Scorpios

[Koen G]

I can’t believe any of the artists who drew these weird “scorpions” had ever seen an actual scorpion! The scribe responsible for the Voynich scorpion seems to have had one described to him/her, and knew it has a long tail that curves back on itself, but nobody seems to have mentioned how many legs it possesses!

And that in itself could be a clue perhaps? I'm not a naturalist/arachnologist, but I think I'm right in saying that (barring a few pockets of invasive species which are comparatively recent) their natural range in Europe extends as far north as Northern Italy and Switzerland, but no further. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

The thing with Zodiac signs is that they follow traditional depictions. So the scribe doesn't have to go out in nature or rely on his memory to draw the creature. He just needs access to a zodiac sequence (very common in all kinds of sources, including public spaces like churches) and copy or adapt it from there. I think it's likely that these more reptilian Scorpio images are more or less related and based on other deviant imagery.

The natural range of the animal may not be too relevant there. For example, bulls are extremely common beings in medieval Europe, but the Voynich artist draws it like a long-horned horse with a long, upright neck. This is based on imagery rather than nature, as if the two worlds are parallel to one another. We talked a bit about the bulls here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

So I'd say in some manuscripts, the scorpion became a weird creature, and some copyists went along with that.

What I can't quite explain is the considerable variation in these very weird Scorpios