No text, but a visual code

[Antonio García Jiménez]

This work by Christine de Pizan is contemporary with the VM, so it is natural that their illustrations have something in common. What unites both works is the use of allegory, which is omnipresent in medieval culture. We see nine naked women in a pool illustrating Pizan's work just as we see naked women in a pool in the Voynich. But in both cases it is not a matter of flesh and blood women but of allegories, of spirits. In one case of the muses and in the other of the spirit of the fixed stars.

Understanding this is essential to interpret Quire 13 of the VM. It is not a biological or balneological section, but simply astrological, which is consistent with the rest of the book.