26-06-2016, 02:17 PM
Job,
with genuine respect -
the Voynich manuscript has many points in common with a considerable number of manuscript traditions. Whether one opts for one tradition or another tends (among Voynich people) to depend most on the person's inclination to a theory - because they seek no more widely than their preference indicates. Those who hope it might be German look at German manuscripts and see German glyphs. Those who look elsewhere (as Thomas Spande looks to Armenia) tend to see letter forms as similar to Armenian etc.
The same for efforts to claim "nationality" for the images. People pull up pictures from German works if they like a German theory, and from French works, and even from Spanish and English manuscripts..
Overall, the sort of evidence a scholar would trust about any other manuscript has always clearly and definitely pointed elsewhere. Not even Irwin Panofsky's opinion in 1931 suggested the work was a German manuscript, or even a Latin German manuscript. If anyone who has ever claimed to comment on Beinecke MS 408 was a true expert in medieval German Christian art it was he, at that time, and if anyone of his eminence could identify a lack of German Christian characteristics, it was he.
For me, his opinion when added to that of Steele, the Keeper of Manuscripts in England, and Goldschmidt is still fairly unarguable about the content. As for manufacture, the indications are fairly strong that northern Italy (I'd say more exactly the Veneto) is the most probable.
Against the more weighty opinions (in which I'm not counting mine or Pelling's) we have only theorists and (excuse my frankness) amateurs with a theory to hone and a very narrow range of comparative study. On balance, the German idea isn't well supported by the manuscript's own testimony or by the sort of people who can be termed experts in some relevant discipline. I wish we had less theory and more written appraisals by unsolicited, wholly independent, professionals.
Perhaps one day. If the theory-driven Voynicheros will keep out of it. If...
with genuine respect -
the Voynich manuscript has many points in common with a considerable number of manuscript traditions. Whether one opts for one tradition or another tends (among Voynich people) to depend most on the person's inclination to a theory - because they seek no more widely than their preference indicates. Those who hope it might be German look at German manuscripts and see German glyphs. Those who look elsewhere (as Thomas Spande looks to Armenia) tend to see letter forms as similar to Armenian etc.
The same for efforts to claim "nationality" for the images. People pull up pictures from German works if they like a German theory, and from French works, and even from Spanish and English manuscripts..
Overall, the sort of evidence a scholar would trust about any other manuscript has always clearly and definitely pointed elsewhere. Not even Irwin Panofsky's opinion in 1931 suggested the work was a German manuscript, or even a Latin German manuscript. If anyone who has ever claimed to comment on Beinecke MS 408 was a true expert in medieval German Christian art it was he, at that time, and if anyone of his eminence could identify a lack of German Christian characteristics, it was he.
For me, his opinion when added to that of Steele, the Keeper of Manuscripts in England, and Goldschmidt is still fairly unarguable about the content. As for manufacture, the indications are fairly strong that northern Italy (I'd say more exactly the Veneto) is the most probable.
Against the more weighty opinions (in which I'm not counting mine or Pelling's) we have only theorists and (excuse my frankness) amateurs with a theory to hone and a very narrow range of comparative study. On balance, the German idea isn't well supported by the manuscript's own testimony or by the sort of people who can be termed experts in some relevant discipline. I wish we had less theory and more written appraisals by unsolicited, wholly independent, professionals.
Perhaps one day. If the theory-driven Voynicheros will keep out of it. If...