If you look at the reverse side of the Voynich Manuscript’s famous nine-rosette foldout sheet, you’ll find two curious (and as yet wholly unexplained) circular diagrams sitting beside one another:
Let’s look a little closer (f85r2 is on the left and f86v4 is on the right):
f85r2
The characters look like this (N, E, S, W):-
For f85r2 (the ‘sun’ circle on the left), the interlinear description notes that:
The sex of the figures is indeterminate, as neither breasts nor beards are visible. The South figure is leaning on a staff, and looks like an old man or woman; the other three could be women or young men, possibly children.
The figures are partially hidden behind by the inner frame: the South figure is hidden from the knees down by the inner frame, and the other three are hidden from the waist down. All four figures wear a colored, buttonless shirt, with long and narrow sleeves, which in the South figure is seen to be a tunic or dress, ending just above the knee. Ring collars are visible in the North and West figures. All three figures have light hair, bushy over the ears and cropped just below them. The East figure wears a dark skullcap.
The right hands of West, North, and East are hidden by the inner frame. With the left hand, North seems to be pointing to the last word of the text above (which sits on a line by itself); East holds an unidentified dark object, consisting of two stacked bulbs of unequal size, topped by a short spike (it could be a root); and West seems to be holding a flower, shaped like a lily but dark colored. South holds a staff with the left hand, and a chain with three huge rings on his right.
Comments:
It has been conjectured that the four figures represent the Four Ages of Man. If the diagram is to be read clockwise, like the text, then West (who lies over the “start marker”, by the way) would be Infancy. However, East (with the skullcap) looks younger than the other three.
D’Imperio suggested that this diagram might tie in with Galenic medicine: while a Voynich mailing list contributor by the name of Eric suggested back in 2004 that the four characters on f85r2 were all male. (Here’s his page preserved on the Wayback Machine).
[North] Gazing towards his left hand, on which (or in?) is a small square object with a blue dot in the center – most probably a ring. The right hand bends out of view. Hands positioning ambiguous. Wears a small headband or crown – small dots inside could be jewels. Wearing a blue shirt with neck and wrist bands. Hair cut above the ears. Most probably male.
[East] Holding a round object in the right hand topped with a cylinder and a spike and two circles to either side – possibly an oil lamp (the spike being a flame). Left hand bends out of view. Hands positioning ambiguous. Has a band of blue across the forehead, though it isn’t a cap since his hair flows freely out the top. Wearing a blue shirt with neck and wrist bands. Hair cut around the ears. Most probably male.
[South] Holding and leaning on a cane in the right hand. Left hand holds a large circled chain of three loops. Hands seem front-to-back. High forehead, very short hair (above ears). Wearing a green full-length dress with blue sleeves and trim, with wrist bands and a plunged neckline. Mouth is painted blue. Could be a man or woman.
[West] Holding a lily shaped object in the right hand. Left hand bends out of view. Hands positioning seems correct. Wearing a blue shirt with neck and wrist bands. Hair cut below the ears. Most probably male.
Back in 2004, I conjectured that these four characters might instead represent four powerful European nations:
N = Holy Roman Emperor (ring)
E = Venice (glassware)
S = Rome/Sicily (a blind guess on my part, but feel free to play cherchez-le-pain) 🙂
W = France (fleur-de-lys)
More recently, Marco Ponzi suggested that these four characters might represent the four seasons with Winter (East) holding a metallic hand-warmer, an idea which then got elaborated into a page on Stevie Bax’s site. Needless to say, I’m not convinced by this, not even slightly.
But if you want a properly interesting medieval parallel, I’d perhaps suggest the Wheel of Fortune, the Rota Fortunae: “Fortune, good night, smile once more; turn thy wheel!”, indeed. Schwikipedia describes it thus:
“Characteristically, it has four shelves, or stages of life, with four human figures, usually labeled on the left regnabo (I shall reign), on the top regno (I reign) and is usually crowned, descending on the right regnavi (I have reigned) and the lowly figure on the bottom is marked sum sine regno (I am without a kingdom). Dante employed the Wheel in the Inferno and a “Wheel of Fortune” trump-card appeared in the Tarot deck (circa 1440, Italy).”
Needless to say, I don’t buy into this either: in fact, all these theories seem to be bouncing off the surface, and not really getting any kind of grip on this diagram.
f86v4
At first sight, this seems quite different to the first diagram, apart from a load of odd filigree-style detailing… but closer examination reveals some features hidden in plain sight:-
The characters look like this (N, E, S, W):-
Eric concludes that these four moon-side characters are probably all female, and describes them thus:-
[North] Holding a round object in right hand (this might be false and should be an open hand, with the object actually the arching design – though by looking at the detail of the area, it seems most likely it is an object; however, it is not painted in the light yellow color the other objects are) and what looks like a small twiggy plant in a soil pouch in the left. Faces away from the viewer. Seems to have a hair band or possibly a blindfold. Hands positioning ambiguous. Wearing a flowing shirt with neck and wrist bands. Hair falls just below the ears. Could be a man or a woman.
[East] Holding a round object in the left hand and a seemingly flat, square object in the right (this might also be false – the square object is rounded in a fashion and could be the arching design; the object is colored yellow like the other objects though, so I have included it as an object). Hands seem back-to-front. Wearing a flowing shirt with neck and wrist bands. Hair falls just below the ears. Could be a man or a woman.
[South] Holding a round object in the left hand and a bowl in the right. Hands seem back-to-front. Wearing a flowing shirt with neck and wrist bands. Hair falls just below the ears. Breast outline visible.
[West] Holding twigs (straw, wheat?) in the left hand and an dumbell shaped object with a round addition on top (a vase possibly?) in the right. Hands seem back-to-front. Wearing a flowing shirt with neck and wrist bands. Hair falls just below the ears. Both breast outlines are visible.
As to what these all are, there are surprisingly few theories: Erni Lillie once wrote that this depicted Dante’s Mystic White Rose (full theory here).
For myself: having read a lot about magic circles over the years, I have a strong suspicion that the West figure is holding hyssop, mentioned in the Bible as a herb used for ceremonial cleansing. And the way that we are looking at the back of the North character’s head reminds me of a paricular medieval necromantic demon whose name eludes me but whose face was supposed never to be depicted. (I mentioned directional spirits here and here in relation to f57v before).
But beyond that, people have largely drawn a blank here too.
An unexpected parallel
If we compare the two sets of four figures with the four figures on f57v’s circular diagram, some further unexpected similarities emerge:
It seems to me that the four characters on f86v4 (middle row) are in some way related to the four characters on f57v (bottom row). What that actually means I really don’t know… but it’s an interesting point, eh?
