The standard codicological approach to such an enigma as the Voynich ms. is to trawl through the manuscript record looking for precedents and allied works.
This has been done over and over through the years, with very meager results.
The Voynich bears little resemblance to other works of the era, and its iconography appears to be unique, not fitting easily into any known family or tradition of either illustration or text.
There is one manuscript, however, that rightly draws a lot of attention: MS. Vaticanus graecus 1291.
This is a copy of a summary of Ptolemy’s Amalgest, containing tables and a list of cities: a medieval copy of a late Hellenic summary of an ancient Classical work, commonly referred to as Ptolemy's 'Handy Tables'.
It has, as I say, had a lot of attention over the decades because it also includes an illustration that features celestial nymphs.
I won’t revisit this in detail, but it represents a piece of evidence to which my reading of the manuscript conforms, so it is worth noting again, and I have further observations to make.
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Importantly, this work, Vaticanus gr. 1291, is known to have been in the possession of book collectors, the Bishops of Brescia, during the Voynich manuscript’s historical window, which also places it in northern Italy.
In my account of the Voynich ms., I want to place the codex in or connect it to northern Italy and the herb traditions of that region.
Indeed, I argue that it is intimately connected to that landscape.
Brescia is at the gateway of that region, and the road north to Germany.
Brescia, then, is a convenient location for a manuscript with possible links to the Voynich and its iconography, by my account. It would link the Voynich to that region at that time, as per my scenario.
It serves my argument: the Voynich manuscript is from northern Italy – in northern Italy, at exactly this time, there was a classical manuscript circulating that gives us the only close parallel to the Voynich ms.’s otherwise unusual iconography.
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Frankly, like others, I have trawled through more manuscripts and illustrations than I care to recount – it’s a trap! the internet is full of them and many of them are intriguing and beautiful - but – in all objectivity – the Vaticanus gr. 1291 is the only conceptual parallel I can find.
Again: others have been over this countless times with a sharper view than my amateur eye. But the parallel is clear and well-noted.
Vaticanus graeco 1291 is conspicuous and tantalizing in certain respects as a close parallel to the Voynich iconography.
I would dare to say: the most conspicuous and tantalizing parallel found to date.
It was noted long ago, was then studied to death, and has since, to some extent, become an obligatory footnote. It has not featured in recent explorations, to my knowledge.
It is certainly agreed that the bibliophilic Bishops of Brescia are unlikely to have been authors of the Voynich ms.
Upon reflection, though, their Vaticanus gr. 1291 deserves more emphasis.
Among historical leads in this mystery, Vaticanus graecus 1291, remains one of the best.
* * *
The conceptual parallel is that the divisions of the zodiac are personified as naked female nymphs.
In this case, some are dark skinned and some fair, marking the distinction between night and day.
The nymphs are marked with Greek titles or labels which are, in fact, times and hours expressed in Greek alphanumerics.
In the centre is Helios, the Sun god, in the solar chariot. He is struggling to contain his four horses which are moving by twos in opposing directions.
I also note – importantly - that this depiction of Helios suggests the T/O formation, thus:
This is very reminiscent of what we encounter in the Voynich ms. Indeed, this is more likely, I argue, the source of the T/O symbolism in the Voynich than are the usual Isadorian attributions.
This symbolism is simple solar symbolism, with the Sun god and chariot, and steeds, the tension of night and day.
The divisions of the zodiac follow from the basic primal divisions shown in the T/O symbol: divide and divide again.
Over recent studies presented on this blog I have argued that the Voynich text encodes the solar year and is generated by the cosmogonic process of which the T/O is a symbol.
It is not complex. It is the simple geometry of the circle and the cycles of the sun. We find the same system in the Voynich ms. and in this depiction of Helios.
* * *
But it is the naked nymphs which are most conspicuous.
They are in classical poses, gesturing, strongly reminiscent of classical sculpture. Very likely they are pictures of statues. (They’re not drawn from life models!)
This is also true in the Voynich: many nymphs are depicted with one hand on the hip – it is their typical pose – and, as has often been noted, this suggests the pose of a statue.
Without medieval precedents for personifying sub-divisions of the zodiac as nymphs, we must go back to Classical precedents and ancient Hellenic models.
This illustration from Vaticanus gr. 1291 shows us an Hellenic model for the (celestial) nymphs in the Voynich.
The next step in my account is to propose that these celestial nymphs, this Hellenic heritage, has been matched to the indigenous nymph mythology of alpine northern Italy, and specifically the folklore of the Ladin people and the Rosengarten mountains.
That, though, is another argument.
In the first instance, the celestial nymphs as found in the Voynich ms. are likely based on Hellenic models, and the Vaticanus gr. 1291 presents a credible contemporary source for the conception.
Further, in fact, I suggest that the depiction of Helios – and the T/O symbol formed at the front of his chariot – the entire symbolism of the illustration – all the solar symbolism – is carried over to and is active in the Voynich manuscript.
It is not just a few nymphs that the two works have in common. There is a much closer parallel.
It is not a parallel in style, but in conception.
The Helios depiction implies a certain account of solar motion. The same is found in the Voynich ms., by the account I have outlined in recent posts.
There must be a strong possibility the author of the Voynich ms. was familiar with, and much impressed by, or at least influenced by, the solar cosmology of MS. Vaticanus graecus 1291.
In an investigation where there are very few historical anchors, this must be counted as important.
Quite aside from the nymphs, I have been searching for cosmogonic uses of the T/O symbol from outside the usual Isadorian models: this Helios iconography is arguably a case of it, in a Hellenic, not Christian, context.
It extends into the symbolism of the CHARIOT trump in the tarot cards (which, by the way, began circulating in northern Italy in the 1420s, in the middle of our Voynich window.)
* * *
In a recent turn in my studies it occurred to me that our author has used some instrument such as an astrolabe for the generation of the text.
The language is built upon, encodes, the cycles of the sun, most likely through glyphs ascribed to the wheels of an astrolable or calendrical device.
Given this, it becomes much more likely that our author might have taken an active interest in a manuscript such as Vaticanus graecus 1291, which presents a summary of the Ptolemaic system with tables from the Amalgest.
It is, in effect, a handbook on Ptolemy for astrologers.
Once we decide the author of the Voynich ms. is using an astrolabe as the central device of his project, the tables of Ptolemy – a copy of which was in the region at that time - become a matter of obvious focus and might contribute to a clearer view of our author, his interests and influences.
* * *
As many have noted, a depiction of the heavens populated with naked nymphs is not remotely typical of Arab astronomy and is contrary to all Arab (Islamic) norms.
There is assuredly ‘Arab’ star-lore in the Voynich ms. and ‘Arab astrology’ more generally. But the naked nymphs are not part of those importations.
If medieval models in Christendom are rare, Islamic models are non-existent. Again: we must go back to Classical models to find celestial nymphs such as these.
The nymphs, then, are part of the ‘Humanist’ dimension of the Voynich ms., a recovery of classical models.
Accordingly, Vaticanus graeco. 1291 also elevates the status of Greek as a language in the background of the Voynich project.
* * *
Finally, as others with a more speculative bent have occasionally ventured, the orb in the Helios depiction sports a pole, axis, that distinctly resembles a Voynich gallows glyph, thus:
Without other parallels, this might not be much to go on – a mere resemblance of a squiggle.
But, in context, and given the other parallels, it becomes highly suggestive.
By my account, the four gallows are a system marking the axis of the solstices.
Conceivably, the orb on Vaticanus gr. 1291 might be the source for the entire idea of the Voynich gallows glyphs.
R.B.
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