Voynich's anatomy

[Jorge_Stolfi]

If You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. are the the most obvious examples of body parts, yet 77v doesn't really look like intenstines, and 83v is unclear enough that it could be any number of potential body parts, is it really that obvious a connection at all?

It is not at all "obvious", and indeed each figure, by itself, is not particularly "anatomical".  But, again, the sum of all those weak suggestions is too strong to ignore.

Of course we will then see other drawings as body parts when primed to look for it. The same would happen with any other theory, including the bodies of water examples shown earlier.

The interpretation as "spa" is the obvious one and needs no imagination.  There are hundreds of naked women bathing and frolicking in water pools and tubs, some of them with hypocaust heating, with water running in channels and pipes.  

But there are a few drawings, like the two balls on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and the serpentine pipe on f77v, where the "spa" interpretation does not seem to work.   Many people must have come up with the "anatomical" interpretation of those drawings on their own, without being primed. 

Maybe one could try a third "alchemical" interpretation.  The pools and pipes could represent chemical vessels or stages of preparation.  However, I don't think that coiled condensers were used in the 15th century; on drawings I recall only simple retorts with straight condensers. And I cannot "parse" You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. as an alchemical apparatus.

All the best, --stolfi