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Visual dictionary of the ...
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| Getting close to a source for f85r2 |
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Posted by: Koen G - 07-01-2025, 10:31 PM - Forum: Imagery
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I was digging deep into the "Hausbuchs" and related traditions. Bull hunting, you know. This eventually led me to the Katalog der deutschsprachigen illustrierten Handschriften des Mittelalters (KdiH).
This led me to the section: 87.3. Heinrich Laufenberg, ›Regimen‹ You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
And from there to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Images here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Now comes the important part. In three consecutive folios (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), we see:
- A lady with a flower (summer of life)
- An older woman with a stick and a chain (autumn of life)
- A doctor with a skull cap holding up a vial of yellow urine to the light to perform uroscopy
Note that this MS is a bit late (1455), and it is part of a cluster of various very popular, interconnected traditions (like the Hausbuchs). I am not saying that this exact book was a source for the VM. Unfortunately, many of the other preserved ones closest to this one have their images missing one way or the other.
Anyway, here you go. To me, this is as close as I've ever gotten to proof that the VM makers used physical sources.
A bit on uroscopy and the appearance of doctors (machine translated from German):
Quote:Medical illustrations found in all subgroups are the bloodletting man , the zodiac man , the urine examination and the bloodletting . The latter forms of treatment were carried out by the physician, surgeon or barber. It is not possible to distinguish between the university-trained doctor, the surgeon and the barber based on the illustrations, so the descriptions do not specify them more precisely and always refer to the doctor or physician. In the picture they can be identified by various attributes such as the red cap (the so-called cappa), a long coat and a glass of urine.
[...]
Uroscopy, which is frequently depicted , is performed by the doctor holding a glass of urine up to the light and thus analyzing the color and consistency. This activity is particularly significant for the representation of the profession of medicine
From: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Note that the large foldout (Rosettes+verso) uses no red. Blue may have been a substitute.
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| Two Paragraph Starters in Folio 1r |
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Posted by: Dobri - 06-01-2025, 04:07 PM - Forum: Imagery
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The second and third paragraphs in folio 1r have starters in the form of red embellishments which could be purely decorative or could hint at something.
The starter in the second paragraph could possibly be a stylized image of:
- a bird (eagle, seagull, dove, etc.);
- antlers;
etc.
The starter in the third paragraph could possibly be a stylized image of:
- the Bowl of Hygieia with a snake above it;
- a hearth with rising smoke symbolizing Hestia or Vesta;
- a genie (jinn) jar;
etc.
Please kindly share your ideas about the two paragraph starters.
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| Absence of the Symbol Resembling '4' in the Very First Folio 1r |
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Posted by: Dobri - 05-01-2025, 05:33 PM - Forum: Analysis of the text
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The very first folio (folio 1r) seems to be the only folio in the entire cypher manuscript (except folio 65r) that does not contain the symbol resembling '4'.
The only exception is folio 65r which contains only 3 word tokens and a depiction of an unknown plant.
It appears for the first time in folio 1v (just once, followed by 'o') and after that is found multiple times in all subsequent folios (except folio 65r).
The observation that the entire folio 1r can be filled with word tokens without said symbol could indicate that it has a specific meaning which is probably described in folio 1v.
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| Pisces (Folio 70v) and the New Year on the 1st of March in the Republic of Venice |
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Posted by: Dobri - 05-01-2025, 12:58 PM - Forum: Astrology
- Replies (33)
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Folio 70v of the Voynich (cypher) manuscript contains the astrological depiction of Pisces (fishes).
Said depiction is surrounded by an inner ring of 10 naked females reclining horizontally with the lower half of their bodies in cylindrical tubs.
There is also an outer ring with 19 naked females standing vertically with the lower half of their bodies also in cylindrical tubs.
All females are having multi-pointed stars on a string.
Assuming that the manuscript originates from the Republic of Venice, one couldn't help but notice that the New Year in Venice in medieval times was on the 1st of March.
Since 9 of the reclined females in the inner ring and their stars are oriented counterclockwise (except for one, oriented clockwise and sharing the same tub with another female but from the opposite side of the tub), one could possibly interpret the reclined females and their stars in the inner ring as the days in the first decan of Pisces at the end of February. The only reclined female oriented clockwise could possibly depict 29th of February in a leap year.
Here the interpretation could be that the females are reclined to show that they represent past days from the previous month of February.
The stars of all 19 females in the outer ring are oriented clockwise. Here the interpretation could be that the females are standing upright to show that they represent forthcoming days of the remaining 2 decans of Pisces with respect to the New Year in Venice on the 1st of March.