And the block paradigm says…
If you strip away the decorative ‘papellony’-style fish-scale detailing from f86v4, you end up with two circular diagrams side by side, one with a sun at the centre, the other with a moon at the centre. I honestly find it hard to believe that something so distinctive arrived here ex nihilo: this pair must surely have come from a prior document somewhere.
If that original pair of diagrams still exists and we can find it, then we stand a chance of reverse-engineering the text beside the Voynich Manuscript’s versions of these diagrams. This is a block we should be actively looking for!
Father Sahagun’s Florentine Manuscript illustrates and tells the legend of how the sun and moon gods fought a great battle for the day and night skies.
The entire manuscript (which is missing a chunk) is written in two languages (two side-by-side columns of Spanish and Nahuatl.
No magic; but lots of folk medicine, folk identification of botanical specimens, animals, mushrooms, insects, birds, and fish.
The “Voynich” aka Boenicke Manuscript 408 is the rough draft notes which went missing when it was taken apart so that native scribes could write a full manuscript on their ‘home-made’ paper: amatl.
Your ‘unexpected parallel’ section is – I think – a first in Voynich studies. Very interesting; thanks. Not entirely sure that the four are to be matched as you have them, and I’d be very surprised if they had only one level of reference (e.g. either geographic or astronomical…). Those caveats apart, this is a truly interesting new observation.
Diane: I didn’t match them into a specific order, they’re all in the same N E S W (on the page) order. Which is why I found the parallels particularly unexpected. 🙂
Welcome back from the back of beyond.
I believe and suggest that the term ‘papelonny’ is limited to use only within the discussion of heraldry. There must be some occasions where fish scale in just fishy, fish scale. And these are not even close to that, Irrelevant would be a better choice of words.
Papelonny is derived from its reference to butterflies, according to Fox-Davies reference. It has nothing to do with fish! It is in the fishy eye of the beholder. If people recognize the oxymoron you’ve made, they might give it half a laugh, but most would probably just accept it as fact. And that promotes the corruption of terminology. That is problematic. Right away, rational discussion is dead in its tracks.
Why don’t we actually look at the two VMs examples of papelonny, from Pisces and Dark Aries, and compare them with the best internet definition and representation? No one can recognize something they do not already know.
Regarding your question, by what standards are we to determine anything about the person or persons, who created those drawings, if we are only allowed to examine the style of the drawings. Let us also, at some point, examine the content of those drawings, where recognizable content exists – in the heraldic identification of historical persons on VMs White Aries. And try to determine the purpose for the intentional creation of these subtle illustrations.
I’m inclined to separate the top two lines from the third line, mainly because -imo- the emblemata matter more than the bodies bearing them. I mean that just as the sense ‘Justice’ can be conveyed by balance with or without sword and blindfold, so the female figure lacking these emblemata (including postures and gestures required by them) will carry no such meaning. So I’d look more at the things held than who holds them – but maybe that’s just me.
About the ‘hyssop’ – I thought maybe the barsom of Zoroastrianism, or the sprinkler etc. of Buddhism, but these mainly by reference to the form for the associated ‘bottle’ which looks very like one of the ‘stupa-bottle’ type to me.
Still, a great deal of food for thought here. Thanks again.
One reason I’ve not treated these folios in detail is that I simply can’t read the context for interpretation in this case.
As example – the apparently female figure pressing the peg and holding the chain, might be meant for one of the Ursae if the figure is a translation of originally egyptian constellations. Or it might be meant for ‘the woman enchained’ constellation in the Greek system. Or it might refer to that ‘Eve’ imagined and pictured in chains in the far southern sky hidden from the North.
Or it might refer to the month of May, and maypole dancing… not enough cues in the pic. For me, anyway.
Navigation by night or day? Per Sahagun’s clerks.
If by night or day, count the number of chain links for depth measuring of the water (?)
For what it’s worth, some of the nymphs hold similar objects (rings and plant parts). I had a survey of these objects in a comment somewhere.
As for f85r2 West, I can’t see it as anything but a fleur-de-lys. If so, the specific form (the petals go straight down and the tips flare outwards) fits the Florentine style more than the French. Or it could be the direction indicator.
Perhaps an eclipse is being described/illustrated?
.. or it might refer to the Pleiades, which once marked the beginning of the year, the asterism being often described in story and poetry as a flowery and/or jewelled tangled chain.
Or it might refer to Orion, proverbially the east-marker and pictured as one of the harpedonaptai. (who, btw were pretty unpopular among some communities as representatives of foreign powers. In one medieval image, two male (sic) ‘harpies’ are seen driven off by ‘angels’, but early western manuscripts are filled with images derived from faulty etymologies and poorly understood Latin or Greek.
Sorry, rambling…
Distinct enough target, even if magic circles are popular fare for illustrated manuscripts. Is there a running list anywhere of comparisons between your target blocks and those from other manuscripts?
T Anderson: pretty much everything I have on the first three ‘blocks’ is as per the three posts so far: all I have is a suspicion that there may well be one or more manuscripts out there with a matching poem and/or a matching sun/moon pair of ‘magic circles’.
I should perhaps have also made it clear that the candidate I described for the recipes block was itself compiled from a number of (mostly 14th century) sources, and that it wouldn’t surprise me if the Voynich recipe section turns out to have been compiled from a largely overlapping set of recipe sources. But the correct gathering and nesting orders for the Q20 bifolios haven’t yet been determined definitively, which makes this task that little bit more awkward. 🙁
Incidentally, I have a fourth block to post about yet (it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that this is the ‘zodiac’ section) for which I have a very good source candidate: and a fifth block as well: and my plan is to describe them all before trying to form a more specific research strategy for each one in turn.
Brian: it may well be that there is a specific iconographical study on the various fleur-de-lys styles in 14th / 15th century art, it’s certainly the kind of thing I’d expect to stumble across in JSTOR somewhere. 😉
Diane: hyssop was well-known for its long stems and association with purification rituals (and indeed magic circles and necromantic practice), which is why it’s at the top of my (currently very short) list here. But as you point out, there is no shortage of other options. 🙂
I agree with Diane’s first comment with respect to the identification (I may have misinterpreted it) and very intriguing aspect of this line of investigation.
I could imagine a commentary to a widely distributed manuscript to be a blueprint of this block. Sun/moon and all other cosmological aspects could indicate a link to Sacrobosco’s Tractatus de Sphaera (e.g. MS83 UL Special collection Madison, WI), folios with eclipse diagrams (folio19, computations (folio 6) pyramide-style texts (folio29/30) etc.
