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RE: No text, but a visual code

Antonio García Jiménez > 02-02-2022, 08:00 PM

There are images in the VM that speak for themselves. For example, in f90v1 we see a plant with flowers in the shape of a cross made of nails and the leaves look like sword or spear blades. It's a shocking christian sign.

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For more drama, the root of the same plant has the figure of a ferocious animal

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I doubt that this fantastic and symbolic plant could occur to someone who was not religious. I am becoming more and more convinced that the Voynich was made in a monastery
RE: No text, but a visual code

Antonio García Jiménez > 06-02-2022, 03:50 PM

It is amazing how the authors of the Voynich have related all the sections of the book to each other.

For example, when viewing this image of a cosmological diagram it is not difficult to see that the author has placed in the center what looks like the corolla of a flower with open blue petals

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There could be other interpretations, but in my opinion any interpretation of any VM image must be consistent with what we see throughout the book. In the herbarium most of the plants we see have flowers. And what is more shocking: many of them are blue, in a way that is disproportionate to reality.
RE: No text, but a visual code

Antonio García Jiménez > 12-02-2022, 11:19 AM

One of the most intriguing things about Quire 13 is what some of the female figures are holding in their hands. For example, what is this lady holding down the slide?

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To find out, the only thing we can do is look for parallel images at the time that can help us. I have found one that fits very well. It is a medieval image of the pilgrimage to Rome. The pilgrims all carry the same stick or crook, with that rounded shape at the end that we also see on the stick carried by the female figure in the Voynich

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Is the young lady also going on a pilgrimage to Rome? Of course not. It is just an allegory of the journey that they all undertake. The stick is carried by one representing all of them because it is just that: an allegory of the journey that the stars undertake towards Earth
RE: No text, but a visual code

Antonio García Jiménez > 15-02-2022, 08:15 PM

I have sometimes referred to how the sections of the VM are related, how the book is a unit of meaning. I will put some more example.

Observe that wavy line of the f68v, misnamed band of clouds, which for me is a mark of the firmament, of the sphericity of the universe.

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It is the same wavy line that we see below the female figure at You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
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I have already said that for me these female figures are personifications of the stars. This lady also holds a spindle, an allegory of eternity, because it is the stars that spin time with their circular movement.

We see the same wavy line in f75r, where the ladies seem to come down from that kind of tent roof. Actually, it is another allegory of the descent of the stars from the firmament

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RE: No text, but a visual code

R. Sale > 15-02-2022, 09:13 PM

The line pattern referred to is a nebuly line. The heraldic definition of the pattern is that the crests and troughs are bulbous. Still there are a number of different forms these bulbs can take to produce a variety of artistic representations often used as cosmic boundaries of the cloud-band or wolkenband type.

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The word 'nebuly' is derived from Latin 'nebula', denoting a mist or cloud, and the etymology of the German term is also derived from 'wolken' = cloud. The cloud connection is innate if traditional terminology is applied.

<Not to say that this is 100%, because exceptions have been found, however...>

The use of a nebuly line in the VMs cosmos shows that the artist was familiar with the implications of a nebuly line as a valid cosmic boundary as found in the Berry Apocalypse. Likewise, the fancier, scallop-shell pattern of the cloud-band in the VMs central Rosette shows a different artistic variation more similar to the so-called 'Oresme' illustration [BNF Fr. 565, c. 1410, Paris)] and also in the Berry library.
RE: No text, but a visual code

Antonio García Jiménez > 16-02-2022, 04:59 PM

R.Sale, I think we agree that this wavy or nebuly line, as you prefer, represents the cosmic boundary, the limit of the universe. Beyond is the kingdom of God.

I don't think that wavy line has anything to do with the iconographic language of heraldry, but it's not worth discussing because it's secondary. The important point is that the Voynich has nothing to do with heraldry.

There may be some image with heraldic value. The clearest is the root of the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. plant, which resembles the spread wings of an eagle

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Seeing this image one thinks of the heraldic emblem of the Holy Roman Emperors, which is consistent with the image of a female figure from the zodiacal section wearing an imperial crown. Signs that indicate something that seems obvious for other reasons: that the VM was made in some territory of the Holy Roman German Empire.

In the same way, some religious images are also seen in the book, but that does not mean that the VM has a religious meaning.

