Jeffrey Rowland’s “Overcompensating” web comic has just run a short story about the Voynich Manuscript, with the author’s surprisingly reasonable premise being that “I’m sick of them not figuring out what the Voynich Manuscript means! I guess we’ll have to figure it out ourselves.”
How foolish of us all, it could only ever have been a manual for building a God 2.0! Perhaps J.J. really has nailed it, who can tell? 😉
And how are things on the ‘home front’ Nick? Any sign of intelligence? Have you visited your local museum lately? Lots of cartoons there.
I can’t blame you for wanting to find ‘comic’ relief. 😉
Any word on the talk given on April 10th regarding the deciphering?
Sean: the Bax has put an hour-plus-long video of it on the web, but… it’s not something that’s going to d’isplace d’Imperio any time soon.
Nick & Friends,
I refer you to a cloth-painting which MAY explain how Boenicke manuscript 408 may have ended up in Rudolph II’s court:
Wikipedia discusses and displays the object ‘lienzo’ as a cloth painting of the Nahua…..pictorial record ….cloth map …. Hernan Cortez …combined with the Hapsburg coat of arms. I’ll try a link, here, but you may have to pull up/download your own copy. Between Charles V, and his other Hapsburg relatives, a ‘whole lot’ of South American history got buried in various European vaults — but not all “Nua-tl”! My pun — please forgive my punny ‘literal mindedness’. (?)
😉
Reference: Lienzo de Quauhquechollan. It should bring up the photograph of the “cloth painting” — upper left corner displays the Hapsburg coat of arms (paired eagles).
🙂
Today I am reading/excerpting “Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico”; also “Aztec Medicine” pp 325-333 (F. Guerra). One item of interest (which may interest Thomas Spande) is discussion on page 328 on the benefits of chewing ‘tzictli’ (chewing gum). Even today, one can find children on the streets of Tijuana peddling “Chiclets” brand of chewing gum.
(Our earlier discussions (ThomS and me) of ‘chewing gum’ involved the sap/gum of the ‘mastic tree’.)
Here’s a “tzic tl i” enhanced smiley: 😉
Yesterday we ate at a Mexican restaurant. Fabulous chimichangas with rice, pico de gallo and salsa. We played table shuffleboard. I chewed a piece of peppermint flavored tzictli I purchased from their cashier’s counter. Not bad — a little tougher than our modern (Chiclets) chewing gum brands .The best Mexican food I’ve eaten since the 1980’s in Key West!
Nick, I’ve just discovered that the Web page “Mexicolore” is a British production. Check ’em out; some of the best illustrated discussions to be found on the WWW. Your son might even find them interesting. They might be interested in your presentations of B-408’s contents.
bdid1dr
Turns out that the tzictli tree is indeed the sapodilla (Zapote). Yesterday I purchased a paperback semi-novel, “The Mayas”, Demetrio Sodi M. (a ‘prominent’ archaeologist’). Published by Panorama Editorial, S. A.
This little book has a terrific glossary (translation into English).
I shall now see if I can find more info on Professor Sodi.
Cya later!
Tzictli, Chiclet, and Glee — all names for chewing gum made with sap of the sapodilla tree. Only the factory in Providence Rhode Island still produces tzictli gum (Glee) with natural flavors, sweetening, chlorophyll, etc. So, I’m now heading back into Fray Sahagun’s extensive writings. To cross-file the syllables in B-408 with explanation of their meaning:
tz or ts the sound of ‘sh’ or ‘ch’, and maybe even ‘j’.
A really neat sixteenth century Aztec ‘comic’ book is page thirteen of the Codex Borbonicus.
So, today I could write the word ‘ch-ur-ch’ using only two Aztec glyphs (Voynichese): tz-r-tz
🙂
Today I plan to visit Boenicke’s ms 408 to see if I can find discussion (written on vellum/parchment) about the South American tree which inner bark was made into ‘paper/amatl’: the fig tree. Who knows, maybe the “Voynich” manuscript (#408) was a rough draft which got buried in the Jesuit archives in Frascati/Rome. Father Kircher’s ‘autobiography’ discusses his adventures across the ‘battlefields’ of the ‘Thirty Year’s” war before he assumed the office of head of the “Jesuit Missionary Headquarters”. So, ‘what goes around, comes around… (?)
🙂
If we keep in mind that a bookseller/buyer went to Rome/Frascati in the early 1900’s ce with the purpose of buying books/manuscripts from a ‘derelict’ Jesuit storage building, we may eventually be able to trace the provenance of the “Voynich”. Keeping in mind that that same ‘storage building’ was originally the “Roman School” which eventually was built upon by the Gregorian University — post-Kircher’s occupancy. Some hundred years later, the Gregorian University was once again enlarged/remodeled(in 2010). They apparently are still photo-archiving the hundreds of manuscripts they found behind a wall. BUT, prior to the latest facility upgrade, Pope John II visited Mexico several times during his Papacy in the 1990’s. Apparently the Florentino, Badianus, and some two hundred other manuscripts were returned to Mexico when the Pope visited Latin America. So, is it not possible that the “Voynich” preceded the Pope’s visits because it had been sold (in the 1920’s, to a Polish book seller)? I’m still thinking ‘rough draft’ on less precious animal skin as compared with Sahagun’s magnificent 500-page PAPER (fig-tree bark) document.
In re your latest post, yesterday and today, in re the Travel Channel’s presentation of Villa Mondragon: I’m hoping you will recap some of the viewings. Do you recall that Villa Mondragone was owned by a noble family which sons may have been potential HRC cardinals? As far as I’ve been able to investigate the history of the Villa, the only Papal (Gregory) use of Villa Mondragone was as a Summer retreat from the heat and unhealthy conditions in Rome. The owners of the Villa had sons who were vying for Cardinal-ship.
I’m trying to be discreet (rather than discrete) with my various replies to your very interesting blog pages. Besides a short commentary from Ellie V., have you heard/read anything from Diane O’D lately? Or ThomS?
I’m trying not to ‘overcompensate’ or ‘overwhelm’ your various discussion pages. If I am interfering or overbearing, please let me know. I have been proceeding with my translations and documenting them in the form of a ‘diary’ rather than a ‘blog’. If my husband should outlive me, my diary will probably end up in the ‘dead file’. So be it!
My daily excursions into your various blog presentations keeps my mind actively ‘one-dr-ing’! Thanks!
🙂
I’m hoping you are following up on my identification of B-408, folio 1v as being the tomatillo plant which translates the Aztec words to-ma-tl or xi-to-ma-tl to the latin terminology Physalis ixocarpus.
P. ixocarpus is considerably different from the tomato, in that the papery ‘husk’ and the smaller size of the fruit clearly identifies the tomatillo.
I have not been able to find any discussion in B-408 (yet) which refers to the Tomato plant (NOT the tomatillo) — and I find no scientific nomenclatural reference to ‘tomato’ anywhere, even today!
🙂
Several days ago I did some research on palm trees (of which there a couple of portrayals in the Vms). There is much discussion in re the introduction of date palms to the American (North and South) colonies. So, I am now progressing through the Vms (B-408) to translate at least two folios which may be discussing Areca palms for coconuts and/or dates — and maybe oil (for cooking, heating, light, and skin conditioning-lanolin).
I’ll keep you posted.
I’ve found (on the WWW) some discussion of the date palm being imported TO the Americas. So, I’m now trying to ID/differentiate the three or four specimens of Areca or Phoenix palms and their fruit/berries (coconut, banana, date, betel, or oil) if they appear in the Vms/B408 at all). More discussion later if you indicate any interest.
Still 1-der-ing 😉
Very very interesting conversations. And great comic!