Sun and Moon and the starry heavens — by which navigators used whether on land or sea.
Eclipses, in particular, were viewed with dread — even in ‘civilized’ societies. Columbus and his buddies were ‘all at sea’ (confused) when it came to navigating by eclipse.
?
🙂
Juergen,
I think Sacrobosco’s work was a standard schoolroom text, wasn’t it?
Nick,
I think it’s safe to say that the whole population of medieval Europe knew hyssop’s use in ritual, even when it was no longer used. “Sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be cleansed” was part of every daily mass, and most other things such as baptism or ordination etc. Since people learned to read from the Psalter, they could probably read and write the relevant passage from that Psalm, too.
Naturally the Jewish people whose writings the Psalms are would know the passage and its connotations.
It’s the form given the bottle that needs explanation, I think. Not a type used in any western ceremony I know of, and frankly it’s difficult to imagine pulling down a copy of Sacrobosco to perform a magical ritual. Not impossible of course.
In re your comment for the figure with its back facing our view, whose face was ‘never to be depicted’: Morpheus?
I’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to another of Fr. Sahagun’s beatifully illustrated discussions (Latin & Nahuatl) in re the sun and moon:
The Florentine Codex – Lunar Eclipse – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Media Viewer
Happy New Year, y’all!
“THE POSITION ING(s) OF THE ARMS AND LEGS ARE VERY CODED TOO!”
-=se=-
Diane: “‘Sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be cleansed’ was part of every daily mass.” Really? Psalm 51 is set for Ash Wednesday, but I wasn’t aware it featured on a daily basis. Where did you find this, can I ask?
SirHubert
Quite right; “Asperges me..” is not (and I’d think never was) sung during the Easter season nor on Palm Sunday; and only on Sunday. So exposure of the population, for whom Sunday attendance was a fairly serious thing, would have been less than I supposed – all right, imagined. 🙂
Otherwise,
The rite of sprinkling the congregation with holy water before the principal Mass on Sunday, … throughout the year except at Easter-tide.. precedes every other ceremony that may take place before the Mass…. It is performed by the celebrant priest wearing vestments of the liturgical colour of the day.
The ceremony has been in use at least from the tenth century, growing out of the custom of early antiquity of blessing water for the faithful on Sundays. Its object is to prepare the congregation for the celebration of the Mass by moving them to sentiments of penance and reverence suggested by the words of the fiftieth psalm. [so numbered in western Latin texts before the western schism, after which it was labelled Ps.51]
and
… If the rite is performed within Mass it takes the place of the usual penitential act at the beginning of the Mass” (Roman Missal Ordo ad faciendam et aspergendam aquam benedictam)
I can’t resist mentioning a translation site that I’ve just noticed online:
EUdict
“a collection of online dictionaries for the languages spoken mostly in Europe”.
eudict . com
Diane: most of that is on Wikipedia, with the limitations that implies. I think it’s fair to say that preceding a Mass with the specific antiphon Asperges me was not universal practice in mediaeval Europe.
I guess the congregation might have known what the Latin meant, but I can’t see why they’d ever have seen it written down during a service, and I don’t think the congregation has a speaking part in this bit of the Mass.
Vatican 2 – Sir Hubert 0
Psalms 23 and 33.
Hebrews 9:13 — ‘sprinkling the ashes of a heifer’
Somewhere in the Bible there is mention of mixing the ashes of a heifer, and its grease,, in water. The purpose of this ‘recipe’ was to cleanse the hands of persons who have handled the dead. Quite simply, the recipe is for making lye soap.
Happy New Year!
Considering all of the botanicals (yerbas) available to the Native South Americans (Sahagun’s manuscript has a huge selection of herbs for all sorts of uses. Eventually the folios change from leafy and flowery herbs to roots and root vegetables. Fascinating! There is also a small selection of mushrooms.
😉
So, Sir H. and Diane, can you point out the person who may be holding an aspergillum?
BTW: I am a non-denominational reader of religious history and all of the atrocities committed in the name of ‘God’, ‘gods’, and ‘goddesses’. So, to paraphrase a hymn:
Praise it from whom all blessings flow.
Praise it all creatures here below.
Praise the Creator in all its works.
Slavery is another issue which is hard to ignore.
Nick, have you had a chance to visit the Winter Garden yet? You probably are qualified to visit with some of the professors of architecture who could fill in the blanks and translate the plans and specs (Blitz Cipher) of the mansion on Avery Hill.
Happy New Year! (I wore high heels for dancing at our local roadhouse tavern — my toes are still cramping.)
bd
Just speculating, but I think it is possible that the four individuals are symbolic of the four types of occupations during the time period i.e. nobility, clergy, merchant guilds, and laborer. When I get to a proper computer I will elaborate my theory.
SirHubert
I long ago stopped referring to sources not easily available online, after numerous complaints by members of the mailing list and others. As I was given to understand it, online sources were the only acceptable ones, and apart from e.g. JSTOR and some texts which I think essential, I have tried to do so ever since.
It’s more a question of checking the textual source, then hunting for an online source which carries the same information, and if that’s a wiki article, fine.
I think you are merely teasing, though, because you know as well as I that every person able to read and write knew their Psalter, and by rote.
And my own experience tells me, and that of many others who remember attending the Latin mass – once you’ve heard the same thing every week for ten years or so, you tend to remember it, whether or not you will.
Bdid – given the holiday season and my green leanings may I respond with a recycled postcard? Very, very amateurish, so no chance of the collage being mistaken for a real picture:-
http://dnodonovan.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/voynicheriana-16-alchemia.jpg
Diane, can you reassure me that I won’t end up at a dead-end? Past experience with your marvelous website(s) tells me to proceed with caution. I still remember our first acquaintance when you were discussing playing cards and tarot.
Oh, I’ll go ahead anyway…. ‘curiosity killed the cat — satisfaction brought it back’ … and all that ?
beady-eyed-one-der
I think you must be mistaken. My research into the so-called Charles VI cards began in 1985, as a hobby, and was complete within about 12 years. I’ve published next to nothing from it.
Having slightly rethought my theory I would like to present a bit of an Idea on the characters in the circles.
The “western” Character in the Lunar circle may be holding a bottle gourd and a Martyrs Palm Hence a Pilgrim. Many Pilgrims traveled out of the western portions of Europe.
The “East” Character in the Sun Circle could possibly represent a priest holding a Jar of Holy water.
The South Character with the Chain may be representative of the Nobility. the chain in the image being symbolic of the livery chain, and the Cane a symbol of authority.
To the East in the Lunar Circle a man holding what appears to be around object with a stem possibly a turnip in the other hand an egg, so perhaps a farmer.