The scheme looks like this:
- first decan of Pisces in February (9 females reclining counterclockwise);
- a female reclining clockwise (29th of February in a leap year); and
- forthcoming second and third decans of Pisces in March (19 standing-up females with stars oriented clockwise).
Note that folio 70v seems to be the only astrological folio where females are oriented in opposite directions (clockwise or counterclockwise).
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| Zodiac series of University of Pennsylvania LJS 449 |
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Posted by: Koen G - 02-01-2025, 07:36 PM - Forum: Imagery
- Replies (17)
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I would like to draw attention to the Zodiac series of University of Pennsylvania LJS 463 449, which Nablator mentioned here:
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This may have been discussed before, but I didn't find anything on the forum.
This series of Zodiac images f.12r-22v accompanies a "treatise in German on favorable and unfavorable days for various activities". This kind of text may be interesting with regards to the "bathing nymphs" in the Zodiac section.
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The Zodiac signs are stylistically different from those of the VM, but there are many peculiar similarities in some of them. Most notably bull, lobster and lion.
- The bull is a silly red creature with a three-pronged tail standing on green terrain.
- The lobster is wonderfully faulty with only two pairs of "walking legs", one of which is on the tail (linking it to the Soissons - Alsace vein). The overall body type is very similar.
- The lion is of a different type altogether. But look at that tail!
For Aries/Capricorn, the VM animals remain ambiguous. But you can see some connection, especially with Capricorn. Climbing a bit towards the left, one tree...
- Gemini is quite different. Nude vs. dressed and a much more spectacular pose. Position of man/woman is the same, but that's about it.
- Virgo has a different dress, but that is to be expected: the VM wide open, dagged sleeves are typical for the first quarter of the 15th century. Both ladies are on terrain and there are flowers involved. However, the Pennsylvania Virgo appears to be making a wreath.
- I thought the scales were quite different at first, but now I think they are related. Notice the rim on the cups and the way the three black lines are connected to it.
The remaining signs are quite different.
All in all, I think these Zodiac symbols are closely related to those in the VM, but stylistically different. It's probably a matter of being on the same family tree.
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| Ugly Duckling |
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Posted by: Mark Knowles - 02-01-2025, 12:06 AM - Forum: Voynich Talk
- Replies (12)
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Looking at other manuscripts recently makes me aware again how poor and unprofessional looking the illustrations in the Voynich manuscript are. It seems to me, for example, that the Zodiac illustrations were copied without much care or attention. In fact I would say that all the Voynich illustrations were done without much care by an amateur.
So, the idea that the illustrations were made to impress other people seems doubtful. Rather it seems to fit with the idea that the manuscript was kept private and secret than to be made public. The Voynich has the feel of a scrappy scientific/medical notebook. I suspect that the manuscript was intended to be functional and practical as opposed to beautiful, so the illustrations were as good as they needed to be for practical usefulness rather than visual appeal.
I must admit that the scrappy appearance of the manuscript bothers me a little. It makes me worry about the seriousness of the author(s) in making it. On the one hand the hours of work put into making it shows they took it seriously. On the other hand I worry about whether they put as much effort into the text as they put into the illustrations. Maybe the text is as poorly executed as the illustrations. The possibility that I have discussed before that a lot of the text may just be filler with only a small proportion meaningful occurs to me again. It makes me wonder if we have all been treating the manuscript with more seriousness than it deserves.
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| 10% of Medieval Manuscripts survive to this day - Is that an overestimate? |
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Posted by: Mark Knowles - 01-01-2025, 05:06 PM - Forum: Voynich Talk
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In the case of early 15th century ciphers from my research I would be inclined to the view that much fewer than 10% of enciphered letters survives. I suspect the percentage is higher when it comes to cipher ledgers, though I doubt it is as much as 10%.
However when we are talking about illustrated manuscripts then I would think they are more likely to have survived than in the case of letters, especially if they are very beautiful manuscripts as I would expect people to have taken more care of them.
Having recently having allowed myself to be distracted by the subject of Diebold Lauber's manuscripts I have wondered which of these manuscripts survive and having seen the following listing:
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I wonder how many manuscripts in total Diebold Lauber's workshop would have produced and what percentage of that figure this listing constitutes. Of course, there may well be a number of surviving Diebold Lauber manuscripts not listed here.
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| Well used? |
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Posted by: Mark Knowles - 31-12-2024, 03:30 PM - Forum: Voynich Talk
- Replies (6)
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I just watched a recent YouTube video by Paul Whitewick. He seems to be saying that according to Lisa Fagin Davis the Voynich manuscript was well-used by the people who created the manuscript. That might well have been the case, but I am curious as to whether we can really say that with confidence. Can we distinguish between wear and tear from around the time that the manuscript was created and wear and tear that has resulted from the many people who have studied the manuscript at later times?
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