RE: New Blog Post, [imagery] "Sources for the Voynich Forgery"
R. Sale > 15-07-2021, 01:13 AM
I think we need a list. Not anything extensive, not even a top ten, but something to chew on, to prove the point.
I agree that there is a connection of the two Lauber illustrations and the VMs mermaid as well as the relevant illustration in Harley 334. They represent the same theme. They illustrate the same situation. They all have similarities of appearance. They all have similarities of structure. They are expressing the same idea. The mermaid as a creature, an animal among fish, a monster among sea monsters.
On closer inspection, however, the VMs mermaid is clearly different. She has thighs. Mermaids do not have thighs. One has to figure it from there. This is a representation of mythical Melusine. Which historical version of Melusine? The more mermaid-like one claimed to be ancestral to the royal house of Luxembourg. Their descendants include, coincident with VMs parchment dates, the kings and dukes in Valois era in France, etc.
This, if you will, is a higher level of sophistication (or trickery). The VMs substitutes the Luxembourg Melusine in place of the generic mermaids found in Lauber.
A second item on the list might be the comparison of cosmic diagrams as proposed by E. Velinska, which you well know and which I strongly support. Comparing the interior of the VMs cosmos with BNF Fr. 565, the structural similarities are remarkable. The visual diversity is even more remarkable. But that's the whole point of the VMs illustration: it's the same thing structurally and ideologically, but it has been made to look different. The nebuly line in the VMs and the elaborate scallop-shell cloud-band in Oresme are visually distinct and functionally equivalent.
The Oresme cosmos has the same sort of cultural relationship to the VMs as the illustrations from Lauber. So this seems like a good comparison. Potentially there are other suggestions for the list.
The provenance of the Oresme text is Paris c. 1410, in the library of Duke Jean of Berry. This is within the most restrictive version of the VMs parchment dates. And Jean of Berry was a descendant in the Valois line. The Harley ms also connects to Paris in the 2nd quarter of the 1400s, also partially overlaps the most restrictive C-14 dating - which might not be as restrictive as other interpretations suggest.
Given that both items (and others) are compatible with each other. Given that the material evidence largely fits within the C-14 dates. There is reason to suggest the creator of the VMs illustrations had some familiarity with the relevant sources, at least expressing the same ideas as those sources represent. The Vms creator had the requisite familiarity to know that a nebuly line equated to a cosmic boundary, about the 43 undulations, and much more. <Not Newbold's folly>
I believe that additional, specific items added to this list will further clarify the situation.