Conjectures about the “man without attributes” ( f85r2 )

[MarcoP]

I noticed that the doctor is presented as the first image in the actual text of the book (p.7), but I don't know where it was taken from the MS. It might be interesting if the uroscoping doctor was used as an introductory figure in other textual traditions.

The doctor is from the very first page of Arsenal 2510, France, 1275-1300
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You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and the initial E for the ages of man are both from BL Sloane 2435, France, 13th Century.

What is going on in that O-intial you just linked? It's interesting...

To clarify: quadratic group (four ages), the only attribute is a ball, one of them is weirdly looking away from us. I might be misinterpreting the latter though, in which case it would be less interesting.

That O-initial (like the doctor) is from Arsenal 2510 (f.27v).
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I understand the Voynich-wise interest of the figure looking away. I agree about your description of the illustration, but I have no idea of the reason for that pose.
Another interesting feature is that the illustrator apparently ignored the years that the text assigns to the four ages (0-25/30, 25/30-40/45, 40/45-60, >60): the young man is a child and the ~35 years old guy could be an adolescent, much shorter than the middle-aged man. Possibly heights were used to graphically illustrate the parabola of human life?

EDIT: I see I cross-posted with Matthias, sorry.