17-01-2022, 08:56 AM
Interesting article.
But what I see are images of medieval women doing routine work. They spin dressed indoors or outdoors. There are some funny drawings, but nothing that can perplex you.
What I do not see anywhere, except in the Voynich, is a woman above the clouds spinning naked. This obviously must have a meaning beyond what we see.
Koen asks a very pertinent question: If the spindles simply mean the nymphs are stars, and all nymphs are stars, then why don't all nymphs have spindles?
Of course those who made the Voynich did not make it easy. All we can do is interpret, but interpret by looking at the whole book, not just this section. There is a neighboring section in which the same female figures are inside zodiacal signs, which are nothing more than constellations of stars. In addition, each one holds a star.
There are also cosmological pages in the book full of stars. There is also another section without images at the end of the codex where there are stars at the beginning of what look like paragraphs.
Finally, we have the opinion of an expert in iconology like Panofsky who identified these female figures as astral spirits. And another renowned researcher like Father Petersen who held a similar opinion.
And what for me is a very convincing argument, that this is precisely the interpretation that, according to medieval thought, allows us to unite the two parts of the book: the herbarium and the cosmological part. It is what gives the book its full meaning.
But what I see are images of medieval women doing routine work. They spin dressed indoors or outdoors. There are some funny drawings, but nothing that can perplex you.
What I do not see anywhere, except in the Voynich, is a woman above the clouds spinning naked. This obviously must have a meaning beyond what we see.
Koen asks a very pertinent question: If the spindles simply mean the nymphs are stars, and all nymphs are stars, then why don't all nymphs have spindles?
Of course those who made the Voynich did not make it easy. All we can do is interpret, but interpret by looking at the whole book, not just this section. There is a neighboring section in which the same female figures are inside zodiacal signs, which are nothing more than constellations of stars. In addition, each one holds a star.
There are also cosmological pages in the book full of stars. There is also another section without images at the end of the codex where there are stars at the beginning of what look like paragraphs.
Finally, we have the opinion of an expert in iconology like Panofsky who identified these female figures as astral spirits. And another renowned researcher like Father Petersen who held a similar opinion.
And what for me is a very convincing argument, that this is precisely the interpretation that, according to medieval thought, allows us to unite the two parts of the book: the herbarium and the cosmological part. It is what gives the book its full meaning.