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| curly herbal |
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Posted by: Davidsch - 09-10-2016, 02:53 PM - Forum: Imagery
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Based on this message
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I noticed that a lot of images of herbals have a distinctive curl.
such as
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and
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and
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[attachment=745]
That reminded me of the image You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
It's not quite the same, because the curl is there inside the stem, but perhaps there are other better examples.
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| Pre-Modern Linguistics |
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Posted by: Emma May Smith - 07-10-2016, 08:45 PM - Forum: Analysis of the text
- Replies (3)
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It is believed by some researchers that the Voynich script, language, or both, were designed by the author of the manuscript. This is used to explain why the manuscript is both unique in its appearance and somewhat divergent in its underlying statistics. Were the script or language to have been designed then we can fairly assumed there must be some understanding of linguistics which informed that design.
So an inlightening question for researchers to answer is what possible knowledge was available to the author. Although we can put an ultimate date and place of creation in 1400s Europe, the sources of knowledge may be much wider spread. Thankfully, we can divide linguistic traditions into five main groups: Medieval European, Greek-Latin, Arabic, Indian, and Chinese. (We could also assume some 'folk' knowledge of linguistics, in that unlearned people had ways of looking at language which could have been an influence, but such things seem to be unrecorded.) Due to the time and place of creation the first two traditions—Medieval European and Greek-Latin—are most immediately interesting.
I've been reading a little about these two traditions, specifically their understanding of phonology and phonetics, in order to learn how they might have understood a language were they seeking to design a script for it.
Medieval European linguistics was based on the knowledge of Latin writers but extended in various directions. Their main interests were logic, rhetoric, and semantics, and do not seem to have been innovative with regard to the study of phonology or phonetics. Whatever they knew about these areas were based on ancient authorities, but I cannot discover exactly the depth of their knowledge except that it was much more on Latin writers than Greek.
The Medieval European tradition was wholly forsaken at the onset of the Renaissance with a switch to the full Latin-Greek tradition which was being revealed through the new learning. However, it is hard to say exactly when the new ancient knowledge became available. Some, certainly Aristotle, would have been available before 1400 for the author of the Voynich manuscript to have studied. Others will not have been available.
Thus we're interested in the Latin-Greek tradition, specifically Greek knowledge of phonology and phonetics, which was relatively advanced. The Greek made a number of interesting discoveries and developed a classification of sounds which is of interest to us. I will enumerate the main points, at least as I see them.
1) A clear distinction between vowels and consonants.
2) A further distinction between 'half sound' and 'soundless' consonants. That is, between sonorants like /l, r, n, m/ and /s/, and plosives /p, t, k, b, d, g, ph, th, kh/ and /h/.
3) They specifically linked aspiration with the sound /h/.
4) They saw voiceless, voiceless aspirated, and voiced plosives as existing on a kind of spectrum. So that if /p/ and /ph/ were voiceless and voiceless aspirated counterparts then /b/, the voiced sound from the same place of articulation, was seen as 'between' the two. This is actually wrong, as voicing and aspiration are not linked in this way, but it was their understanding of it.
I haven't yet read up on Arabic, Chinese, and Indian linguistics, though I guess that Indian linguistics will be the most interesting for our purposes. I hope somebody can add further knowledge or raise important points.
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| About "group" words |
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Posted by: Diane - 07-10-2016, 02:52 PM - Forum: Voynich Talk
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For this, I'll have to ask temporary suspension of disbelief.
Supposing that (1) my analyses and ids for the botanical folios are not far wrong; and (2) that they are composite images as I concluded from the analyses - later finding, rather nicely, that the Friedman group suspected it; and indeed that (3) the majority of plants pictured in the botanical folios are native to the line between southeast Asia and Arabia.
So, tracing eastern plants' early importation to the west, I found they came first through Cairo (Fustat).
Specific information about just which plants were being imported and used, and connections between Cairo and southern Italy comes from just one source available to me, though I have long ago referred others to the work of Oliver Kahl in connection with Arabic dispensatories. (As far as I heard back, no one followed that lead).