The other Characters I have not yet found an explanation for. and since this is merely a theory I welcome Criticism.
Diane: citing good online references is fine. Copying and pasting from Wikipedia, without acknowledgement…you tell me.
SirHubert,
When wiki authors sign their names, I’ll happily cite them as readily as any other that contains accurate (or at least currently approved) assessments.
When information – even in an anonymous wiki article – accords with my other sources, then I will quote it verbatim. I would consider it far more dishonest to rephrase it, actually, since leaving the text as is allows anyone immediately to do a search and so recognise the source.
I do very much wish wiki authors would sign their articles in full, just as writers for the Encyc. Brit. and others have always done. Anonymity, added to an ability to reject corrections, means that wiki articles can so easily become little more than propaganda. As example, the wiki article about the Genoese map of 1457 is total rubbish, a list of highly selective footnotes notwithstanding.
Diane:
“Leaving the text as is allows anyone immediately to do a search and so recognise the source.”
It would be even easier if you acknowledged it. And you yourself have expressed some fairly robust views on what you consider plagiarism on a number of occasions. But this is all somewhat off topic, I appreciate.
Oh dear me! I actually made it back to these pages with only a single click of my mouse! That is the most humorous greeting card I have ever scrutinized! Whodunnit? errr ‘did it’?
bd id won dr
Heathens and Hyssop: My Cruden’s Concordance had a few Biblical references. I’ll be continuing my reading of Fr. Sahagun’s manuscript; (online page-by-page) illustrations and accompanying names and uses. The two columns of script on each page of the Florentine Manuscript is handwritten. First is the Friar’s commentary in Spanish Latin, and about a quarter-inch space apart is the Native American translation-commentary.
Several ‘chapters’ later begins illustrated commentary (especially lengthy comments for the herbals and vegetables : maize, jicama, potatoes, cactus fruit (tunas, nopales, mescal). Sapodilla trees (for gummy sap) and edible fruit. I have not been able to download enlargements of the mulberry and fig trees; both of which were used for manufacture of the paper upon which Fr. Sahagun’s scribes wrote.
One page of herbals I was not able to download or photocopy portrays ‘look-alike’ specimens with commentary advancing up the stems.
🙂
Cruden’s also adds current comment to the word ‘heathens’. It took a while to sink in, I guess the word ‘native’ or ‘native American’ is more acceptable than the term ‘Indian’. At least my Native American friends (Mohawk, Hopi, Navajo, Pomo, Mexican, Mayan, Guatemalan, Cuban, and ‘Conch’s’ seem to appreciate my efforts to recognize and understand their origins.
What I don’t understand is the return of our military men from various war zones — arm-in-arm with the ‘native’ women they’ve married before returning to the US.
Ennyway: I’ve just discovered two addendae to Book I (The Gods) of Fr. Sahagun’s magnificent Florentine Codex: Addendum II (to Chapter 24) are cross-references to adagios or sayings relating to the Sun’s appearances and concluding with earlier appearances of the Moon (and the appearance of a rabbit in the moon).
If you suspect I am getting ‘loonier’ by the day (or night), you can probably purchase Anderson & Dibble’s “Book 1 – The Gods” from Amazon for a very reasonable outlay of cash.
So, I am now heading back to the botanical discussions in B-408 (I’ve already identified and translated some 15 folios, including the “Nine-Rosettes”, Temples, Shrines, and Baths for Maternal matters.
Dang! I think I’m going to discontinue the use of parentheses in my comments! Perdoneme!
bd
SirHubert
Just as a matter of interest – what is being plagiarised in repeating the content of a piece of anonymous writing in which (by definition) nothing is a product of original research and no person or persons names are given who might be credited.
In responding to your question, I thought you simply wanted the information, not an original essay on the subject – always happy to oblige in either case. 🙂
Diane:
I am sure everyone will be getting bored of this but, since you ask, I can’t see any merit in failing to cite any source which is being quoted directly, whether anonymous or not. It’s so easy to add something like “Wikipedia is actually quite good here:” before the quotation, and then everyone knows where they are. Don’t you think?
And, in this case, your first citation comes from an article by John Joseph Wynne in the Catholic Encyclopedia – as Wikipedia itself states. Not exactly anonymous.
Does plagiarism cover original research only, or original writing more widely? If I were to write a general coffee table book on the castles of England, containing nothing ground-breaking but all my own work with sources duly acknowledged, wouldn’t it be plagiarism for someone else to copy my text and pass it off as their own? And would publishing it anonymously make any difference to that?
Enough of this, I think. I just wish I had more to contribute on the magic circles…
Earlier in this discussion I noted the reappearance of Steve Ekwall (a folding demonstration several months/years ago?). I wondered, then, what the demo had to do with Nick’s blog discussions. Am I right, Nick, that your recent mention of back-to-back folios being folded and some quires containing multifolded folios, has lured Mr. Ekwall back to your scene? Perhaps we can get another demo from him?
It was his demo which sparked my interest in the multifolded folio I called “The Nine-Rosettes” — which I promptly set about translating.
😉
bdid1dr
So, Mr. Ekwall, can you tell us more about the coding which is currently being displayed and discussed?
The Nine Rosettes folio displays the European Alban Lake and ithe smaller Lake Nemi. In recent years, the South American mountain area called Monte Alban has been the site of anthropological diggings and some very interesting discoveries of ‘caches’ of woven fabric, pottery, and dye-stuffs.
I’m hoping they will find spindles, back-strap loom, dye-stuffs (red beetles , cochineal, red clay, lots of yellow plants). Dyestuffs for blue is harder to find, but there is a mushroom which will yield a grayish-blue. There is also a sea shell which yields a vivid purple (“royal” purple).
Back to my Navajo spindle — I’ve got some plying to do!
SirHubert
We agree in principle. I think where we differ is in our approach to blogpost comments. I tend to think of them as more like a conversation in the pub, where perhaps your model is something more after the post-lecture discussion. And if we’re to be perfectly frank, I couldn’t understand why a person of your evident research skills wouldn’t solve the problem without difficulty in a minute or two, so took the question less seriously than I might have done.
Is it too late for me to add to the discussion of Hyssopus officinalis? Narrow, dark, pungent leaves and shoots were apparently used as a ‘stimulative, carminative, and pectoral remedy for coughs and chest congestion. (Vicks vapor rub? I’ll be checking on the term, and spelling of ‘carminative’.
