Is the nine-rosette sea-side castle Nice?
It’s not widely known that the Voynich Manuscript’s “nine-rosette” foldout page contains two sets of swallow-tail merlons – one set on top of the famous castle (as per the Cipher Mysteries header graphic), and one on a long low wall, apparently beside the sea. This latter runs across one of the folds, making it very slightly awkward to make out:-
But where is this? I suspect it’s not Genoa, because (as per this picture from Hartmann Schedel’s 1493 Weltchronik) that had neither a flat sea frontage nor swallowtail merlons. For a while I suspected that it might depict Naples: but while reading up on the Occitan dialect Niçard, I found a, well, nice picture of Nice being besieged from the sea by Barbarossa in 1543. The (fabulously made-up) story goes that outraged local washerwoman Catherine Ségurane climbed on top of the walls to expose her ample rear to the Turkish fleet, which (somehow) caused them to abandon their attack (Ségurane’s triumphant mooning is celebrated on November 25th [St Catherine's Day] each year in Nice)… but I guess you had to be there. Anyway… because of Turin’s history as a key part of the Duchy of Savoy, the Biblioteca Reale di Torino also has quite a few piante e disegni of Nice AKA ‘Nizza’ (see p.508 of this online inventory, though unfortunately few dates are given), which might prove to be a useful resource. I don’t know whether or not all this line of thought is going anywhere: it’s certainly something to bear in mind, though.
I also found a nice picture of the same Turkish fleet wintering in Toulon, a mere 100 miles down the coast: it’s hard to be sure, but it looks to me as though its walls have swallowtail merlons. Were there any more major walled ports circa 1400-1450 between Marseille and Genoa? Perhaps Villefranche-sur-Mer? Someone out there should know…
May 19th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Not exactly Savoy/Piedmont but it looks a bit like the Bellinzona castles, in which case it would be a river (Ticino) not the sea:
http://www.swisstraveling.com/2008/08/02/bellinzona/
May 19th, 2010 at 10:39 am
Paul: good point! For all my research into Milan I hadn’t thought to look at Bellinzona. What might also possibly be connected is that one of Filarete’s big secrets was the site where he thought the Sforza’s ‘Milan 2.0′ (AKA Sforzinda) should be built: so if this is Bellinzona, then the VMs’ nine-rosette page might possibly be a local map to Sforzinda. It’s fun to speculate once in a while, eh? Thanks!
May 19th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
The Bellinzona castle isn’t actually on the side of the river, or is it? This combination one has in Verona though: http://www.italianvisits.com/images/veneto-im/verona/verona-ponte_scaligero2.jpg
Unfortunately, I don’t have a date for this construction, but there are a number of walls with swallow tails facing the river.
There’s lake Garda with a few castles as well…
May 19th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Johne. Michael Johne said: Voynich Manuscript: Is the nine-rosette sea-side castle Nice? http://bit.ly/dBeBVN #voynich #vms [...]
May 19th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Nick – who invented the term ‘swallowtail’ merlons? Is that what the medieval engineers or masons (or something) called them?
May 19th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
The Skaliger bridge in Verona is mid-1350s according to Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castelvecchio_Bridge
May 19th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
On Lake Garda another Scaliger/Skaliger edifice would seem the likeliest candidate:
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-30301837/stock-photo–the-scaliger-castle-in-sirmione-on-lake-garda.html
May 19th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
This castle in Genoa has swallowtails:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Genova-Castello_d'Albertis-DSCF5405.JPG
May 19th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Diane: don’t know, most just referred to them as Ghibelline as far as I know.
Paul: we’re long on swallowtails but short on seaside castle walls (or, as you point out, riverside castle walls or crenellated bridges).
May 19th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Rocca Borromeo perhaps? URL and a half!
