This same manuscript also conceivably provides a model for the arrangement of glyphs (letters) to divisions of the year, with the quarter division (solstices and equinoxes) being central.
We find it in this diagram:
Here we find the circle divided into sixteen equal parts, with the equinox at the top.
The left/right distinction is north/south and the text shows that the southern hemisphere is uninhabited.
Around the outer circle, though, are arrangements of Greek letters used alphanumerically.
These are numbers, not letters, although they look like letters for the most part.
Someone without a knowledge of Greek might mistake them for letters.
In any case, it looks like a letter wheel (volvelle) based upon the cardinal directions and the divisions of the quarters of the year.
Notice that some divisions feature three letters and others two.
In each case the cusp is marked. In some cases the midpoint between the cusps is marked as well.
There are divisions by two, and divisions by three, marked with different letters, most upper case but some lower.
The cardinal axes are especially marked, each with upper case letters.
Leaving aside what this diagram might actually mean, there is what it looks like, and what it might suggest.
It is the model that suggested my current method for exploring the Voynich language: plotting glyphs and words onto the solar cycle.
Almost certainly, our author – if he knew the Canones of Ptolemy and this diagram – understood that Greek is alphanumeric.
The tables in the Canones – so elegantly set out - consist of sets of Greek letters that resemble short words or syllables.
Since we have already established that our author has taken inspiration from the minatures in the Canones, we might also conjecture that the idea of a cosmological text – quasi-linguistic – came from here.
The systems of Ramon Llull are the first thing that come to mind in regards the Vioynich text, and Arabic and Hebrew are alphanumeric, but this would be the obvious source.
This is not to say the Voynich text is alphanumeric, although it might be. But it is to say that this is a likely source for the idea of a system of glyphs corresponding to the cycles of the year.
There is a visual allusion to this diagram from the Canones in the Voynich, on f57v.
We see text written in the four directions, radially from the centre.
This is very reminiscent of the centre of the Canones diagram:
We can no doubt find plenty of other instances of this radial text design in other works, but, in context, this is a strong similarity.
Remember, the gestures of the nymphs on 57v – open armed or one arm raised – duplicate those of the nymphs on the Helios minature in the Canones, and the Helios minature and this diagram are to be read together.
Together, I take this as corroboration that the Voynich author knows and has taken inspiration from the old manuscript in the hands of the Bishop of Brescia.
Most importantly, the idea of generating a cosmological text – by ascribing glyphs to cycles of the year – might have its immediate source here.
This is also what we find on 57v: glyphs arranged as letter wheels matched to the cycles of the year.
Assuredly, the Voynich scheme is very different, but we are in the same family of ideas; we are on the same page.
Again, I’m sure much of this concerning Vaticanus graecus 1291 has been covered long ago, but I am looking at it again in the light of my own line of research.
We must suppose our author has devised his own system of glyphs (letters) with which to record the cosmic text.
R.B.
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