The Cairo geniza documents are both relevant and specific. That is, they include actual prescriptions and traders' lists because medical works are often theoretical.
One paper has been written on this subject of materia medica from the Cairo geniza, and by the same authors who wrote a larger book published by Brill. One of the authors (Dr. Lev) agreed to put up the paper at academia.edu.
This bit I thought the linguists might find interesting, or even useful:
“The medieval system tended to classify plants and animals in larger groups according to external morphological characters, with no consideration of genetic proximity or anatomical similarity as is the case today. Therefore, the existence of a collective (general) name for a group of several similar species was common. Here, are some examples of this feature:-
1. Fūdanj: collective name for various species of aromatic plants, namely of the family Labiatae (Maimonides, 1940).
2. Zaj: collective name for salts of sulphuric acid (verdigris,vitriol) compounded with various metals such as iron, copper, lead, and zinc (Maimonides, 1940; Amar and Serri, 2004).
3. Awsaj: collective name for spiny bush species such as boxthorn, buckthorn (Lycium sp.), (Rhamnus sp.), and bramble.
...
If I have correctly analysed the imagery and rightly identified the plants then the unifying principle might actually be a single word, rather than (as I described) "similar form with comparable or complementary purpose and naturally occurring in proximity".
Native speakers, traders, pharmacists and keepers of the funduqs or warehouses used those group-words regularly.
Of course, nice looking herbals and medical works made for Latin libraries would separate each plant, picture some and label them individually, a la Dioscorides. Not what we have in the Vms.
There's no reason that the Vms mightn't be a traders' handbook, or a warehouse book. Baresch does speak of "thesauros Artis medicae Aegyptiacos". and in Latin 'thesauros" could mean a "treasury" of knowledge, but it could also mean quite literally a warehouse.. basically a treasure-house of goodies.
So what do people think about the 'group word' as possible key to the botanical folios? (not the leaves and root section).
Too many imponderables?
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| Amelia Sarah Levetus |
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Posted by: EllieV - 06-10-2016, 04:23 PM - Forum: Provenance & history
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Voynich discovered the VMs supposedly around 1911 and presented it publicly in 1915 during the Art Exhibition in Chicago. The 1915 press reports give impression that the VMs was part of Italian collection that was sent to Austria for safekeeping during the Napoleonic Wars.
In 1913 Voynich starts advertising business address in Vienna, Austria (XIX Peter Jordangasse, 27). In 2003 Dana Scott pointed similarities between this address and the Vienna address of Voynich's family friend Amelia Sarah Levetus - art historian and writer.
voynich austria.jpg (Size: 54.49 KB / Downloads: 87)
In her 1906 book "Imperial Vienna" Amelia Levetus describes the movement of the Hapsburg art collection during the Napoleonic wars: " Those work of art, collected by Ferdinand von Tyrol, were placed in Schloss Ambras. Napoleon knew of their whereabouts, and carried them off to Paris, but they were returned after the Congress, when they were brought to Vienna, and placed in the Upper Belvedere for better safety"
The story is from the same historic period as the one in Kansas City Times, November 12, 2015 describing the movement of the VMs collection: "When Napoleon began to send the valuable collections of art works of Northern Italy to Paris, the heads of the other states took fright. Many dukes and princes sent their possessions to Austria in the hope that there they would be safe."
So Amelia Levetus was aware about this particular period. Her book " Imperial Vienna" has a lot of research about the relations of Napoleon and Austria.
Is it possible that Amelia Levetus was the one who found the loose ends in the art collection movements in Austria during the Napoleonic wars while researching her books and articles and alerted the Voyniches? I often wondered how exactly Voynich learned about this abandoned collection.
Voynich advertised his Vienna business address in 1913 and again in 1914. Itally, Austria and Hapsburg collection were mentioned a lot in the 1915 press in relation to the VMs and other manuscripts exhibition. All mentioning of Austria disappeared in 1916 after FBI started investigating Voynich for suspicion of being German spy (possessing cipher manuscript). This must have spooked him - so he stopped mentioning anything German-related to the manuscript.
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