Saturday, July 3, 2010

Voynich manuscript (2)

Analysis of the illustrations

http://www.voynich.nu/illustr.html

Introduction

This section attempts to present the analysis of the illustrations found in the Voynich MS. Such analyses can only be made by competent specialists, such as historians of botany or astronomy, of paleography, or of medieval history in general. Due to my lack of expertise in any of these areas and I can essentially only summarise the few specialist reports available. Interpretation of the illustrations inevitably allows for a lot of well-meant speculation and some of this is presented here as well.
That having been said by way of disclaimer, let me introduce the organisation of this page. The analysis of the illustrations is subdivided as follows: after a general description of the materials used, descriptions are first made per 'section' in the MS as explained in the section Description of the MS:

Herbal
Astronomical and zodiac
Biological
Pharmaceutical
Text only with marginal stars

Then some special categories of items used in the illustration will be highlighted.
A list of precedents for the illustations (and other topics) is maintained by Dennis Stallings at his >> web site .

Illustrations in the Manuscript

Herbal illustrations

Herbal pages typically contain one, sometimes two, page-filling plant pictures with some short paragraphs of text written to carefully avoid the drawings. This composition is very similar to that of manuscript herbals produced between late antiquity and the early Renaissance, some examples of which may be seen together on a >> page of M. McCarthy
Points about the study of herbal pages, which will be expanded:

How medieval herbals have a general lack of variety, what are the two main braches and the Voynich MS is really different from both of them
The anecdote by Tiltman about he herbal expert who was shocked to be asked about the Voynich MS
Try to make a good summary of Toresella's article
That the plants appear to be fantastic, even though some of them look realistic
The special case of the Sunflower (and the pepper plant) as identified by O'Neill and supported by Brumbaugh
How Stolfi found that some pharma drawings (see below) are copies of herbal pages.
List some plant identifications found especially in Petersen's transcription
Mention the one apparent (?) precedent of the Buch d. heiligen Dreifaltigkeit

Astronomical and Zodiac illustrations

Astronomical pages feature drawings of Sun and/or moon, and arrangements of stars. It is sometimes hard to draw a clear line between astronomical and cosmological pages (see below). The twelve astronomical pages which have illustrations of the zodiac are called astrological.
The astrological pages contain concentric circles with about 30 nymphs holding stars, and an emblem of a zodiac sign in the center. The nymphs are similar to those drawn in the biological section (see below). There is a probably relevant precedent for such nymphs in a Byzantine astronomical MS in the Vatican Library.
Mention the Pleiades
Mention the Andromeda Nebula and how it cannot be represented
About Bradley Schaefer's article...
Present my magnitude / Regulus theory

Cosmological illustrations

Cosmological pages feature geometric designs which cannot be easily classified. The use of the term 'cosmological' for these pages was first introduced by Newbold.
Many cosmological illustrations are of circular design, and there is one composite of nine connecting circles with four smaller items on the corners.
An extensive discussion of the Rosettes page belongs here

Biological illustrations

Perhaps the most enigmatic section of the Voynich MS is the biological section which contains drawings of human figures (mostly unclothed and female) in arrangements of pipes or vessels, what seem like baths or clouds. Many illustrations leave the impression of representing a chemical (alchemical) or natural process.
See also the above-mentioned Byzantine astronomical MS in the Vatican Library for a precendent of such feminine figures.
Mention the Balnei Puteolani.
Mention the various resemblances between on the biollogical page with the apparent intestines and the text on one of the pages of the Balnei (baths of St.Peter).
Mention the falloppian tubes and D'Imperio's exasperation
Mention the central bifolium being out of place.

Pharmaceutical illustrations

Collections of jars and parts of plants, such as individual leaves and roots.
Mention Brumbaugh's pepper here.

Text-only with marginal stars

Some pages contain only text, with stars drawn in the margin. The stars may be colored dark of light, and may have a tail. This section of the Ms is at the end, and is also referred to as the 'recipes' section, in analogy to some alchemical MS's.
Say something about f58, about any correlation with the zodiac pages, and about the double star case.

Text-only

Some pages contain no illustration at all, but only text.
Say something about their distribution and possible role.

Missing pages

The following pages are missing from the MS: fol. 12 (excised, stub still visible), fols. 59-64 (dropped out of quire centre, but were still present at the time of Newbold), fol. 74 (excised, stub still visible), Quire 16 (fols. 91 and 92), Quire 18 (fols. 97 and 98), fols. 109-110 (dropped out of quire centre?).
When / where were they lost? It seems as if one of each type is missing.

Other graphical elements in the Ms

Animals

A little dragon eating from a leave on fol. 25v
Two snakes or worms curling between the roots of a plant on fol. 49r
Several different animals on fol. 79v. Fish, salamander, lion, ?? and an animal in the "Golden Fleece" posture.
Birds (nesting and flying) on fol. 86v3
A frog-like creature on one of the pharma folios

The Sun

The Moon

Stars, constellations

T-O maps
Some pages contain a circle subdivided into two halves, with one half further split into two quarters. This design is very similar to a medieval stylized world map referred to as a T-O map. The three sections of the T-O map refer to the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. These maps may be seen on the following pages:

fol. 68v3.
fol. 86r6.
An apparently incomplete one on fol. 86v3.

Miscellaneaous oddities

The roots on fol. 17r seem to contain eyes.
A strange doodle, perhaps indicating the number 17, on fol. 57v
A dead person, with small indeterminate objects near it, on fol. 66r.
A romanesque castle and a tower on fol. 86r6.

Christian imagery
The Voynich MS contains very few recognisable Christian symbols (indeed, there are few recognisable symbols from any known religion). However, in fol. 79v, the woman in the top left of the picture holds a crucifix and is illuminated by radiance coming down from above

Possible relations between illustrations and text

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it has to be assumed that, if the Voynich MS contains meaningful text, this text is related with the illustrations. Some examples of how this may help in the decipherment of the MS are given below.

It is assumed that the text near the plant drawings in the herbal section contain descriptions of that plant. However, no clear subdivision of these pages into standard sections (such as appear in 'normal' herbals) can be observed. It has been suggested (
The plant with snakes or worms on fol. 49r could possibly be a plant producing a snake-bite cure.
Short words (the so-called "labels") near stars in the astronomical and astrological sections strongly suggest that the names of the stars are written here. See Don Latham's list of star names for comparison with these labels.
Labels near leaves and roots in the pharmaceutical section strongly suggest that the names of the plants are written here.
The text inside the sectors of the T-O maps could be related to the continent in question.

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