The Voynich Pipes

[Koen G]

Could the image in this manuscript be something similar? 
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There is also a star with "pipes" around it. As a bonus, some guy putting his ear in some kind of telescope.

[davidjackson]

That's Albertus Magnus if I remember correctly.

Can't read the text here. It seems to start off saying "a straight line to be drawn at any hour of the night" but then I get porces galli (French pigs) and go off the translation road 
Not too clear on this device and I don't remember what was discussed here in any detail.

He's looking at the cosmos. Note the "S" on his pipe which corresponds to the "S" on one of the "pipes" around the sun. Albertus is telling us that to find the truth in our astronomy we must look at the part of the heavens that corresponds to our question, and that astrological divination is a subtle craft. There are twelve pipes, ie, twelve celestial divisions.

[Koen G]

There are twelve pipes, ie, twelve celestial divisions.

That looks quite similar to what we see in the VM diagrams, doesn't it? Only there different celestial divisions there.

[Anton]

It's not porces, but potes  

And "galli" stands for the rooster, I presume.

Recta linea si serves luminu[m] intuitu horas noctis nosse potes galli sine vocib??

So it seems to be about knowing the night hours without the help of a rooster.

The whole passage is called "spera celi" - the celestial sphere. But what those quasi-pipes (divisions) stand for? And what does the star in the centre stand for?

[Koen G]

This seems like a worthwhile avenue of investigation. The hours of the night. Perhaps the diagrams in the VM just depict eight hours (or 16 half hours) instead of 12?

[Anton]

We could at least  translate this page of Magnus.

The first sentence goes:

Spera celi quater senis horis dum revoluitur.

Someone pick it up please.

Ah, it's not Magnus, it's "pseudo-Beda": You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

[davidjackson]

It's not porces, but potes

Lol!

So it's something like
a straight line if you keep the light in sight, during the hours of night until the cock crowing.
(although it's a pointless exercise trying to translate this single line, especially after a g&t at this time at night!)

The treatise is speculum Astronomiae, and was an attempt to bring astronomy into the field of Christian study by showing that not all of astronomy was demonic. The fear was that divination was forbidden by God, so any attempt was doomed to be interfered with by demons who would whisper false promises into your ear. In summary, Albertus tried to show that portents were permitted by God and were natural in nature, so they could be read and interpreted by Christians without fear of demonic possession.

[Koen G]

Maybe Marco will be able to illuminate the hours of the night

David, avatar suggestion 

[Anton]

I recognize "horas noctis nosse potes " as "you can know the hours of the night" and "galli sine vocib..." as a somewhat unordered expression of "without the crowing of a cock". Because "sine" is definitely "without".

If Helmut or maybe somebody else with solid knowledge of Latin visits this thread, that may save us painful efforts.

What is important is that the circle with that kind of star within it is designated to mean the celestial sphere on the whole.

[ReneZ]

There used to be a thread about this (type of) illustration, but it seems to have disappeared.
The search function still finds it. "Early Telescope" in "Astronomy" and it is (was) about sighting tubes.