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+--- Thread: What is unique or rare about the VM Zodiac signs? (/thread-2209.html)
What is unique or rare about the VM Zodiac signs? - Koen G - 07-12-2017
This thread is a first effort to test the possibilities of our new "Voynich essentials" subforum. The name "essentials" is not to be taken too literally, it can really be about anything. The most important thing is that threads there will be clear and to the point, offering the user an overview in one click. I hope the way it works will become clear after a while.
After posting this thread, I will make a new thread in the "Voynich essentials" subforum. Normally you will not be allowed to post there. All discussion and submissions happen in this thread, of which the "essentials" thread will be a reflection.
What am I looking for? One of two types of statements which compare the VM Zodiac signs to other sources. For example:
Quote:Taurus
Unique:
- basket
Quote:Gemini
Rare:
- embracing with crossed arms
[image from manuscript where this has been found]
[description from manuscript, finder, link to sources...]
RE: What is unique or rare about the VM Zodiac signs? - Koen G - 07-12-2017
So Cancer as two crayfish is unique, right?
Taurus with basket too?
Pisces each connected to a star with a line?
RE: What is unique or rare about the VM Zodiac signs? - -JKP- - 07-12-2017
So far as I know, Cancer as two crayfish is unique and having the anatomically incorrect legs on the crayfish tail rather than farther up is unique.
Nibbling is not common, but there are a number of examples. However, I don't recall ever seeing Aries or Taurus nibbling from baskets anywhere except the VMS. Capricorn is frequently shown nibbling or, in Hebrew manuscripts, drinking from a barrel, but not Aires or Taurus.
A four-legged lizard-Scorpius with curled tail is very unusual. One can find them with six legs (possibly a tarask) or two legs (usually a dragon), but rarely with four legs and curled tail together.
RE: What is unique or rare about the VM Zodiac signs? - -JKP- - 07-12-2017
I searched 500+ entries and found about 125 Taurus symbols with long horns (some longer than the VMS bull), many of them curvy. The Aurochs wasn't extinct yet and it had long curvy horns, so perhaps some of the Taurus drawings were inspired by this wild bovine.
So, I don't think we can list long curvy horns as rare. Long necks are not particularly rare either. They're not common, but see Walters MS W.26 as an example of long horse-like necks on both Aries and Taurus. Marginal split-hoofed animals often have long necks. The only way you can identify some of them is by reading the labels.
As for originality, the VMS is not alone in this. Add MS 61887 has an interesting and unusual variant on Gemini—two merpeople.
RE: What is unique or rare about the VM Zodiac signs? - Koen G - 07-12-2017
Wouldn't such long lyre shaped horns be considered a proper rare feature we can list? They're really ridiculously long...
RE: What is unique or rare about the VM Zodiac signs? - -JKP- - 07-12-2017
About 10 or 15% have long lyre-shaped horns. It depends what you define as rare. I wouldn't call that rare. I'd call it uncommon.
Wouldn't it have to be maybe 5% or less to be rare?
There are some pretty strange ones, like these long-horned, long-necked Aries/Taurus from Walters 734 or Ludwig XII 8. Many people draw sheep, goats, and bulls like they are horses. I saw one manuscript full of beasts that all looked like dogs (they were labeled as many different animals but they were all basically dogs):
RE: What is unique or rare about the VM Zodiac signs? - Koen G - 07-12-2017
5% seems like a good limit
But... are there really any examples of bulls with lyre-shaped horns this long? Just to get a point of reference, I measured the horn size compared to complete head size using the Photoshop ruler tool. Complete head size is from nose to tip of horns. In the light bull, horns account for 55% of total length, in the dark bull that's 41%.
(On a side note, I got the same measurements for both bulls' complete heads: 13.5.. remarkable).
RE: What is unique or rare about the VM Zodiac signs? - -JKP- - 07-12-2017
In the Ermengau breviari, the horns are longer than the head.
In Morgan MS M.510 and M.363 and MS. Auct. D. inf. 2. 11 (Book of Hours) and Egerton 3088, they are about equal in size.
In M.730 and Germ.Fol.244 (Berlin) and Ms. germ. fol. 244, the horns are longer than the head.
It only took me minutes to find examples.
RE: What is unique or rare about the VM Zodiac signs? - Koen G - 07-12-2017
You are right, it's off the table. The "silly horse" from the fascinating Ludwig MS is the one I usually imagine as a parallel. Its horns are just a bit shorter (but curve more). The one you just posted has slightly longer horns even than light VM Taurus.
Should I perhaps add a third category for "uncommon" traits we discussed?
RE: What is unique or rare about the VM Zodiac signs? - -JKP- - 07-12-2017
I don't know. It might be helpful to have an "uncommon" category, but I'm not sure. Maybe other forumites have thoughts on this.