• Options
• Login
• Desktop Style

Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

• Index

  • The Voynich Ninja
  • Voynich Research
  • Imagery
  • Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
• Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

• RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

  Bernd > 12-06-2026, 04:03 PM

  These are indeed very good matches! But we must discern between imagery and text. Just because the VM artist copied certain imagery, this does not mean it is in any way related to the content. It appears that the VM artist recycled and modified imagery from a variety of sources. It might even be that he had just the images at hand and not the corresponding text. Or at least that he did not understand it. In a workshop, commercial manuscripts were compiled from separate text and image sources. Manuscripts were not copied from manuscripts because this was inefficient. By having separate text and imagery, a multitude of people could work on the same product simultaneously.
  
  If possible, could you make a spreadsheet with the time and place where these manuscripts were created like we have for the month names? It does not look like they came from the same workshop but we might be able to narrow down a time period There must have been some source of this imagery. If it is a German workshop, this might be very interesting.

• RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

  R. Sale > 12-06-2026, 06:19 PM

  The variety of sources is extensive to the point where it becomes difficult to explain, starting with the VMs cosmos.

• RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

  Jorge_Stolfi > 12-06-2026, 08:22 PM

  (12-06-2026, 03:44 PM)Jimmy123 Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.On wikipedia it says Michael Scot went to Tuareg kingdom, maybe VMS is Tuareg influence in the pictures?
  
  What does it look like a Tuareg manuscript? I could not find online

  
  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is what the Tuareg/Berber/Amazigh writing looks like.  But I don't know whether there were ever any Tuareg manuscripts.  The script seems to have been mostly used on stone, pottery, jewelry, etc. The Tuareg started writing longer texts in Berber language only after the spread of Islam, but then they used the Arabic script.
  
  All the best, --stolfi

• RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

  Bernd > 12-06-2026, 09:16 PM

  (12-06-2026, 06:19 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The variety of sources is extensive to the point where it becomes difficult to explain, starting with the VMs cosmos.

  I agree.
  Whoever made the VM had access to a lot of high-profile and also obscure imagery. One idea would be that he drew inspiration from the stock image collection of a workshop instead of a library, but this conflicts with Taccola's Palatino 766, which to our knowledge was never widely copied, and the fact that materials and methods used to create the VM do not point to a professional environment. The alternative is that the author indeed had access to a very good collection. My best idea would be an early Strozzi collection which presumably also held Palatino 766. Or, we may very well be looking at an imperial library - assuming Sigismund indeed received a copy from Taccola's notebook. In any case, this is not your village doctor's collection. Nobility or wealthy merchant?

• RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

  Koen G > 12-06-2026, 09:59 PM

  One thing we can say is that the VM artist was on the lookout for images to copy. Apparently some of the things that are hard for beginning artists is posing characters in scenes. Comic book artists in the early 20th century were known to copy compositions from others, simply to learn the trade because there were no reference guides available.
  
  So what were the references for our poor Voynich artist, who clearly wanted to do their own thing but likely lacked formal training? Well, all available imagery of course, from religious iconography to Michael Scot (maybe, if they found a MS somewhere).
  
  Maybe they had a personal sketchbook for this purpose, which would mean that a single visit to a couple of libraries would be enough to collect a wealth of material. Even Taccola: he worked at the university and was connected to other artists, nobility, university staff and students of different nationalities. Plenty of opportunities for several types of people to be allowed to browse his books.
  
  If the "visitor to Taccola" scenario is true, we also don't need to fret over the combination of swallowtail merlons and German-ish imagery & marginalia. We just need to assume that this person visited different regions, which was extremely common in the 15th century.

• RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

  JustAnotherTheory > 12-06-2026, 10:08 PM

  (12-06-2026, 09:16 PM)Bernd Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Or, we may very well be looking at an imperial library - assuming Sigismund indeed received a copy from Taccola's notebook. In any case, this is not your village doctor's collection. Nobility or wealthy merchant?

  
  ... and we're back to Barbara of Cilli. Sigh... 
  
  The VMS is a merry go round, I swear.

• RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

  R. Sale > 12-06-2026, 10:17 PM

  There're more than the Italian sources. There are various proposed connections from Paris to Prague. The person would have done a lot of traveling and spent a lot of time in libraries to discover the sources for the visual vignettes found in the VMs. Perhaps a diplomat or a religious person as well.

• RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

  Koen G > 12-06-2026, 10:21 PM

  (12-06-2026, 10:17 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.There are various proposed connections from Paris to Prague.

  
  Not all proposed connections are good, and not all good proposed connections are true.

• RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

  R. Sale > 12-06-2026, 10:47 PM

  And that is what the various discussion threads are for - to evaluate their merits of those proposals, one by one.
  
  Got any problems with Paris or Prague??
  
  Re: VMs merry-go-round. You've been here how long?

• RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

  Bernd > 12-06-2026, 10:59 PM

  (12-06-2026, 09:59 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.One thing we can say is that the VM artist was on the lookout for images to copy. Apparently some of the things that are hard for beginning artists is posing characters in scenes. Comic book artists in the early 20th century were known to copy compositions from others, simply to learn the trade because there were no reference guides available.

  I do exactly the same thing when I need to draw something.
  I'm unable to come up with imagery on a blank page without a framework so I search vaguely similar (but thematically often unrelated) images and modify and combine them until a satisfactory product is reached.
  
  

  (12-06-2026, 09:59 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Maybe they had a personal sketchbook for this purpose, which would mean that a single visit to a couple of libraries would be enough to collect a wealth of material. Even Taccola: he worked at the university and was connected to other artists, nobility, university staff and students of different nationalities. Plenty of opportunities for several types of people to be allowed to browse his books.

  The problem with this hypothesis is that richly illuminated manuscripts were heinously expensive treasures. Much like today, a nobody can't waltz into a library and request to browse and copy the most valuable books - for good reasons. It doesn't even work in public libraries, let alone in private collections. And I doubt the VM imagery came from a monastic or university library. How did a poor commoner gain access to such high-level and exclusive source material? A more likely scenario is that he was somehow involved with the artists that created such imagery.
  
  

  (12-06-2026, 09:59 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.If the "visitor to Taccola" scenario is true, we also don't need to fret over the combination of swallowtail merlons and German-ish imagery & marginalia. We just need to assume that this person visited different regions, which was extremely common in the 15th century.

  It also works the other way round. The artist came in contact with people from different regions. He wouldn't have needed to go everywhere. Taccola however never traveled. Either Sigismund's alleged copy of his notebook did (to the council of Basel or indeed - to Barbara of Cili in Hungary/Bohemia) or the VM artist must have visited him in Tuscany.
• Next Oldest Next Newest