(19-10-2023, 12:23 PM)ReneZ wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.This separator is a completely standard 'ornamental' element in manuscripts of the time, and, if nothing else, shows us that the Voynich MS does include completely standard elements (this one being a detail). The manuscript, while odd or unusual, is not out of the context of its time.
This particular aspect was illlustrated in Ellie Velinska's blog, if I am not mistaken.
Even purely ornamental in general, it still could have some significance in a certain context. E.g., squares and triangles are ornamental, until they appear on a music player, where they are immediately recognized as "stop" and "play".
I haven't yet encountered this sign many enough times in the wild of medieval manuscripts to come to any personal conclusion, but the first idea I'd like to check: in this particular text there is a self-eating snake chart just a few pages apart from the year chart. By the look of it, could this symbol be the mouth of Ouroboros? It would be logical to put it exactly at the point where the cycle moves over to a new year, but given the overall sloppiness of this particular chart it's not far off. In any case, this four-toothed symbol visually could pass for the mouth of some time-eating entity. I'd keep an eye out for it in other charts.
A more mundane explanation would be some kind of fastener that connects segments of a wheel. But I couldn't find any images of medieval wheels with fasteners that would look like this one.
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