Why the Voynich Zodiac - isn't

[-JKP-]

I try to call the VMS figure a "feline" most of the time because some people interpret the spots as maybe being a "pard" (leopard) and some feel it should be a lion (Leo) regardless of how the hair is drawn (we don't know if they are intended to be spots).


The extra long neck would be more similar to a cheetah, but the VMS bull also has an extra long neck, so it might just be the way the illustrator drew things. Anatomy was not his or her strong point.


There's a fair amount of disagreement about whether these are zodiacs...

Personally, I feel comfortable calling these zodiac figures based on their thematic similarity to the zodiac series I've blogged about (that originated in France/Flanders and migrated south and east), and their order—there's no way it could be accidental that they are so similar to a subgroup with nontraditional themes—but that doesn't mean the text and figures around them are necessarily related to zodiacs. Zodiac figures were added to many kinds of manuscripts as embellishments, not just calendars and astrology/astronomy texts.


I have more than 550 medieval Leos in my VMS zodiac database and another 200 or so lions in my not-zodiac files. I haven't had time to write them up, other than one blog that barely introduces them.