I split this from the Aberil thread. Many people have found interesting month series over the years that match in various ways to the VM Zodiac inscriptions. Since these are fragmented, shared in different formats and on old websites and blogs, it might be interesting to collect them all here in a unified way. 

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Please post/link any old or new examples in this thread. When I have time, I will add them to the spreadsheet.

The color codes are: 

Green: complete match or spelling variation of the same word (letters like v-u and i-j were interchangable).
Yellow: has one or more salient features of the VM version.
Red: far off.

I just added Marco's example as a proof of concept, but I think this exercise could bring clarity when the list becomes more fleshed out.
Complete or near-complete sequences are preferred since individual attestations pop up in all kinds of places and muddy the waters.

The You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. found by Thomas Sauvaget and mentioned by Nablator in the other thread. Sauvaget gives the date 1305, but his London Museum link is now dead. Please check my transcription, it might not be perfect.

Jenuier
Feurier
Mars
Auril
May
Jong
Jullet
Aoust
Septembre
Octembre
Nouembre
Decembre

Thanks, Marco!
I also added some of Sauvaget's findings from this post: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
And devised a very rudimentary rating system (green is one point, yellow a half).

We have 4 full entries so far. Observations:

• These all happen to be pre-1350, which is probably not ideal as far as samples go.
  
• April is the most problematic so far: the form auril (var: avril) is preferred, missing both "b" and "e".
  
• The single o-vowel in iollet/jollet is hard to find.
  
• The form Aoust for August is preferred over augst.
  

Conclusion: we'll need to find more series


Regarding June and July, I notice that these often "harmonize", like in the examples "joing, joingnet" and "juing, juignet". Our "o" in iollet may have been prompted by that in yong.

(14-06-2025, 02:55 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

• The form Aoust for August is preferred over augst.
  

Not sure if this was already said (and it's a single name   ), but there's a city in Switzerland called Augst (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), apparently from Augusta Raurica.

I've been looking through previous publications, but apart from Sauvaget's, I can only find fragmentary attestations of one or two month names. Somehow I believed more good sequences had been found.

By googling the names, there is only so much we can find (things that have been transcribed, basically).
I've been looking at some books of hours but those are often in Latin and we're obviously looking for a vernacular form. And probably somewhat provincial, so the book of hours may not even be a good genre to study.

You're right about that - and not just Books of Hours, it's liturgical calendars in general. Even this appears to Latin influenced.

St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 827 from Lake Constance region · 1425/28

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Here's another example that's VMs contemporary. It uses abbreviations.

St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 501 first half of the 15th century

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And it "starts with March".

I've got a few.

1. 

"Petit livre des fortunes de toutes créatures humaines"
1436
In collection of Louis de Luxembourg, Northern France origin
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Mars
Avril
May
Juing
Juillet
Aoust
Septembre
Octobre
Novembre
Decembre
Janvier 
Fevrier

2.

"Livre d'heures, avec calendrier en français"
15th century
Nantes
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Mars
Avril
May
Juing
Juillet
Aoust
Septembre
Octobre
Novembre
Decembre
Janvier
Fevrier

3.

"Kalendarium de Pierre de Dacie"
Second half of 14th century
In collection of Louis de Gruuthuse (Bruges), northern France origin
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Mars
Avril
May
Juing
Juillet
Aoust
Septembre
Octobre
Nouembre
Decembre
Janvier
Fevrier

4. 

"Petit Traite de Medicine de Dionysius Bellini"
1480
Caillac
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Mars
Avril
May
Juing
Juillet
Aoust
Septembre
Otoubre
Nouebre
Decembre
Janvier
Fevrier

5. 

"Le livre et journal ouquel est contenu la recepte et despcnse de l'Ostel du roy de France [Jean le Bon] en Angleterre, faitte et paiée par Denys de Collors, chapellain et notaire dudit seigneur, depuis le premier jour de juillet ceclix jusques au premier janvier ensuivant"
1359-1360
Paris
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Mars
Avril
Maŷ
Juing
Juillet
Aoust
Septembre
Octobre
Novembre
Decembre
Janvier 
Fevrier

(14-06-2025, 07:36 PM)davidma Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. 

Maŷ

Is it possible that small details like the tittle (?) above y, or the exact abbreviated forms of the last months are relevant as well? As Koen said, the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. with "Aberil" has May too, but without a tittle.

Of course there's the fact that the Voynich annotator only added a tittle to one of the two occurrences of May....