No text, but a visual code

[Antonio García Jiménez]

In a good number of the female figures we see that they not only have their feet inside tubes but also put one or both hands into other tubes. Perhaps the most striking case is that of the central figure at the top of folio f77v, which has its feet in a tube and both hands in tubes on either side.

   What the artist wants to show with these shocking images is that the female figures travel through those tubes. They are the fluid that descends from the sky. Since he cannot draw them completely inside, he suggests it by placing their feet and hands inside the tubes.

    To understand all this imagery, it's important to keep in mind how the universe was conceived in the Middle Ages. It was seen as a collection of several overlapping, closed spheres. Hence, at least in the minds of the Voynich authors, it was thought that the influence of the stars had to travel through conduits to avoid being lost, so that they could pass through the different layers and reach Earth.