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• No text, but a visual code

• RE: No text, but a visual code

  Antonio García Jiménez > 26-11-2024, 06:19 PM

  argo2001, I'm glad that your grandmother taught you the intimate relationship between herbs, the moon and the stars. She knew the plants she collected. In the VM we do not know herbs. There may be some that can be identified but the vast majority cannot. This already seems mysterious, doesn't it?
  
  You don't seem to know much about the Hermetic tradition. Most of the texts of the religious-philosophical category were not known to the Western world until the second half of the 15th century, as you say, especially through Marsilio Ficino. But there is another category of technical hermetic texts of an alchemical, astrological and magical type that were translated into Latin centuries before from Arabic sources.
  
  The lapidary of Alfonso X the Wise, a work with which the Voynich has a great analogy, could come from this hermetic tradition.

• RE: No text, but a visual code

  Antonio García Jiménez > 29-11-2024, 01:46 PM

  In the cathedral of Siena there is a 15th century mosaic of Hermes Trismegistus. It may be surprising that a legendary figure who is a synthesis of ancient knowledge, magic, astrology and alchemy appears linked to Christianity. Although he never lost his ambiguous nature, in the first centuries of Christianity Hermes was considered a pagan prophet of the coming of Christ, hence, for example, some ideas of Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa have been related to hermeticism.
  
  A central idea of Hermeticism is the intimate correspondence of heaven and earth, of the astral influence on terrestrial phenomena. One of the mottos of this thought is what is above, there is below. In the Voynich, a book that basically consists of herbs and stars, a thought like this could explain why in the last section the stars can be confused with flowers, or why the color blue is so prominent in the flowers of the codex.
  
  The Voynich could have been made by a group of people in a medieval university or in a monastery. There is nothing strange in that it was like this and that it is a perfectly orthodox work from the Christian point of view of the time.

• RE: No text, but a visual code

  Antonio García Jiménez > 02-12-2024, 05:34 PM

  If the Voynich is thought to be an authentic and meaningful document, as I believe, then I think there will be a broad consensus that the VM is related to some current of thought of its time. I mean it's not believable that a group of people created this codex out of nothing. It has to have an intellectual basis.
  
  Given the mystery that the VM transmits, in its script and its imagery, it seems very possible that the codex is related to an esoteric current such as Hermeticism, which is an amalgam of ideas and beliefs from Antiquity centered on the legendary character of Hermes Trismegistus, syncretism of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thot. This current runs through the entire Middle Ages and experiences its splendor in the Renaissance.
  
  Proof of this are, for example, the frescoes of the Schifanoia palace in Ferrara, with images of the decans of the Egyptian zodiac. In the Liber Hermetis of the first centuries of our era this astrological system is described, as is the one based on the degrees of the signs of the zodiac, which we see in the lapidary of Alfonso X the Wise.
  
  The zodiacal section of the VM is the one that most clearly links the codex with the astrological system of Hermeticism, although the fact that it is an herbal accompanied by astronomical and astrological diagrams that seem to show the astral influence on herbs is also a solid indication.

• RE: No text, but a visual code

  bi3mw > 02-12-2024, 05:49 PM

  (02-12-2024, 05:34 PM)Antonio García Jiménez Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Given the mystery that the VM transmits, in its script and its imagery, it seems very possible that the codex is related to an esoteric current such as Hermeticism ....

  
  As also described in Wikipedia, hermeticism can be divided into two basic areas ( of course with overlaps ):
  
  "Religious-philosophical” hermeticism provides explanations for the origin and nature of the world and gives instructions for the attainment of wisdom and the purification and redemption of the soul.
  
  "Technical” hermeticism aims to master life and control nature through occult knowledge and magic. Its literature describes a variety of magical, astrological and alchemical ideas.
  
  Am I right in assuming that you are referring to the second part of the description?

• RE: No text, but a visual code

  Antonio García Jiménez > 02-12-2024, 06:08 PM

  Yes, that is, I am referring to the so-called technical hermeticism. I already said it in a previous post

• RE: No text, but a visual code

  bi3mw > 02-12-2024, 06:14 PM

  OK, I missed that.
  
  The following article, for example, is proof that the two areas cannot be strictly separated:
  
  A History of the Soul — The Astrology of Hermeticism
  
  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

• RE: No text, but a visual code

  Antonio García Jiménez > 02-12-2024, 07:54 PM

  If philosophical-religious hermeticism and technical hermeticism (magic, astrology and alchemy) are separated, it is for conventional reasons, but it forms a unity of thought. But it is true that there are hermetic works focused more on one of the branches than the other.
  
  If the Voynich is related to Hermeticism, which its zodiacal section leads one to think, it would be with the technical branch rather than the philosophical-religious branch.

• RE: No text, but a visual code

  R. Sale > 02-12-2024, 08:18 PM

  From the article: "Hermetic astrology is embedded within a specific philosophical and cosmological framework that involves a hierarchical structure of reality, with the Earth at the centre and successive layers of planetary spheres."
  
  The poly-concentric structure is the standard cosmic representation of the era.
  
  The VMs cosmos shows no indication of such *planetary spheres*.

• RE: No text, but a visual code

  Antonio García Jiménez > 02-12-2024, 08:50 PM

  Any enlightened person of the Voynich era knew the standard representation of the cosmos. It is not that or what makes hermetic astrology special, but its idea of the importance of the zodiacal degrees and decans in astral magic, as evident in the frescoes of the Schifanoia palace in Ferrara and in the lapidary of Alfonso X the Wise.
  
  The zodiacal section of the Voynich emphasizes the structure of each sign in 30 degrees, which could be related to hermetic thought, apart from the obvious mystery in which the codex is involved.

• RE: No text, but a visual code

  R. Sale > 02-12-2024, 09:23 PM

  How can we tell what this "enlightened person" knew if we cannot interpret the representations presented in the VMs images. If someone makes a book about dragons; it's not illustrated with drawings of sheep.
  
  The VMs cosmos has a very uncommon structure that is clearly not hermetic. Why?
  
  The VMs zodiac sequence starts with Pisces, not the standard choice, which should be Aries. Why?
  
  VMs Aries and Taurus have been strangely bisected. Why?
  
  Clear artistic deviations from the more standard representations significantly increase the probability that the VMs tends toward the idiosyncratic.
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