For me, the VM is simply a book on medieval astrological science, a science that of course had a lot in common with magic.
RE: No text, but a visual code

R. Sale > 16-02-2022, 08:54 PM

There are in medieval heraldry, well before the VMs C-14 dates, clear examples and definitions of 'wavy' and 'nebuly' lines. They are not something I "prefer", this was the example and the terminology from the historical 'science' of heraldry. Nebuly derives from clouds; wavy indicates water - in nearly all medieval illustrations.

The heraldic connection, that this wandering, sort of meandering, serpentine, wobbly line around some stars, is a validly, historically named *nebuly* line is something that independently confirms this illustration as being a geocentric cosmos.

Heraldry is not separate from the iconographic language of that era; the vocabulary is the same in art and heraldry. The nebuly line is a wolkenband in the Berry Apocalypse. The cloud-based denotation and connotation of the nebuly line is clear. It does not work with the other terms or with other lines. The VMs artist knew this and used that information in the VMs cosmic representation and in Quire 13. The investigative use of less than adequate terminology is another matter.

The VMs is not about heraldry; there are other sources. That does not mean that the VMs does not contain heraldry, a semi of annulets, or an engrailed chief, or that it does not use information that was common to the science of heraldry at the time (C-14). Nor does it in any way limit or define the significance of whatever potential role that heraldry may have to play in the investigation of the VMs.

The investigation of the VMs cosmos itself, and the comparison with BNF Fr. 565 and Harley 334 examples reveals a lot about the VMs.

It is much easier, in my experience, to see the "known' rather than to discover the 'unknown'. If one knows the imperial wings, one sees the imperial wings, and if one knows armorial insignia, one can find armorial insignia. Not just in a generic sense, but a connection to the origins of an on-going (modified after C-14 dates) Catholic religious tradition - the cardinal's red galero. There is a single 'nymph' on VMs White Aries that has a red hat and blue stripes. And s/he's not alone. There is pairing.

VMs magic is sleight of hand, - it's trickery. There are two ways to evaluate the orientation of the blue stripes, based on heraldry. Check 'em out!
RE: No text, but a visual code

Antonio García Jiménez > 17-02-2022, 05:23 PM

VM magic has nothing to do with sleight of hand. The magic I am talking about is the one that was present in medieval science, the idea that there are hidden powers in nature. I think it is evident that there is a lot of this in the Voynich. The author painted dozens of non-existent plants. Why did he do it? This is the question that anyone serious about studying the Voynich must ask.

I do not understand why so much emphasis on heraldry to talk about a book in which above all we see strange medicinal herbs and stars. I have already said that if there is any heraldic emblem in the images, it is something completely secondary. Nothing important in relation to the iconographic message of the book.
RE: No text, but a visual code

R. Sale > 17-02-2022, 09:33 PM

The magic of medieval science was a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. Yes, they believed in a geocentric cosmos, four elements and all that. And yes, things are heading for an even more comprehensive form of ideological syncretism such as Ficino after the C-14 dates. What does magical, medieval science have to do with non-existent plants? Plant investigators have a different opinion. Labeled illustrations in traditional herbal texts can be problematic. Why expect the VMs plant representations to be photographic? How can the stars connect to the plants if the plants were non-existent to the artist.

How can things be hidden that must be drawn upon a page of a manuscript? The VMs adapts a ready-made visual code. That code is heraldry. There are no magical, mystical secrets in heraldry, though there is trickery. To know the code requires traditional information regarding the history of armorial and ecclesiastical heraldry in the Roman church. Specifically this refers to the cardinal's red galero and the Fieschi armorial heraldry - and the historical connection through Pope Innocent IV. etc.

If red hats and blue stripes, identified by heraldry, can designate a specific historical situation, doesn't that count for something? Or is it really a valid identification? Validation is built into the construction. The figures are in the proper hierarchical placement, both are in the favored heraldic quadrant. Only a white animal is suited for celestial sacrifice, and in the VMs Zodiac sequence, that animal is White Aries.

Steps have also been taken to disguise these armorial images and a study of heraldry shows that modifications of this type are not allowed to be used. It's part of the trickery. Heraldry may not have an expansive role in the VMs, but it can still be significant enough to establish a grounded, historical connection inside this most mysterious manuscript.
RE: No text, but a visual code

Antonio García Jiménez > 18-02-2022, 05:31 PM

R.Sale, I think it will not be possible for us to understand each other.

Of course you can defend your ideas, but please do it in your own thread.
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