Readers far more astute than I will have suspected many posts ago that I have been overlooking the obvious.
I have been exploring the roots of the Voynich language, identifying ‘paradigms’ upon which the text is based.
This has led me to conclude that the text is calendrical in nature, and based upon the cycles of the YEAR.
I have spent some time trying to untangle those cycles and understand how they are reflected in the glyph set.
The text, as it seems to me – and not just me -, has been generated in some mechanical fashion, apparently from a system of letter wheels or volvelles.
There is one devastingly simple explanation for all of this:
The text has been made by ascribing glyphs to an astrolabe.
A system of wheels that mark the cycles of the year?
That is an astrolabe.
(In the last post here I mentioned the very ancient symbolism by which the mouth – the oral cavity – is thought of as being like the bowl of the sky. The analogy is implicit in the word ‘astrolabe’: labia = lips: the horizon is the lip of the sky.)
We do not need to suppose that our author is a genius with a super brain who can encode complex cycles in an elaborate textual system:
In the first instance all that has happened is the glyph set has been marked on the wheels of an astrolabe or similar mechanical device.
The text is generated by manipulations of the wheels.
This is the simplest explanation for all the phenomena observed.
It puts an entirely new complexion on the whole matter.
* * *
I have encountered several Voynich theories over the years in which it is proposed the text is, in reality, a set of coordinates.
Most such theories become outlandishly elaborate and are exercises in how not to use an astrolabe.
The challenge remains: to explain the text and how and why it was made using an astrolabe, or similar instrument.
An astrolabe, for these purposes, is just a system of letter wheels.
The cycles I have exposed implicit in the text are quite simple, and they could be covered by a simple device: a calendrical device with several moving wheels might be enough.
I’m inclined to find the simplest device that would do the job rather than assume complex astronomical and geographical coordinate systems from the outset.
In a previous post I noted the relevant symbolism of the sundial.
* * *
There is no shortage of astrolabes contemporary with the Voynich manuscript’s historical window.
The history of such instruments is relatively well studied as part of the history of astronomy.
The 1420s – the middle of our historical window – saw the production of commercial astrolabes, sundails and other such instruments in Paris, as well as new experimental designs in Italy and other places.
For the most part, astrolabes and chronometers were a technology imported from the Islamic east.
It conforms to my general presentation of the Voynich manuscript as an East/West encounter.
It is not my intention to catalogue the history of astrolabes or trudge over the same ground as others.
It is enough to note their general appearance and precedents where letters and glyphs have been added to the wheels instead of numbers, such as a trilingual Spanish astrolabe marked with Latin, Hebrew and Arabic letters.
And it is important to note the diversity of such instruments in the Middle Ages, ranging from simple hand-held devices to automated clockwork, celestial machines. And to distinguish it from the mariner's astrolabe, quite a different thing.
The relevant design in our case will feature the T/O symbol:
There is an abundance of historical precedents.
In any case, our author owns an astrolabe, or at least a mechanized model of the cycles of the year, and the device is at the centre of his project.
In particular, it has been used to create the Voynich text which is, as I have explained, the year made text.
This offers a comprehensive solution to one problem, but it introduces a swathe of new ones.
Specifically, it undermines such theories of textual generation as a cardan grille system, or Torsten Timm’s self-citation hypothesis, or other proposals that involve systems of letter wheels.
It undermines any impression that the text is some Llullian system of letter wheels. Or some kabbalistic system.
None of these proposals are necessary. There is a system of wheels. There is mechanical generation. And it is within a meaningful framework.
All of these scenarios are explained if our author used an astrolabe or a geared calendar or similar device as the ‘system of wheels’ to generate the text.
It turns out that our study of ‘paradigms’ is the study of the arrangement of glyphs on the wheels of an astrolabe or mechanical calendar.
R.B.
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