What is unique or rare about the VM Zodiac signs?

[MichelleL11]

The 2 top-left images, sagittaus and gemini are from  a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..

In another thread it was said that sagittarius with croosbow is only known from one family of manuscripts, all after 1400 ca and from German-speaking regions. The one I have posted corresponds to that family?

I knew those manuscript illustrations looked familiar.  See discussion in 2020 linked below where I talk about where I saw these (I was not the first Voynich researcher to find these examples - I believe that was Ellie Velinska who is no longer researching the VMS).


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Yes, I believe this MS's Sagittarius follows that pattern.  It is about 1400, Bavaria is a German-speaking region (albeit a dialect), so I think this manscript is part of that tradition --> see discussion by JK Peterson for the basis of the statement: 

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One way you can double check for prior discussions is to use the shelf mark for the manuscript (and in general, it can be helpful to others to provide this in your own postings).  The shelf mark for this manscript is Cod. Pal. Germ. 148 which stands for Codices Palatini germanici.  Pal. Germ. 148 can also be used.  Sometimes this is abbreviated CPG.  In all cases, you therefore know that the language of the manuscript is German because of the germanici part.  If it was in Latin, it would be Cod. Pal. Lat. 

Here is a link to the story behind manuscripts that have Cod. Pal. shelf marks -- it's pretty interesting and involves the 30 Years War: 
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.  (a number of the Latin manuscripts from this library are physcially present in the Vatican library and only a digital manuscript is in Heidelberg, see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).  Those manuscripts have Vat. Pal. Lat. (or BAV (Bibiloteca Apostolica Vaticana) Pal. Lat.) shelf marks. 

The system is far, far from consistent but it can give you clues . . .
 
You do this enough you start recognizing the holding library by their shelf mark patterns . . . in this case, you know that Cod. Pal. Germ. shelf marked MS are most likely in the University of Heidelberg library because the Vatican returned a majority of the German ones from the Biblioteca Palatina to Heidelberg in the 1800s.