[Blog Post] An Allegory of Salvation (Koen Gheuens & Cary Rapaport)

[Barbrey]

Yes, thanks so much for fixing!  I was just looking at the inside of that cosmos image in relation to the adjacent sphere too.  The six petal middle of it is rather striking in similarity to the six bump middle of the bible image, which is supposed to signify the world soul.  And the cragginess of that next inner circle is certainly reminiscent of the craggy images of the left bottom sphere.

I was just throwing this out there, but you know what?  I think we have a good candidate.  This certainly fits my frame narrative hypothesis..  Also, I have been trying to narrow down spiritus, anima and corpus for ages on the rosettes.  I know spiritus and corpus, but this would finally identify anima for me.  And I owe you a debt of gratitude because I would never have thought of looking for a Christian source for this without your persuasive article.

Anyway, don't want to get ahead of myself but I am excited!

[Barbrey]

But nothing is easy with the Voynich.  My quick googling earlier today was based on some inaccuracies of the visited sites that I want to correct so others are not misled too.

This God the Geometer figure did adorn the front page of Old French illustrated bibles.  Bibles moralisees. One or more In use or at least existence since the 1200's, the last of them produced in the fifteenth.  The earliest one contains something like 5000 illustrations.  

Despite their long use, however, they were enormously expensive to produce and restricted to the French royal family, though Blanche of Castile seems to have had made a Latin edition.  So while I guess it's possible that image based on the front cover circulated, the illustrated bibles themselves did not.  My original understanding from one site was that this was a standard bible of the time, but it was not.  Restricted as said to the French royal family.

Secondly, another site had labeled the centre image of the cosmos as the world soul, but another site, more trusted, says it is prima materia.  So my location of anima or anima mundi is once again far from certain.

Still, the search continues, and the new info did perk my interest in one regard because of R. Sales and his Oresme analysis, one of the best comparisons I've seen though I don't think I've seen the full analysis.  Will have to look up.  My understanding is that the most pertinent painting in that Oresme collection was also held by a French royal family member.  But don't quote me!  Will investigate this.

[R. Sale]

@Barbrey,

Investigate away, please do. However I was not the one to make the foundational discovery. That was the work of E. Velinska in 2014, who blog posted the comparison of the VMs cosmos (f68v3) with the cosmic illustrations of BNF Fr. 565 and Harley 334 f. 29, mainly based of the shared, yet uncommon, use of the inverted T-O representation of Earth, and other similarities.

It's a bit of a long story and somewhat detailed, and not related to Koen & Cary's allegory here. Probably best to start a new thread under Imagery, rather than dig through all the old ones. Happy to assist.

[Barbrey]

Thanks R. Sale.  I agree I've gotten off-topic and looking at the "clock" image again I'm not sure it works. I think it's more likely the alchemical sign for aqua vitae, or quintessence, and indirectly eternity, which fits my other theory re Rupescissa and quintessence, but less so the apophatic theory, which was more in line with Koen's and supportive of the allegory.  I will move on start a new thread though.

[nablator]

The VMS "clock hands" are rounded on the ends.

Not only the ends. This is important. This shape with the 3 circles is not recognizable as a compass, clock nor anything material. What possibly remains is the immaterial: a symbolic or schematic representation.

About the religious content, the (fake) herbal might be simply pushing the metaphor of the garden too far.

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It's almost as if Edgar Allan Poe knew about the VMS when he wrote The man of the crowd surprisingly mentioning "a certain German book that (...) does not permit itself to be read", a "grosser book than the Hortulus Animae"...