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Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
- Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
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Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
JustAnotherTheory > Today, 07:28 AM
Hi everyone. It's been a while
In the past weeks I've been busy researching a quite peculiar (possible) connection to the VMS. It all started when I saw an extract from a manuscript from the 13th Century Scottish mathematician and writer Michael Scot (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).
It appears that Michael Scot's work was widely appreciated in the late 14th, early 15th Century South Germany, where it was copied a lot. His contributions mainly concern mathematics, astronomy, astrology and his travels to Arabic-speaking countries. Today, we can find a lot of his work in the form of 14th-15th Century copies from South Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
After having looked through a lot (a lot) of such copies, I found many parts of Michael Scot's imagery that closely resemble that of the VMS. I show some of these resemblances below.
Let's begin with crayfish, because it's one of the more unusual features of the VMS, because its legs are on its tail (incorrectly):
Next, we have depictions of women next to stars:
Many pipes that resemble those in the Rosettes section, are organs:
There are depictions of cylinders containing people or things:
Some animal faces look very similar to those in the VMS:
People crossing hands:
And some other unusual features:
But the most unusual, actual artist style can be seem in this manuscript from the Admont Abbey Library:
It seems to me, that whoever the VMS artist was, he/she might have been a fan of Michael Scot's work. Perhaps he/she was surrounded by many copies of his works? Maybe he/she was based in a library or abbey where many of his works were preserved and copied?
What do you think? -
RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
oshfdk > Today, 07:46 AM
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RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
JustAnotherTheory > Today, 08:20 AM
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RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
MarcoP > Today, 08:29 AM
Most (all?) of those illustrations look one of two centuries later than Scott, so I doubt the details can be attributed to him. I certainly agree that he is a fascinating figure! -
RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
oshfdk > 11 hours ago
(Today, 08:20 AM)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.A true gentlemen, I see.
As far as I understand, these books were very popular, and yet none of the images in the VMS appear to be a direct copy of the reference images you have found. So, it's again in the realm of "some details appear similar".
However, now I think that you are not referring to Michael Scot old codices, like You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., but to some later versions?
Regarding the crayfish legs, from the reference image you provided it looks like the rationale was to match features with some of the stars? -
RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
JustAnotherTheory > 11 hours ago
(Today, 08:29 AM)MarcoP Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Most (all?) of those illustrations look one of two centuries later than Scott, so I doubt the details can be attributed to him. I certainly agree that he is a fascinating figure!
I am referring to 14th-15th century copies. All the images I showed are from late medieval German copies. -
RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
Rafal > 8 hours ago
I agree that there is some similarity beetween VM and these illustrations.
However, as people pointed out, the similarity is not between original illustrations of Michael Scot (did he illustrated his works himself and did the picture survived?) but between VM and illustrations of Michael Scot works done by German artists around 1400, 200 years after Scot's death.
And it was said many times that Voynich illustrations have some German "vibe".
That's the connection, I guess. -
RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
JustAnotherTheory > 7 hours ago
(8 hours ago)Rafal Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.However, as people pointed out, the similarity is not between original illustrations of Michael Scot (did he illustrated his works himself and did the picture survived?) but between VM and illustrations of Michael Scot works done by German artists around 1400, 200 years after Scot's death.
That's exactly my point
The VMS artist was a fan of Michael Scot copies! -
RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
NosDa > 5 hours ago
(7 hours ago)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
(8 hours ago)Rafal Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.However, as people pointed out, the similarity is not between original illustrations of Michael Scot (did he illustrated his works himself and did the picture survived?) but between VM and illustrations of Michael Scot works done by German artists around 1400, 200 years after Scot's death.
That's exactly my point
The VMS artist was a fan of Michael Scot copies!
"Every astrologer is worthy of praise and honour," Scot wrote, "since by such a doctrine as astrology he probably knows many secrets of God, and things which few know."
Maybe our author became a fan after reading this (worked on me).
It's interesting that Scot studied Arabic commentaries on the Greeks. Astrological content can usually be used to reverse-engineer to a certain lineage, or school at least, since the tradition was so broken in history. There are divergences and gaps therein that would maybe give us some extra clues to the author, if the concepts could be better defined. The issue is that the VMs, to me, presents several concepts that share features from multiple schools. One of the major transmission and breaking points is this transition from the Hellenistic scholars, into the Arabic. It's exciting from that perspective, the VMs could tell us more about our discipline with further study, regardless if a full solution to the text is found. -
RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?
Jimmy123 > 4 hours ago
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