Since schools have shut down over the coronavirus, my wife and I have been homeschooling our 8 year old triplets. Yesterday I tried to impart an important life lesson to them: You're going to be wrong many, many times, about all sorts of things. Expect it. Any person's perspective on any situation is limited and biased. Other people will be clear about things you're fuzzy on, and vice versa. When someone else involved in that same situation offers you clarity, that's a gift, not an attack, and there is much to be gained from receiving it accordingly. 

I had it drummed into me in graduate school and professional training that I should always be honest and realistic about the limits of my knowledge. I try to only state things authoritatively that I'm quite certain about. If I'm speculating and guessing, I try to phrase it in a way that makes it clear I'm not sure, and would welcome the input of anyone more knowledgeable than me. If I flat out don't know, I say "I don't know", and if it's my responsibility to know it, I'm quick to add, "Let me look that up and get back to you."

If someone has a problem with my lack of knowledge or certainty, that's their problem, not mine. I had one teacher who said sternly to me, "I think students shouldn't open their mouths unless they have the right answer." I strongly disagree. I didn't give him sauce, but nor did I sign up for any more tutelage from him, or give him good ratings. As far as I'm concerned, there's a special place in hell for any teacher who's willing to beat the curiosity, creativity, or genuine love of learning out of a student.

I got into the VMS because when I first saw it, it made my imagination run wild with possibilities. I'm sure this is the case for many, if not most, people who get into this mystery. It can be disillusioning to share these flights of fancy, and be told by people more knowledgeable than me that I'm probably not on the right track. But I'd rather know this now, than invest loads of work barking up the wrong tree. If somebody already thought of my idea, and ruled it unlikely based on what they know that I don't, that's something to be grateful for! I've tried to hold onto this early sense of wonder, of "anything is possible", that I first felt when seeing the VMS, while at the same time appreciating and integrating the slow-moving, painstaking, un-glamourous bottom-up approach that's likely to eventually solve it. It's not so much a matter of mixing romantic and rationalist thinking styles, but of knowing when to switch between them, and never mistaking one for the other.

During my time exploring this mystery, I've seen a lot of people show up with grandiose and well fleshed out ideas of what the VMS is, get their ideas criticized by people with different perspectives, and walk away with hurt feelings. Newbies reading this, don't be that guy. Only build and share what you're willing to see get knocked down. Or be honest and upfront that what you've built is a work of fiction. To anyone who's serious about solving the mystery, I highly recommend you share your idea early on, and be upfront about how rough your idea is. Don't flesh it out so much that you can't bear to see your brainchild dashed to pieces.

In the end, you have to ask yourself why you're attracted to the VMS, and what you hope to accomplish in exploring it. And understand that others have very different reasons, and bring very different backgrounds to the table. Go ahead, be wrong. There's no successful person who hasn't failed many, many times.

Recently reading bits of "Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France: Text and Context ..."  by Jan R. Veenstra.
Pignon, Oresme and others win out against divination.

Those others were apparently in favor of divination. Thomas de Pisan was an astrologer.

Roland l'Ecrivain was a physician for Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy for 30 years, much of which was prime time for VMs creation. So his artistic style could easily be relevant.

Several books are mentioned, including "Les 12 signes dou firmament".
<first link to a JSTOR file - removed>

The author makes reference to this text which is in the Burgundy library.

KBR Library:
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Search by number. 10394-414

I am looking for a data base list of glyph counts for whole manuscript.  I know there is debate about the exact identity of some glyphs and difficulty in reading some but I'm guessing all the analysis I have seen has been using some kind of close as set of data fro this.  No problem finding word counts and single folios but need preferably list that covers most common 30.

thanks,
Bunny

Posted long ago:
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Wikipedia:
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According to this source
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On page 130: It says that he was physician to the Duke of Burgundy from Jun 1437 till his death (in 1469?).
Philip the Good was Duke of Burgundy from 1419 to 1467.

Another Burgundy connection.

 Pisces has been related over time to fish, monster (depicted like a wyrm in Getty image), bird, goddess, rope.  The VM Pisces looks pretty straightforward but that would be not very Voynich like.  

Suggest f86v3 in the light of outside data shows the location of the garden of Eden being in Iraq.


Does what is says on the box.

Bunny

(03-06-2020, 10:18 PM)-JKP- wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(03-06-2020, 09:55 PM)R. Sale wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
...
Where does the sequence start? According to the Zodiac Man, Pisces represent the feet. The problem is with the structure, not with the VMs representation.

Yes, interesting point.

If the focus of the VMS is medical (including the zodiac section), and if it followed the anatomical relationships of the constellations to the body parts, then the sequence would quite likely start with Aries (head) or Pisces (feet).

If Aries, it works its way down. However, if it starts with Pisces, then it would have to rotate up to the head again and work down in order to follow the traditional sequence.

Sad news from Nick's blog today...

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I came across an interesting image on Getty Images:

Representation of a zodiac with in the centre the sun surronded by signs of the zodiac, illumination from a latin manuscript, Romanesque period (12th 13th century) 

"Sorronded" correct for search!

It shows pisces as a Wyrm dragon eating a fish.  Inference - fish can represent dragons and dragons represent fish.  Is Voynich woman being eaten by a fish being eaten by a dragon?  Do the dragon like creatures in the VM represent Pisces?

Bunny

The investigation of the Creature (VMs f79v, the 'mermaid" not the Critter (VMs f80v, the Agnus Dei).

This is an investigation that has blossomed over the years. At first the creature was thought to be the sort of 'VMs version" of a mermaid, or a siren or some other alluring and feminine water spirit, badly rendered. But it turns out she was showing more thigh than any respectable mermaid. A similarity was noted early on between the VMs and the illustration in Harley 334, which has several similarities, but still she had no name. Not until the myth of Melusine was brought into the investigation, and a matching depiction of 'woman + fish', that looks like she is stepping into or out of a costume. Mermaids may stay as mermaids, for the greater part (or not), but Melusine changes every week.

This might identify who she is, but does it tell us why Melusine is featured in Harley 334? Not really. One myth has Meusine as the ancestress of the House of Lusignan. An interesting historical diversion, and other mythical versions have her as ancestress of other rulers, such as the Plantagenets and the House of Luxembourg. In an uncommon combination of historical circumstance. It was the Valois Duke of Berry, Jean, Duc de Berry, who took the Lusignan fortress from the English. And there is a tell-tale hint of this in the March illustration of Tres Riches Heures, with the little dragon manifestation of Melusine above the right-hand tower.

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Not only did the Duke of Berry possess the historical location, his mother was Bonne of Luxembourg, an actual descendant of the mythical Melusine in the version where it is Siegfried who falls ass over teakettle, instead of Raymond. Believe it or not, it apparently served as royal propaganda - like the classical Greek and Roman rulers who claimed descent from various gods, goddesses, and heroes. And there is a second literary connection in the commission by Jean de Berry of the Roman de Melusine from Jean d'Arras. The ties to specific traditions become more clear. This is not the illustrations of some unknown mermaid or siren. No one claims to be a descendant of Minnie the Mermaid or Suzie the Siren. The interpretation based on a time and place providing the most relevant traditions close to the time of C-14 dates includes not only this Duke of Berry, but his brothers as well, and among them Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and his descendants.

The library of the Duke of Berry is also relevant to VMs investigation because it was the starting place for the 1410 version of the Oresme cosmos and for the Berry Apocalypse, which has the example of a plain nebuly line used as a cosmic boundary, which is also a part of the VMs cosmos and the VMs Critter (Agnus Dei). Further implying that these things are historically tied together and to the VMs by traditions that have gotten lost and need to be recovered.