The voynich code is extremely difficult to piece together. I decoded the 1st paragraph in English, Old English, Little German and Little Latin. I believe that is a bird glyph below in the uploaded image. I'm still piecing together a cipher.
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A comment by Diane You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.:
Quote:Ask "who most often pictured crossbowmen in calendars after 1440" and the answer will surely come back "Germany". However, if you ask "Does anyone have an idea of why the crossbow in the Voynich manuscript looks as if it's made of wood, and why the archer's hand might be pictured in that position?" then the answer comes back (as it did thanks to a former colleague) - because it's a rare form of crossbow only known from a couple of late archaeological finds - of Spanish bows specifically meant for maritime use.
(emphasis mine)
made me put together these ideas in response. Rather than hi-jack the thread I thought I'd ask her some questions in this thread.
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I don't think we can infer much from the way the chap is holding the crossbow - his right hand isn't even on it, but floating off in the air above it, as if to indicate that he's not going to fire the (cocked and loaded) crossbow.
It's far more productive to concentrate on the general shape of the crossbow, and the dress of the archer.
I'm intrigued by your Spanish maritime use comment. The crossbow depicted in the VM is quite clearly a stirrup one, which was used by the Spanish forces (and other Christian nations across Europe), but maritime use required longer distances so I understand they tended to incorporate the slower winding mechanism to get a stronger pull.
French soldier c. 1415 with a winding stirrup crossbow
But the VM archer doesn't have a winding mechanism, suggesting it was a less powerful manual pull stirrup firing crossbow.
The Spanish were using by the 14th century a cranequín, a metal crossbow with a top winding mechanishm (rather than the side winding mechanism):
The dress, of course, especially the capote hat, does not indicate a Spaniard.
As you may or may not know, I have devoted much attention to various plants on the 89v foldout in the small plants section. I would like to know what you think about a specific plant, because at the moment I'm stuck. It's the one in the middle on this picture:
In my You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. I explore the symbolical imagery hidden in this plant. I also argue that the label indicates that this plant or its fruit was valued for its juice, but of course you needn't take that into account if you find the arguments unconvincing.
However, since I believe the image is high in symbolical content, I am having a hard time pinning down a botanical identification. It is especially the structure pictured below that looks rather strange and perhaps even biologically impossible. My hypothesis is that a fruit (white) and the leaf (green) have been imposed on each other in order to create the symbolical image. Another possibility is that the green part is not a leaf at all but rather the juice emerging from the opened fruit.
Any ideas to which plant or plant parts this drawing might refer to?
I do not know someone mentioned any of the following associations? I think need to look for identification You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. among aquatic plants. " The tadpoles" - very similar to the larvae (pupae) mosquitoes.
Such a single unit leaf is hardly can stand alone in the air.
This conversation has gone from Images to Experts and now back to images again. Kind of like ping-pong, isn't it? However I'd like to follow up on Davidsch's comment on Pisces and Cancer pairings. You are correct to point out that the illustration of paired crayfish in VMs Cancer is a possible example of intentional pairing, where as Pisces is always a pair and the artist has no reasonable alternative. Just like Gemini.
With VMs Pisces the concern is with its placement in the Zodiac sequence. Pisces in the initial position is highly erratic. So it's not the medallion itself that is unexpected, but its placement. And it is true that Pisces, as the initial pair, is so expected and so subtle that the pairing aspect totally escapes consideration because the positional aspect is such a surprise. But that pales to virtually nothing when it is discovered that Aries and Taurus have been split into halves. This is an outlandish shock. What passes unrecognized is the presence of pairing here as well.
So let's look at the evidence provided by the illustrations of the medallions of the first five houses of the VMs Zodiac with a focus on pairs and pairing.
Pisces is a pair
Aries is split in half. Two halves are a pair.
Taurus ditto.
Gemini is a pair of twins.
Cancer is a pair of crayfish rather that the much more common singular crab.
Each of these VMs Zodiac houses is a pair. Some natural and some unexpected either in form or in placement. In addition, pairings occur within this sequence. A pair of fish and a pair of crayfish are two pairs of aquatic animals. Two pairs are a pair of pairs. A pair of goats and a pair of bulls are both pairs of land animals and a second pair of pairs. And therefore we have a pair of paired pairs. The Aries and Taurus pairs are also paired again by the method of their construction.
The examples of pairing exist these VMs illustrations. The unusual factors involved in the creation of this sequence strongly imply intentional construction. The purpose of that construction is to put together a sequence and collection of pairs in order to set forth pairs and pairing as an idea, concept, model, and paradigm to serve as a basis for further further investigation.
That investigation now shifts from the primary Zodiac medallions and moves to secondary images, starting again in VMs Pisces with another complex of pairings at the top of the outer ring and then to a relevant, historical complex of images where we have no experts.
I was going to make a blogpost on my web-site, but it doesn't work because of some problems with the hoster, so I just attach two PDF documents in English and in Russian here.
Is the "29" favourite author's number or an embodiment of the Lunar cycle?
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. program recognizes alike (Sh) all spelling variations "benches" with an apostrophe. (Codes 33, 35, 37, 43, 51, 52, 53 - V101 You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ).
I not urge introduce variability, but this reading disappear codes 217 (5, 8), 219 (6), 227 (19), 243 (7), 185, 186.
If enable apostrophe in the base of the glyph bench it is possible to distort the meaning of the apostrophe as the diacritical mark, because the apostrophe is used not only with a bench and a "c" (5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 19), with the "4о" (1, 2 , 3, 4), "Y" (9, 10), "o" (11, 12) and on the callout 20 (my reading) “she + vertical line + apostrophe + y”.
Moreover, some of these characters are encountered with other classic characters diacritical, trait or point.
Trait - "4o"- code 185, "y" - code 187 (27), "o" - code 195.
Point - "ch" code 224 (22), "y" code 190 (26).
Interestingly spelling 14, 15, 16, 17. According to my transcription is a "word" is written as "vertical line + horizontal line + apostrophe + code 94". !!! (horizontal line + apostrophe) = code 164 !!!
According to my translation method - the apostrophe is a symbol of mechanical action (cut, rip up, crumple). Therefore, the word (21) with two apostrophes I translate - finely chopped peduncles, word (24) - cut into (verb!) top leaves.
If be regarded apostrophe as a hieroglyph (full word), it is clear its single application as a label 18.
Here are the other visual mnemonic devices I think I've found. I don't claim to be the first to have found any of them - if someone wants credit for being first to have pointed any of them out, that's okay with me.
I will send the full list of herb attributions and images of plants to anyone sending me a request and email address.
You don't have to send money or say please.
I think there are nine ID's I still haven't resolved yet. There are about 20 that are kind of shaky. I think the rest (about a hundred?) compare well.
I ask all who request a copy to please note the very pronounced and deliberate placement of many of the words containing the Group I code attributions for the herbs pictured on the different pages (one instance per page per plant image) - at the top, at the left hand side or very near the plant images on the pages - sometimes more than one of the three. About 15% are in the first word on their individual pages. Another 4% are in the last word on their individual pages.
Thank you.
Don of Tallahassee
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