Dragons, Dogs & Amadillos?

[Aga Tentakulus]

It's not just the thing (definitely not an armadillo) on the cushion with the wavy ribbon.
The whole picture also says, floating above the head of a nymph.
Now, think about it.

[asteckley]

Showing the Alps above a nebuly cloud band raining down on various other locations would make sense for that story and especially pointing out that particular place to show how bits of moisture can become a torrent.

Nothing anachronistic about that.
Surely whatever the artist lacked in drawing skill was made up for with advanced cartographic skill. 

[Mauro]

This is a bear, from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (dated ca. 1200) which is drawn in a way which (to me at least) suggests it has scales:

   
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What's really strange in the VMS scaled-whatever-beast are the scales pointing towards the head, rather than towards the tail

(there are more examples of scaled beasts in the same book and at You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., many are fishes but not every one of them).

[Koen G]

Yeah, there's a lot to unpack here.
The way medieval artists use patterns on fur does evolve a bit over the centuries. You're more likely to find something that looks scalloped in earlier, more stylized manuscripts.

What you say about the direction of the "scales" is mentioned from time to time, but it isn't said nearly enough. Take any form of scalloping in medieval art, and they have a way to run from the "top" to the bottom. Medieval artists knew how to follow this, from snakes to roof tiles to feathers to armor. So are we really supposed to be looking at scales, or rather series of curved lines indicating rough fur?

I don't know the answer to this, by the way, I changed my mind like ten times about what I think this thing may have been intended as. But we have to start from observation, and I am just not sure that these were intended as scales. 

There may be some evidence in the MS. The fish from Pisces get correctly oriented scales. But guess who does get three bands of curves pointing the "wrong" way? White Aries. They even used the same pigment and "painting technique" in the green one, though I understand the linework itself should be more convincing to some.

   

[R. Sale]

Overwhelmingly sheepish:

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*
The VMs illustration clearly consists of three parts. The proper interpretation should include all three. The list of possibilities, for those associated with a nebuly line as a cosmic boundary, is rather short. Based on BNF Fr. 13096, the internal structure of the illustration and the provenance of the manuscript, this Agnus Dei is a valid historical possibility.

[Antonio García Jiménez]

I also believe that the illustrations on the entire page should be analyzed before making a judgment. I don't think any animals are depicted, and I agree that the wavy lines are a symbol of the boundary of the cosmos, which is quite certain because we see it in countless medieval manuscripts.

  Since I believe that the female figures are a representation of the fixed stars, it leads me to think that this strange scaly thing is an attempt to depict the sphere of the fixed stars as the boundary of the medieval universe.  Only half a hemisphere is represented, but we see how it closes in on itself in an attempt by the author to suggest the entire sphere, a tiled sphere. We see these tiles in other cosmological sections of the Voynich Manuscript.

[asteckley]

I also believe that the illustrations on the entire page should be analyzed before making a judgment. I don't think any animals are depicted, and I agree that the wavy lines are a symbol of the boundary of the cosmos, which is quite certain because we see it in countless medieval manuscripts.

I'm just curious -- do those depictions of the boundary of the cosmos also have threads or frills hanging off of the wavy corrugations? And squared corners like a pillow does?

I agree is probably just a coincidence that the animal appears to be sleeping (as on a pillow) or, if dead, be being honored (as on a pillow).

[R. Sale]

Just to be clear, the nebuly line and the wavy line are structurally different. Nebuly lines predominate in the VMs illustrations, even as leaf margins.

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The interpretation of the critter illustration consists of three parts: the critter, the nebuly lines, and the "markings" underneath. All parts fit together and work together in the Agnus Dei example.

The markings [Define as you will.] need to be part of the identification.

[R. Sale]

A collection of historical representations of cosmic boundaries and cloud bands:

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[rikforto]

A collection of historical representations of cosmic boundaries and cloud bands:

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I always hesitate to say anything looks like anything in the manuscript, but the proposed nebulae look fairly convincingly like nebulae to me. I'm not sure how much closer that gets me to seeing the beast a certain way, though