Refs: ‘Sunset Western Book’
‘New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Gardening’
( New York Botanical Garden”)
Snuffle, sneeze, and wheeze — Happy Healthy Holidays to y’all! Valentine’s Day and our wedding anniversary is appearing on the calendar ‘horizon’. More dancing — probably at the local Moose Lodge: fox trot, swing, waltz, two-step, cha-cha, mambo, samba — NO bossa nova! NO ‘disco’ . We’re working on the tango — my favorite of all dances.
Nick,
Eric’s noticing the ring is typical of his acute observation – I won’t pretend to have noticed it before.
So carefully drawn, at that scale, the ring has to be significant (or signe-ficant 🙂 So let’s suppose that’s the speaking emblem.
If it’s to be gems they’re of India, [‘indike’ for pointed index finger] though on the other hand there’s Evax – he’s of Arabia.
No, in this musing I’d prefer to assign Arabia the ornamental bottle, though it were meant for spices you’d reverse the previous two: ring/gem India; bottle/spices India.
Which makes the chains of Gold from southern limit of the world, once all described as land of the ‘Aethiops’. Land of slaves, sadly, from the early centuries AD to this day.
And so to the ‘lily’ – or it might even have come from the carian ‘rose’ and Cos. Medicine and the Greeks?
Gold for south, a rod for east, cup/whip for west and cold steel weapon for north are also attested by the late fourteenth century. But this is long enough.
Nick,
I must be turning vague in my old age. These are the four angels of the winds – of course. It was the bottle that threw me, because one of the four is usually the locker-up of souls, but I didn’t equate it with spirits in a bottle!
I’ll do a quick blogpost, illustrating with something early. The Grand tabulae would be too exciting. Say the Sawley map. That should keep everyone calm. Pity that my USB with about 15 yrs of collected images seems to have been lost in transit. Regrettable, but I’ll find what I can online.
Nick, may I have your permission to copy your composite, and then to slice and re-use the bands? All proper links and credits of course.
Diane: sure, no problem. Just so you know, I took the images from the Beinecke’s latest set of scans and hand-removed the fish-scale fill by hand using GIMP. Boring and slow but it got me there in the end. 🙂
Nick –
exactly.
Diane:
I certainly wouldn’t expect you to take the Roman Missal with you to the pub. And yes, it would be tedious to give full references for every comment made on a blog.
Your comment about Asperges Me was very specific, and because you sounded quite authoritative it seemed more sensible to ask you about it. I’m not an expert on such things nd in spite of your kind comments don’t claim to have any special research skills.
I do appreciate you taking the time to post the Wikipedia quotes, although neither is actually strictly relevant. The quotation from the Catholic Encyclopedia relates, as far as I can tell, to a version of the Roman Missal ultimately derived from that formulated after the Council of Trent, and so is post-Mediaeval. The second is from the Wikipedia entry relating to the form of the Mass as revised by Pope Paul VI in the 1960s, and so is very post-Mediaeval indeed. (It also gives a number of alternative texts which can be used at this point in the Mass instead of Asperges me).
I was only able to check this because I could verify the context of your quotations.
Nick, Diane: a Sailor’s Song:
There was an old beer bottle a-floating on the foam.
And this old beer bottle was a long, long way from home.
In this old beer bottle was a message for whom ‘it might concern”:
Whoever finds this old beer bottle will find that the beer’s all gone!
Cheers! 🙂
Back to things a little more serious: I refer you to a Wikipedia item, which almost rocked me out of my chair (NO ‘magic circles).
Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco: Besides the discussion of the failure of the College, itself, to prepare the indigenous men for the priesthood, there are some very interesting photos of the interior of the college — especially its domed roof. Talk about ‘magic circles’ ! Whoo!
🙂
I am only able to distinquish one of the figures which appear between the large circles on the overhead dome roof: a rampant lion.
SirHubert, remind me not to send you a horse next year. 🙂
When I came back online, after viewing the College’s interior photos and the paintings/artwork on the domed ceiling, I took a look at the College building exterior and landscape.
Oh my, Nick! Compare the College’s structure and its surrounding landscape with the Masthead you display on this blog of yours. Incredible!
You may find the discussion of the controversy between Dominican and Franciscan friars rather interesting.
bdid1dr
Meal preparations? Plant specimen (maize?) grindstone for corn meal (masa) for making tortillas or tamales? Actually masa usually has a ‘pinch of lime’ added depending on which kind of corn meal. Though I prefer wheat flour tortillas for ‘wraps, I do like an occasional maize tortilla for burritos or carne asada. I also like pico de gallo with the various bean dishes.
I think the point of the lecture was to emphasize the basic ingredients of Mexica meals: corn, beans, and squash.
About forty years ago, while living in Santa Barbara, I asked for a meat & bean burrito. I took one bite, and exclaimed: “Ah! This is goat meat! The waitress backed off, shaking her head ‘NO’. There was only one other customer, eating at the other end of the counter. I beckoned the waitress over to me, and whispered to her that when I was a small child, my Mexican babysitter had an after-school mini-burrito snack waiting for me: The waitress heaved a sigh of relief, and, as she walked away, I could see her crossing herself, with eyes looking at the ceiling. I left a $5.00 tip, and laughed all the way out the door.
True story — cross my heart!
beady-eyed 1-der
Yesterday evening I was able to enlarge the photo of the Colegio’s dome; enough to see that one of the figures appears to be the Biblical story of Daniel in the Lions Den. A robed female figure has halo. A third figure appears to be riding on the back of a huge bird, I’m returning to the Colegio’s site to attempt an enlarged photo of the fourth figure which appears to be in the coils of a snake or dragon .
I was able to find only one good exterior photo of the dome, which is bright orange.
BTW: The inside of the dome is painted blue (cyaneus?)
I’m going back online with google to find the emblem for the Mexican flag. I’ll be checking my memory bank to compare the US state flags for Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, California, Florida. and Louisiana. I’ll keep you posted.
Another lead I am following: Apparently Martin de la Cruz (Badianus Manuscript) was educated at the Colegio. What de la Cruz and Juan Badiano had in common was their boss, Friar Jacobo de Grado — who may, in turn, have been working for Friar Sahagun. I am using citations from a Dover Publication which commentary and translation was done by William Gates.
The introduction was written by Bruce Byland, Lehman College/City University of New York.
So, sometimes citing provenance leads to more obscure references to even more obscure references which have been obscured over centuries. (?)
Nevertheless, I think we’ve come, by leaps and bounds, to some pretty good analysis and understanding of Father Sahagun’s works — and their reappearance in our century’s dialogues on the WWW. Thanks, Nick, for giving us a platform. Plat-forum?
bdid1dr
Diane, you might be able to confirm your comment as far as ‘the four angels of the winds’. Again I urge y’all to at least take a good look (with better vision than mine) at those four ‘maybe’ angels which hover overhead at the edges of the dome at the Colegio de Santa Cruz (Fray Sahagun’s headquarters).
bd-er-than ever…..
