Heralds

There are, without doubt, elements of heraldry in the illustrations in the Voynich ms. At very least we see heraldic shields with striped designs in the depictions of the zodiac signs. Some see these as generic, but others regard them as meaningful and part of a wider use of heraldry and heraldic symbolism throughout the work.

I am myself sceptical of the bolder clams in this regard, but I do not doubt that heraldry was not an unimportant matter to the author/illustrators of the work. It was part of their worldview and an important part of their visual language. This is true of people in those times in general, but we see evidence of it, quite plainly, in the Voynich. 

The work in general shows aristocratic, noble, secular, Ghiberline affinities. This to to say it is not an ecclesiastical work. It reflects a world of nobles and lords, peasants and artisans. Heraldry was especially important to the nobility.

In this post, however, I want to make an oblique connection with heraldry by pointing out that the astrological schemes in the work seem to depict heralds. That is to say, there is a concern for the constellations and stars that herald certain occasions, presumably festivals.

This is not remarkable. It is as common as farmers knowing that the appearance of certain constellations signals the coming of the spring rains. Such signs are heralds.

Heraldry concerns the armory and "achievements" of a noble which came to be displayed by a herald who preceded the arrival of said noble. Hence herald-ry.

It is not at all fanciful to connect this herald-ry with the constellations as heralds. It is an entirely natural medieval parallelism. Accordingly, constellations and asterisms can be depicted as so many armorial shields that herald the arrival of a celestial event or, the same thing, a date in the calendar.

The most famous herald in Christian mythos was the Star of Bethlehem but, historically, the herald of Sirius in the Egyptian flood cycle.

We can see, in any case, that constellations seem to be presented as heralding celestial culminations in many of the astrological charts in the Voynich manuscript. That is, as heralds. It then becomes of note that we can detect heraldic elements and designs in the zodiac charts.

R. B.