29-11-2016, 05:00 AM
(This post was last modified: 29-11-2016, 05:02 AM by Diane.
Edit Reason: add reference
)
Dear Members,
I'm sorry that I haven't time to read all the previous contributions to this thread, so if my own observations duplicate earlier ones, my apologies. In any case, I've already said this in various posts to the research blog (2008-2010) and some again on voynichimagery.
The first point I'd make is that where the centre or apex (marked by the star-fish looking thing) refers to the highest geographical point when it appears in the previous folio - which I have described as being a description of the qanat system - here we see the 'apex' as the centre of the heavens. In juxtaposition, then, I should expect that while the first describes the bringing of waters from below the ground, this next describes the pattern of waters from above during each of the 28 months of certain eastern agricultural calendars which - as I've been letting people know since 2010 - are often named by the sequence of asterisms known to the west as the lunar mansions. I noted when skimming some of the earlier responses that now Rene and others are less uncomfortable with this idea than was the case in earlier years. Another cause for thanks all around.
However, I should be inclined to think that the 'labels' would be more likely to refer to the month than to the asterism as such - though one cannot say certainly.
And once more I'd refer readers to sources which they might not think to consult if the have held a theory that all the content in the manuscript is the product of Latin Christian culture or (less often today) a single Latin Christian author.
I'd suggest perhaps beginning from Al-Biruni's India and even the Brht Samhita which influenced his understanding of meteorology and of weather omens. The Indian nakshatras are argued by some as the origin of the Arabs' lunar mansions.
On the calendars, texts and essays by Serjeant and then by Varisco remain the chief references.
Then, for more detailed vocabulary and explanations, perhaps Ibn Majid's work (translated by Tibbetts as 'Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean before the Coming of the Portuguese).
Those interested in the Chinese side of things will also find in the 1971 edition an informative essay by Joseph Needham.
The series of 28, in combination with depiction of the astronomical 'apex' here, and the diagram's following that which I identify as a description of the qanat, strongly suggests to me that the content is meteorological, to do with seasonal rains and/or likelihood of storms, and that the interest will be less in the seasonal rains of agriculture than those which affect one place or another in the traders' maritime circuits. But this last, of course, is no more than an initial suggestion and in the normal way I wouildn't mention it before doing the in-depth research myself.
No chance of that in the foreseeable future, but I do wish Anton and all other members heaps of good luck.
I'm sorry that I haven't time to read all the previous contributions to this thread, so if my own observations duplicate earlier ones, my apologies. In any case, I've already said this in various posts to the research blog (2008-2010) and some again on voynichimagery.
The first point I'd make is that where the centre or apex (marked by the star-fish looking thing) refers to the highest geographical point when it appears in the previous folio - which I have described as being a description of the qanat system - here we see the 'apex' as the centre of the heavens. In juxtaposition, then, I should expect that while the first describes the bringing of waters from below the ground, this next describes the pattern of waters from above during each of the 28 months of certain eastern agricultural calendars which - as I've been letting people know since 2010 - are often named by the sequence of asterisms known to the west as the lunar mansions. I noted when skimming some of the earlier responses that now Rene and others are less uncomfortable with this idea than was the case in earlier years. Another cause for thanks all around.
However, I should be inclined to think that the 'labels' would be more likely to refer to the month than to the asterism as such - though one cannot say certainly.
And once more I'd refer readers to sources which they might not think to consult if the have held a theory that all the content in the manuscript is the product of Latin Christian culture or (less often today) a single Latin Christian author.
I'd suggest perhaps beginning from Al-Biruni's India and even the Brht Samhita which influenced his understanding of meteorology and of weather omens. The Indian nakshatras are argued by some as the origin of the Arabs' lunar mansions.
On the calendars, texts and essays by Serjeant and then by Varisco remain the chief references.
Then, for more detailed vocabulary and explanations, perhaps Ibn Majid's work (translated by Tibbetts as 'Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean before the Coming of the Portuguese).
Those interested in the Chinese side of things will also find in the 1971 edition an informative essay by Joseph Needham.
The series of 28, in combination with depiction of the astronomical 'apex' here, and the diagram's following that which I identify as a description of the qanat, strongly suggests to me that the content is meteorological, to do with seasonal rains and/or likelihood of storms, and that the interest will be less in the seasonal rains of agriculture than those which affect one place or another in the traders' maritime circuits. But this last, of course, is no more than an initial suggestion and in the normal way I wouildn't mention it before doing the in-depth research myself.
No chance of that in the foreseeable future, but I do wish Anton and all other members heaps of good luck.