I’ll try and give my answer to Nick’s question re the magic circles and the potential story behind it. First, I’d suggest to extend the magic circles to include f86r also containing four characters (one man, one woman and two birds). Including this image I started to compare the images with Dante’s paradiso (ascent, moon, mercury and sun) to then even further extend the selection of images/folios and suggest that (basically) the entire Paradiso is illustrated in parts of the Voynich manuscript.
As this is a long story (and by far not finished), I again put together a paper (16 pages, but with a summary table – 2 pages) here:
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1287449
Some ‘highlights’ here:
– Ascent (from Garden Eden to moon) of Dante and Beatrice and the image analysis of Dante’s (double) star and Beatrice’s and the eagle’s gaze into the sun.
– Moon with the clouds and the ‘inconsistency of will’ image with all figures holding up two hands – mirroring Dante’s vision in Moon image/heaven)
– Sun (with circles of light – containing names of fathers of the church?)
– Mars (f68r3) with warrior cross – and names associated with stars?)
– Golden Ladder (f67r) for the ascent to fixed stars
– Primum mobile (f67v) – faces of souls (named in canto) in the corners and the colourful TO map
Possibly still a bit rough round the edges, but I think the overall picture is rather convincing – though I am happy to be silenced by critics (before I do lots of more work on that which would be a waste of time).
Based on this association (and deduction from Dante’s paradiso text and imagery) some of the stars and names (in particular in the mars, saturn and sun images may be names of souls, saints and people and not star names – although I am neither linguist nor cryptographer to enrich the knowledge base in these quarters. Nevertheless, I believe my associations to be a good suggestion though, in particular if you look at it from a ‘block paradigm’ view 🙂
When I say ‘take a look’ at the view of the interior of the dome (Colegio de la Santa Cruz, Tlatlolco, I’m referring to the bright-blue painted “sky” “heaven?” — and what may be representing four ‘pillars of the faith’ — Saints?.
I’m now going to re-examine the commentary which appears with those circular diagrams. I’ll keep you posted.
I’m not only getting more beady-eyed (cataracts) with every day, but also my hearing is more impaired. I’ve always had to depend on lip-reading to be able to understand conversation, lectures, live plays, or television. Thank goodness for closed captioning!
bd
Correction to the name of the Colegio: Colegio de Santiago
They have been spelling of the College as I’ve spelled it here. I’m just correcting the location name.
I’ve considered folio 85v-1 (Beinecke foliation) by reference to a couple of twelfth century works from England. The analysis turned into a five and a half thousand word essay. Now shorn of most of its apparatus, half its pictures, and all but one quotation from the various pseudo-Dionysius (does Dionysius have a plural form?) – it’s down to a bit over two and a half thousand and reads a bit less credibly to my mind. Still, there it is. I’ll be putting it up on voynichimagery in the next day or so. Cheers.
Diane: looking forward to seeing it…
If I seem to be somewhat confused, I was! However, I did a followup search for the colegieo de santa cruz photos of dome exterior and came up with a beautiful photo of the college building with its bright orange dome. Also of great interest to me was the photo of the Aztec temple ruins and extensive campus.
Another photo offering on this google search was what appeared to be a large, grayish mushroom cap. When I enlarged the snapshot, there appeared very faded images of the same type of ‘angelic’ icons. Today, I am going to investigate that photo offering and its location.
Cheers!
.
The peculiar washed-out ‘mushroomy figure was a monument in honor of one of the ‘heroes’ of Spain’s last Civil War. So, it has nothing to do with Sahagun’s Colegio de Santa Cruz in Mexico.
Last night (and into the wee hours) I attempted some translation of Sahagun’s Nahuatl folio 81r. Again line after line of repetitive references to aquatic activities. So, I am not going to repeat any of the repetive references to water activities, but here are some likely interpretations:
ac-ue-yo-tl (wave) am-im-il-li (wave)
a-pi-pi-lo-y-ac (waterfall)
pi-pil-lo-tl (childishness, foolishness)
pi-la-huil-tl-a (play with children)
oe-cam-pa-ol-in-ia (stagger, totter)
o-tz-tla (become pregnant)
o-tz-tl-tz-tl-i (pregnancy)
o-tz-tl-i (pregnant)
ox-i-tl tl-an-e-chi-col-pah-tl-i (ointment)
oz-to-tl (cave)
The above terminology is my excerpts from the “Hippocrene Concise Dictionary” : Nahuatl-English/English-Nahuatl
Fermin Herrera
bdid1dr 🙂
Nick, thanks for saying so.
The short conclusion (for people in a hurry) is that on folio 85v-1 (Beinecke foliation) the ring-wearer represents Notus (Sth), the ‘wringer of clouds’ Boreas [N], the bearer of scents, Zephyrus [W] and the rhetorician, Subsolanus.. [E]
this by comparison with matter in a couple of twelfth century English works.
Diane, were you able to match the Latin/Spanish dialogue in folio 85-v of B-408 with your representations as presented herein?
Sahagun’s Florentine Ms,f-223 is an illustration of a small boat (in turbulent water?) with the notation: ” de las calidades de las ogua8 ” The apparent misspelling is the best I can do with my typewriter alpha-numerical script.
Here are some other folios from the Florentine Codex:
f-199 pocho-tl: flower seller, poch te catl hueh-xo-tl: turkey seller,
f-200-del maguey –f-201-f-202 maguey plant illustration with a fleur-d-lys between them.
f-203 & f-204 piedras preciosas (emeralds? turquoise?)
f-205 through 210 illustrates and discusses beads &/or gem cutting.
f-212: seashells/sponges?
f-214-215 begins with illustration of sickle-moon figure
folios 218-219 scribes/illustrators at work
folio 220 begins activities of daily living
I’ll stop here, for now, except to refer you to folios 240 through 245 which display circular edifices with sun figure over the entryway/porticos.
Perhaps this “smiley” resembles a sun face? 🙂
Dear Folk, I just couldn’t convince myself that I was confused when it came to identifying the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlaltlelcol . So, I went back to compare the two references of Santa Cruz and Santiago. It turns out that the structure IS both the “Templo de Santiago AND the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Santiago.
So, take a look at Nick’s recent “Block” discussions and compare with the ‘ceiling’ of the Templo. with those circular puzzles.
Allergy season is early for me (oak. pine, manzanita, and dogwood) forest). So my one good eye is irritated and itchy. I hope you can bear with me when some of my posts appear to be incomprehensible.
very ‘beady-eyed’ this a.m.
