  
• certain circumstances under which Baresh obtained the book were somehow connected to Mnišovský.
  

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. discusses some lists of Rudolf's books. It is noted that the lists are by no means a full representation of the books that Rudolf owned.

So the chance to find a match for the VMS in those lists is not high.

Anyway.

Rene mentions that:

Quote:The inventory does not mention any book in unknown writing or language. In general, the large collection of alchemical books known to have been owned by Rudolf are not found in this inventory. Some of these were taken to Sweden as war booty, and later given to I. Vossius, who brought them to Leiden, where they are still preserved. The only entry which might possibly refer to the Voynich MS is:

Quote: In folio: ein philosophisch alt geschriben buch mit figurn und ein copey uff pergamen geschriben vom Mathes Dörrer, ungebunden, welchs nit gantz beysamen und Herr Hayden auß bevelch I. Mt: etliche bletter davon genommen

Full scans of Firenze ms 106 can be seen online. The ms includes one of the earliest copies of the Alchemical Herbal.

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Attached Files

  ms106.jpg (Size: 185.8 KB / Downloads: 293)