New Blog Post, [imagery] "Sources for the Voynich Forgery"

[proto57]

Now I'm confused, Rich. The majority of your recent blog (much of which you've posted in previous blogs) consists of post-medieval proposed exemplars for individual diagrams in the VMS.

Now you say you're adding the medieval Buch der Natur as "another likely source".


The forum threads include hundreds of images that could be likely sources. Are you compiling a list? Exactly what is your purpose? Why include Buch der Natur and not the many others?

I'm not sure what you are asking exactly, but I'll try to explain: there are a great many suggested comparisons between Voynich illustrations and outside ones, that is true. But there are those illustrations which match enough levels, with enough points, that they seem to be the specific source used. That is the point.

These are the reasons I like Koen's observations about these copies of Buch der Natur. Without repeating every point in the post, for instance, the long sought crayfish/lobster illustration showing the legs incorrectly emanating from the tail, rather than the torso.

Yes of course there are very general similarities to a great many other zodiac, herbal, medicinal, etc. illustrations, but they don't rise to the level of triggering the sense they are the actual illustration used by the Voynich artist. And THAT is the point of the blog post, and my interest in this and certain other blog posts by Koen, and here, and so on. There are many lobsters out there, and all could be suspected as influences, but the specific features of this one places it in a special category.

Will others set the line differently than me, between direct influence/copy, and merely a general sense of... ? Of course. But identifying specific source material is a very valuable thing, and I think in many instances it can be done, and has been done, even if the observer of the specific instance does not like the implications of finding them. And from reading Koen's blog and the comments, it is quickly apparent that others agree... this is probably the specific source- although others give a different "why" and "how" than I do.

Rich.