😉
A couple of days ago my husband brought home another of Charles C. Mann’s publications: “1491 – New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus”.
So, I now have a trilogy of ‘things’ related to South American pre-Columbian (1491: Chinese sailors/visitors to South America, an index item: passenger pigeons
1492: ‘The Year the World Began’, author Felipe Fernandez Armesto (I just now have found reference to the Canary Islands)
1493: ‘Uncovering the New World Columbus Created’; (Some focus on the racial mix in Brazil; author Charles C. Mann)
So, I guess I’m going to do some charting of significant events. Probably far too many items for me to excerpt on these pages.
I’m going to focus on a ‘mystery’ illness ‘ciciones’ which some historians mention as maybe malaria (or ‘maybe’ syphilis ; the debate continues).
🙂
Correction: “1421 – The Year China Discovered America’ author is Gavin Menzies (who might be still be living in North London?)
Have any of you taken a look at the inside (ceiling artwork) of the domed Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tl-tla-co ? As far as I can see, Dante doesn’t figure in any of the artwork — and, as far as I can see, only the female figure is wearing a halo.
I once again refer you to a fellow Londoner: Gavin Menzies book: “1421”
References to the Matadi Falls of the Congo River — and a carved stone above the banks of the pool of fresh water — and Menzie’s closing remarks of prostitutes patrolling the banks of the river/pool, awaiting the arrival of the crews of foreign ships sailing upstream to water and gather provisions. pp: 104-105, 106, 173. 291. 294.
“Here and there’, in my reading and research, I find discussions of the Olmec and their carvings in stone. I’ve always wondered about them because of the roundness of their skull-carvings and the ‘oriental’ appearance of their eyes.
I’ve also been pondering the contradictory archaeological findings of the Pacific Ocean traveler’s migrations. Some latest discoveries and discussion involves some ‘travellers from the sea’ who landed on the west coast of South America (‘Wari’) and gravitated to the inland mountain area.
And then other discussion still continues about the Atacama plain and all of its ‘mystery lines’. There really is NO mystery: The surrounding mountains have mummified sacrificial remains. The Atacama lines are indicators for the locations of the grave-sites.
I did a ‘look-up’ for that excerpted (from the Florentine Mss) word-pair “piedras preciosas”” : ‘piedras’ is a Spanish variation of the word ‘piedmont” (at the base of a mountain). In Sahagun’s text (Florentine Manuscript) the reference is to the low mountains in the distance — as being precious for the gemstones being mined in that area. (Emeralds)
(Emeralds — with a question mark.) Turquoise might be more likely, Turquoise, however, rarely receives faceting; the silver setting is molded around the stone.
Turquoise (xiuhchimale) is mentioned several times in Book One of Sahagun’s Florentine Manuscript.
Hi bdid1dr
What would you think of abnormal hieratic with added vowels?
Nick,
I’ve taken a closer look at these folios. Found a fair correspondence between characters on folio 85v-1 (mailing list’s 85r2) and the characters given by Isidore and later writers for those of the winds.
Perhaps the most interesting moment was recognising in the imagery an implication that the details in f.85v-1 were altered (updated) at some stage, when the East figure (the one with the flower above his hand) had the flower provided him, replacing the older image of the sun ( used on certain coins from Persia) with the newer ‘lily’ tamgar.
Diane (& our most gracious and patient host),
I was pretty much a self-taught reader. Because of my hearing impairment (which was not obvious to either my fellow students or my various teachers) I pretty much concentrated on the English language.
So, since I no longer have to follow up the classroom lectures with extensive research, extracted notes, and citations, I can read for the sheer enjoyment of learning new things.
BTW: The latest thing I’ve learned about Fray Sahagun and many of the Spanish ‘brotherhoods” is that there may be monuments ‘here and there’ but (in many cases) they were buried in graveyards which no longer exist. One cemetery, in particular, was sold to a circus; which circus grounds were sold to a construction developer.
Still smiling but ‘beadier-eyed’ every day.
bd
Dear Di : May I address you thus-ly as long as I don’t end up calling you “Dierdre” or “Diedra” — ? Ennyway (mis-spelling is deliberate) — it’s all “Greek” to me! So, can hieratic eventually deteriorate linguistically to ‘heretic”?
I’m agnostic by nature, and upbringing.
I still put on my opanci now and then — especially if there is a Kolo festival anywhere within a hundred miles from home. Most distressing to me and many of my Kolo friends are the ongoing Serb and Croat difficulties in Europe.
Time to put some seeds and breadcrumbs out for our blue jays, woodpeckers, titmouse, chickadees, and several other as yet unidentifiable small birds. Time to pull my heap of bird ID books out — it looks like Spring already!
Nick, I remember the day you were having a quiet day at home with your child. You were commenting on some birds which had done ‘fly-by’. Do you remember my breaking out into ‘song’: Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye……
🙂
Nick, Diane, & n-e-1 lse interested in my posts:
I spent most of today on-line investigating Shagun’s Psalmodia.
Very interesting; so interesting that my husband was online with Amazon books BEFORE I was done perusing for the morning!
So, again I express the hope that you and/or Kevin Knight might be taking a look also. I think Diane has probably already been ‘down this road’ — but maybe there have been more recent ‘hitch-hikers’ which may have new ‘news’ for Diane (and you, of course, Nick!).
more bd i’d than ever
Look into the Dumezilian funtions and intercalary period per Emily Lyle.
Folio 86v4: There seems to be a track or a clear line of vision between the upper left center figure and the right-most . Is there any possibility of the use of a mirror/glass for communication (code)? (I understand that you removed a lot of the ‘scales” (Maybe it was a case of cutting trees for a clear path of communication?)
Do I remember correctly that “Morse Code” and “Flag Codes” are fairly recent developments?
So, my mention of Psalmodia may be more applicable to your “Block Paradigm” Poem interpretation page?
Kevin Knight may be helpful (Advent Publication). Brown University also has part of the collection composed and written by Sahagun for the benefit/participation of the Native Americans in various Saints Day celebrations.
? — bdid1dr
My post was blocked as spam. Seems like can’t put urls.
Well.
—-
Hi, in page 66r, i can see the same yellow stuff in pot, that appears with the man in the circle.
At the end it reads: “Der Mus Geb”
In German, “Der Mus” means “The puree”. And Geb means to “Give birth”.
Searching in internet for “der mus” there seems to be a recipe called Quittenmus, which is a puree of the quince fruit.
Quince is a forbidden fruit in the Genesis.
Potential forbidden fruits of the Garden of Eden include the apple, pomegranate,[1] the fig,[2] the carob,[1] the etrog or citron,[1] the pear, mushrooms, the quince and, more recently, the datura.
