Q for Quadrant

One constructive way to view the Voynich <q> is as a quadrant. In this view, the important thing to notice is the cross that is the frame of the glyph. The angled line created to shape the glyph can be seen as demarcating one quadrant of that cross.

A very natural reading of this configuration in a medieval context would be to see it as cosmological, which is also to say astrological. The cross represents coordinates. The common astrological coordinates are as follows:

In premodern astrology this scheme was usually presented in a square form, the advantage being that one can see at a glance which heavenly bodies are on the angles, that is, rising, setting or culminating.

If the glyph <q> is based on these coordinates, then the quadrant that is marked is the quadrant between the ascendant and the midheaven. This corresponds to the time of day between dawn and noon.

The significance of this - conceivably - is that it is traditionally the appropriate time for the collecting and harvesting of herbs. Herbs may be collected at certain phases of the moon or according to other factors, but on a daily basis it is customary to collect and harvest in the morning, after the dew has lifted and before the heat of noon. This is a general practice across European herbal traditions at any rate. The powers of herbs rise and fall not only according to lunar and other tides, but daily, most especially with the tides of the sun. Herbs are collected while the sun's benign powers are rising.

The glyph <q> then, is not a letter, but some sort of symbol indicating this quadrant and its associations. It is a type of cosmological or astrological symbol. Its essential meaning is light - the light of the risen sun extended across the morning.

Such a reading is entirely in keeping with the hypothesis presented on these pages. I propose that the manuscript concerns the phenomenon of the alpenglow in the Dolomite mountains, and especially the group known as the Rosengarten. We are given a Christian rendering of this whereby the alpenglow is analogized to the Light of Christ.

The extension of this, as it applies to the Voynich manuscript, is that this sacred Light is, as it were, the fifth element, the quintessence, from which the four corporeal elements - fire, air, water and earth - are condensations. The herbalism of the Voynich manuscript is presented in these terms.

In this perspective the <q> glyph depicts the morning quadrant of the sky and the dispersal of the dawn light - the alpenglow - from dawn till noon, ascendant to midheaven, and therefore signifies LIGHT. In this way it would embody in script an aspect of the cosmology we see in the illustrations and diagrams. In this view the Voynich glyphs - or at least this one - are to be understood astro-cosmologically.

R. B.