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Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens
- Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens
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RE: Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens
rikforto > 21-02-2026, 05:28 PM
(21-02-2026, 05:18 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.When I talked about these years ago, it was said that the woman is just leading her boyfriend to the pool and that the one nymph is helping the other one make a pony tail. This made me lose all hope in ever collectively understanding Voynich imagery.
I happen to agree with your understanding of these two images, but this is the essential and unending problem of all "looks like" analyses: "nuh-uh" is actually a sufficient refutation. Kudos to those of you building up a strong case with supporting evidence from other manuscripts, some of that work has even gotten me to see the manuscript differently. But the subjective component will bedevil this line of inquiry until we have an uncontroversial reading of the labels...and even then, it probably won't settle every debate. -
RE: Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens
Jorge_Stolfi > 21-02-2026, 07:37 PM
(21-02-2026, 02:20 PM)Antonio García Jiménez Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.It is simply a scientific book, scientific for its time of course. It is true that there are not many religious symbols, but there are enough to consider it a work of Christian tradition. We have ... the dove of the Holy Spirit (f86v3); a stem that coils like a bishop's staff (f56r); [the herb with] a root shaped like a beast, leaves shaped like spears, and flowers resembling the nails with which Christ was nailed to the cross (f90v1).
Those are not evidence of "Christian tradition". These interpretations are not the answer one would get from asking any "fresh" observer "what is this?". They are answers to "if this was a disguised Christian symbol, what would it be?"
And there are problems in these interpretations.
Why are there two "doves of the Holy Spirit" on f86v3? And why is one of them sitting in a nest?
The petals of the flowers of f90v1 may look like nails at first sight, but they are in fact hollow, like square trumpets.
Quote: the female figure holding a cross (f79v)
That indeed is hard to see as anything but a cross.
However, there is a possible problem with that one too. I cannot discuss it here, but you may guess it by trying to understand what is going on with the third nymph on that page's margin:
What do you see there?
All the best, --stolfi -
RE: Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens
Antonio García Jiménez > 21-02-2026, 09:03 PM
I wouldn't be surprised if they'd drawn two doves of the Holy Spirit. The authors have demonstrated their sense of humor elsewhere. Not only them, but you too with that square trumpets thing.
In the image you posted, what I see is a woman inside a tube. You can't expect this to have a straightforward interpretation, can you? I think anyone who's followed my posts over the years knows what I think of this image and Quire 13. -
RE: Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens
Jorge_Stolfi > 21-02-2026, 11:42 PM
(21-02-2026, 09:03 PM)Antonio García Jiménez Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I wouldn't be surprised if they'd drawn two doves of the Holy Spirit. The authors have demonstrated their sense of humor elsewhere.
But, again, any "fresh" observer who looked at that picture would say "two birds, one flying, one sitting in a nest". No one would think of the "Holy Spirit" unless prompted "What hidden Christian references can you see on this image?"
And, even then, that observer would say "The doves maybe? Indeed, Medieval artists, who for some reason generally struggled to depict invisible things , often depicted the Holy Spirit as a dove... But Christian theology does not seem to allow for a Holy Nest where the Holy Spirit would be hatching Holy Spiritual Eggs..."
Quote:Not only them, but you too with that square trumpets thing.
That was not a joke. Look closely at the Beinecke image, full scale. On the head of each "nail", you can clearly see a line leading from the far corner down into the head. Those "nails" are not solid, they are hollow square trumpet-like thngs.
Quote:In the image you posted, what I see is a woman inside a tube.
Sorry, I did not mean "What do you think the artist tried to depict there". I meant "Look at the drawing itself, without trying to interpret it as a 3D thing or person. What do you see?"
All the best, --stolfi -
RE: Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens
Searcher > 22-02-2026, 10:31 AM
Я see a pregnant woman. -
RE: Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens
Jorge_Stolfi > 24-02-2026, 08:24 PM
(22-02-2026, 10:31 AM)Searcher Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Я see a pregnant woman.
Well, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is what I see.
And that is why I doubt even that cross (which would otherwise be the only Christian symbol in the whole VMS). -
RE: Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens
Stefan Wirtz_2 > 06-03-2026, 01:36 PM
(22-02-2026, 10:31 AM)Searcher Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Я see a pregnant woman.
… or a woman „fitting“ into a common medieval beauty standard, with a bit of belly and a not-so-large breast anatomy.
Beauty ideals were much different that days, in whole europe.
For the most „nymphs“ aka bathing women I would be sure about a pregancy, for this one: not quite sure. -
RE: Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens
Jorge_Stolfi > 06-03-2026, 03:01 PM
(06-03-2026, 06:26 AM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Another container, Basel, 1410.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
What is that picture supposed to show? King Melchizedek giving bread and wine to Abraham? Interpreted as a precursor to the Eucharist?
All the best, --stolfi -
RE: Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens
R. Sale > 06-03-2026, 08:10 PM