” …. the expansion of perceptual and cognitive awareness that resulted from ingestion was responsible for the acquisition of “knowledge”.[4]
Also, he is holding a yellow ball, which seems to be the color and shape of the Quince fruit.
Wikipedia says:
” In the Alsace region of France and the Valais region of Switzerland, liqueur de coing made from quince is used as a digestif. ”
And now that i remember, in the zodiac sections of the VMS, there seems to be words in French.
Which may explain why the author knows German and French.
Bilingual cipher?
wikipedia: Alsatian_dialect
Waiting patiently for next installment…
Diane: the next block is a big one, and will take a fair bit of work yet to present it in sufficient detail. But I’m on the case… 🙂
Marvellous. I’m using all my hard-won patience not to write a diatribe about anonymous and unsupported assertions about the Voynich ms being a Byzantine physician’s handbook. Gd knows who started this furphy; if it is a genuinely honest and informed scholar (such as Towaide) I might have to blush and retract, but at the moment the person who started using ‘iatrosophia’ as a nice sound-bite better ‘fess up and produce his/her evidence or be darned for a fakir.
Nick & Friends:
Is there anyone ‘out there’ worried about the many translations done by A.J.O. Anderson; which are translated into English? Not Nahuatl into Latin, or into French, or into Spanish, but rather consistently into English.
I have had to resort to Brown University’s holdings for some of their archive for Fr. Bernardino Sahagun’s works (Florentine Codex and Psalmodia)
B-408, f-86v4 : Mine adits? Straight line road-clearing for hauling the ore to the lake-level?
Gold, emeralds, and turquoise were not the only ‘minerals’ mined. Apparently lead was also valuable.
😉
More likely silver — for its use in jewelry, but also as a ‘mirror’ ?
Nick and Friends:
A really good source for those “Magic Circles” would be the Catalan map. I’m pretty sure that was what Fray Sahagun had his scribes trying to illustrate for his discussions. From what I was able to see clearly, was some six concentric circles full of references to star constellations — for naval navigation. Several of the rings dealt with Scorpio, Aries, Pisces………Other commentary in the corners of the Catalan map could be compared if only we could get an enlargement of the map. Also what would be more clear if the print on the Catalan map’s corners could be enlarged.
Tell Diane, for me, that her contribution in re the Catalan map helped me considerably (my vision continues to be obscured).
So, I shall be tapping the Boenicke Library archive for enlargements of f-85r2 and f-86r4 so I can translate the dialogues. I may be going back to the Nine-Rosettes pages (which I named “Rosettes” way back ‘when’.
Hang in there, Nick! (You too, Diane!)
bd-i-d-1-dr
Nick, I’m hoping that you can contact Diane for me (kudos for earlier discussion in re the Catalan Atlas). I am leery of all the Facebook etc. social pages. So I am unable to contact Diane directly.
Also, Nick, I am hoping you will find the most interesting portrayal of the Catalan Atlas (which has concentric rings of star formations – astronomical -, people with lifted arms facing into the center of the atlas – image of the normal phases of the moon (no eclipse) – – – -and in the four corners of the manuscript are robed persons holding semi-circular manuscripts.
All of the images in the Catalan Atlas appear in what you are discussing as “Magic Circles”. There are several online portrayals and discussions of the Catalan, but Diane appears to be the only researcher, so far, who has made a connection between the Catalan and the contents of Boenicke Manuscript 408. The timelines and provenance of B-408 and the Catalan are very closely relative.
Father Sahagun and his student scribes and artists did the best they could to describe the navigational details of his ship-crossing of the Atlantic from Spain.
Diane, I hope you are reading this; and that you will be willing to discuss the details of the Catalan and compare with B-408.
Nick, if I am imposing on, or monopolizing, your blog, please let me know.
ps: I am going back to the “Nine-Rosettes” folded folio and will be comparing the illustrations and commentary with the Catalan atlas. Wish me luck with my hunch!
If that castle should turn out to be Spanish/Catalan or Portuguese ……….?
bd
Key words/commentary from the museum curator,in re the Catalan ‘les cartes marines’ : “perpetual calendar .”
🙂
In her paper, “Time and the Indo-European Gods in the Slavic Context,” Emily Lyle associates the three Dumézilian functions (three sons) with the three seasons, priests with spring, warriors with summer and food producers with winter (1990:4,86). Then she combines the three into a four-part whole, with their mother, an overarching woman, representing an intercalary period (seen in many ancient calendars) as well as the entire year.
I think after taking a closer look at the sets, that the folio numbered f85r2[VML] = 85v-1 [Beinecke]
is a relatively late addition, and the result of a rather different environment and mindset from f86v4 [VML] = fol. 85v-2 [Beinecke].
as for fol 57v – frankly, I shouldn’t be surprised if Kircher did that one; the style of drawing is so like one in a book of his, and the whole feeling of it is superficial. No way to check this, of course, but that’s what I think likely.
On the same subject – sort of – I think you’re wise to begin looking at the text in blocks. The vocabulary seems to alter according to sections, as I learned from a post at Stephen Bax’ site recently though whether others have noted the same already I don’t know.
Given the way that the map adjusts its imagery to suit the differing customs of the various regions, quite apart from the evidence of chronological layers, so it seems to me very likely that the vocabulary and language may change too, even though the script remains constant.
If that were so, then statistical counts which use the whole manuscript to try determining language and/or cipher would be skewed, wouldn’t they? Or am I underestimating the sophistication of those systems?
Just an idle thought, prompted by the idea of the “block” and this post’s reference to magic. There is a book which contains a set of “one hundred and thirty seven magical recipes that provide solutions for all sorts of misfortunes, difficulties and aspirations”. I mention this too because it connects with Panofsky’s view that the work is connected to Kabbalah.
The book is known as the “Sword of Moses” and was translated by the very well respected scholar Theodore Gaster. Gaster was a little too much affected by the erroneous belief that Frazer’s “Golden Bough” was a collection of archetypes – sadly, an error promoted and maintained by the early works of Joseph Campbell – but otherwise Gaster’s name means the translation will be trustworthy. Just an idea.
For anyone who might be interested in following up a link to the ‘Sword of Moses’ recipes, I find that there has been a more recent translation, based on MS Sassoon 290, a better copy than Gaster had.
As Sassoon’s wonderful collection has been broken up, its numbers are being changed to suit their holding libraries’ various systems, and in this case Sassoon 290 has become
MS Geneve – Bibliotheque publique et universitaire 145 (previously MS Sasson 290).
It is digitised.
http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/bge/cl0145/17