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://imgpe.trivago.com/uploadimages/52/32/5232406_l.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.trivago.it/angera-420556/castellorocca/rocca-borromeo-841341/foto-i5232406&usg=__iobI4sz9rw4UCD8IoXJEdxVFhiE=&h=320&w=480&sz=27&hl=en&start=21&sig2=CM0-_DHDAzB9XfMECV8QuA&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=xyX1zSro8p7rnM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Rocca%2BBorromeo%2522%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=CBf0S6zAFs_Asgbxr42bDA
May 19th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
At least one of the churches by the sea in those 3 towns demolished when Montpellier was built had been fortified. Presumably the towns had been too.
But does anyone happen to have a book called ‘Castles of God: fortified religious buildings of the world’?
[hilarious title..]
It talks about swallowtail merlons in Russia on p.163, but Google has chosen not to show p.162, on which the building is identified. I think it may be Smolensk.
I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about the vocab. I feel sure that one such term will be informative. I suppose someone else has already mentioned that one of the old gates of Jerusalem has swallow-tail merlons?
May 19th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Correction. p.161. It’s page 160 that’s not shown.
May 19th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
early 13thC s-t merlons:
http://www.regione.vda.it/turismo/per_documentarsi/pagina_ricerche_e.asp?tipo=scheda&pk=1163&nomesch=sch_Patrimonio&ts=patrimonio
May 19th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Stop press.
Swallow-tail merlons may be Arab.
may be
http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hvk.it/images/taormina/baida-vechia2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hvk.it/rs/i_palazzi_di_taormina.htm&usg=__dNjaxFeEDDpDHHvzrlorce6IQ5g=&h=480&w=640&sz=73&hl=en&start=3&sig2=xRBlq1FVuP64GsSNQF2k6g&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=MZQD-mNN8KOggM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbadia%2BVecchia%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=kyb0S7S7D8ifrAeJhIDeDQ
May 19th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
I believe the first swallowtail merlons in Russia were on the Kremlin in Moscow (see link below) and were then copied extensively from there. But they are slightly different to the Italian ones are they not? Softer and more rounded:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Merlons_and_Crenels,_Moscow_Kremlin.JPG
May 19th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
[...] The same with the architecture… not identified as actual structures, but said to have the elements of Northern Italy to some extent, and also, perhaps, some Russian onion-domes, or maybe Middle-Eastern… with some Jewish [...]
May 19th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
[...] it’s elements seem close enough to real objects or places to excite a possible identification to some actual places and buildings. I don’t ascribe to the latter, of course, as I think this is simply a fantasy illustration. [...]
May 19th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
You might want to have a look at this Swiss castle on the shores of lake Geneva: http://www.chillon.ch/en/ It is called Chateau de Chillon. It is NOT the one we are looking for (if any) because I cannot see any swallowtail merlons there..but the instructive website tells you that it is a Savoyan castle and unlike the typical ones which were built rectangualr with 4 towers, one in each corner, this one was built to fit the island is was built on. Nevertheless, we may get some more ideas, or inspiration, from this. Also, in this area of Switzerland, Arpetan is still spoken to some extent..
May 19th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
The same website also gives you a nice history overview and an actually quite detailed castle plan (aerial view): http://www.chillon.ch/en/index-La%2Bgrande%2Bhistoire-0-0.html.
May 19th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Nick: I see you got “pinged” or “trackbacked” or whatever that is called… when I linked your page. You can delete these if you like, of course. I linked you to my posts, because it is a good example of an attempt at actual identification… which of course may be the case, although I sway toward the opposite possibility. Rich.
May 20th, 2010 at 3:57 am
The Kremlin hired Italian architects, so that might explain the Kremlin, but the other would appear to pre-date the Italian examples, since it’s no later that the early 11th century.
s-t merlons are also called dove-tail merlons sometimes.
May 20th, 2010 at 8:25 am
A certain similarity between the rosettes illustration shown by Nick (above) and the Castelvecchio bridge in Verona cannot be denied: even the small windows are there. I’d hesitate to draw any conclusions from this, of course
May 20th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Castelvecchio:
First piccie on this page gives the right idea:
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1022169703011144738xyhBMyErsJ