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Archive of communications of the Journal Of
Voynich Studies
Index
of Subjects in all Volumes
Vol. V, 2011
360
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 1-2-2011 3:45:16 PM EST
J.VS: Typesetting error in a book by
Juan Eusebio Nieremberg y Otin, S.J. (1595-1658)
Redacted from off-J discussions 1-2 JAN 2011 :
Berj / KI3U says:
I came across a curiosity while looking into Jesuit Nieremberg
(1595-1658). Here's a quick bio in the
Catholic Encyclopedia:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11072c.htm
While with google books I was looking over editions of this work of his
:
Curiosa, y oculta filosofía:
Primera, y segunda parte de las marauillas de la naturaleza, examinadas
en varias questiones naturales,
I noted an oddity in the dating - see the attached google-books
screenshots in order, 1 and 2.
In 1, printed in Alcala (where Nieremberg seems to have been resident)
by Maria Fernandez, things look normal
- the Tercera Impression of the book gives its date as MDCXXXXIX
(1649), and that's the date google-book's
about-blurb gives too.
But in 2, printed in Madrid, the Tercera Impression is slightly
differently typeset, and rather glaringly the
date is MCDXXXXIII (1443) and google-book's about-blurb also gives 1443.
I immediately checked on Gutenberg, and as I suspected, he didn't
really get going quite that early, hence
neither did anybody else. But Nieremberg's bio overrides everything
anyway - he wasn't born til 1595.
So, it appears to me that in 2, the Madrid typesetter mixed up the
order of the C and D in the Roman numerals
date. Curiously both 1 and 2 are apparently denoted the 3rd impression.
So, unless someone has a better explanation for this oddity, it's a
good example of screwups back then (the
typesetter) AND today (google-books about-blurbs), and we have to be on
guard for them.
Greg Stachowski says:
Typesetter screwups are normal, although this is a particularly nice
example :)
We've seen before that Google-books info can be wrong (one with those
Voynich/Pilsudski archive materials,
and more recently with that 20th volume of Raynaud referencing
Santinus). This is a failing of many blind,
semi-automated mass surveying and indexing projects - there simply
isn't enough time or resources to check
each detail. In this case the '1443' error would only be detected by
someone cross-checking the other
editions or the author's dates.
Berj says:
Indeed, and overall the google books digitization project is doing
well, considering the sheer amount of
activity in that department.
[ end J.VS comm. #360 ]
**************************************
361
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 1-10-2011 3:25:05 PM EST
J.VS: Comparison of photos of 4 JAN
2011 partial solar eclipse with the Voynich f68r astro-panels, and more
[ redacted from off-J discussions 3 JAN - 10 JAN 2011; the referenced
images are in J.VS Library deposit
# 0-14-2011-01-10 ; http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/library/ ]
Berj / KI3U says:
Have a look:
http://frenchtoastblog.com/tag/medill/
" Marv Bolt, collections curator at the Adler Planetarium, holds part
of a 18th-century telescope. The ornate
script instructs the user (in Italian) to choose between better
magnification and a clearer image, depending
on how the red insert is placed. The telescope goes on display in May,
part of a new exhibit celebrating the
400th anniversary of telescopes. Photo: Dani Friedland/MEDILL
An 18th-century paper telescope and a NASA interstellar explorer might
seem to be galaxies apart. But they’re
both part of the Adler Planetarium’s celebration for the International
Year of Astronomy. "
I didn't realize some 18th c. telescopes were made of paper. Were these
cheapies?
Interesting that that paper-tube 18th c. telescope extends 8-10 feet in
length!
Here's a page on William Parsons (1800-1867) who built the 19th c.'s
largest telescope, operational by 1847,
and discovered spiral galaxies, including a great photo of the
instrument:
http://reference.findtarget.com/search/William%20Parsons,%203rd%20Earl%20of%20Rosse/
If you subtract its mounting, it looks just like some of the big tubes
in the VMS nine-rosettes foldout.
Greg Stachowski says:
A tube looks like a tube? ;)
Judging by the construction and colouring I'd say it was probably a
"toy" (not necessarily a children's toy,
and not necessarily cheap either).
Paper is quite a good construction material, lightweight and easy to
form. What we're looking at is probably
more like papier mache or cardboard, rather than the single thin sheet
of paper we would tend to think of
today. Here's a curiosity regarding paper:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papier-m%C3%A2ch%C3%A9#Paper_observatory_domes
Robert Teague says:
My first telescope was a 2.5 inch reflector with a cardboard tube. It
had two eyepieces, as I remember. I
think I still have the mirror in a box somewhere.
Berj says:
" A tube looks like a tube? ;) "
Well yeah, but there's length-to-diameter ratio.
Greg says:
A couple of photos of today's partial eclipse for you, taken through
fog/low cloud.
[ 1-4jan2011-part-Moon-eclipse-GS.jpg,
2-4jan2011-part-Moon-eclipse-GS.jpg ]
Berj says:
Have a look at attached crop of the bigger pic (
c2-4jan2011-part-Moon-eclipse-GS.jpg, attached). Note the
orange rim-halo spans more or less all the way on the exterior limb,
but only halfway on the interior limb.
I wonder why. The closest analog in the VMS to that asymmetric
orange-limb-halos effect seems to be at the
bottom of f68r1. Hmm .....
Robert says:
The pictures I sent from Starry Night the other day was 2 AM 17 July
1533, twenty-four hours after the moon
occluded the Pleiades.
Berj says:
My big question on this at the moment is:
If the f68r1 Moon depiction is diagramming, in addition to all else,
the asymmetric halos effect, then can
this effect be perceived without optical instrumentation? - which bears
upon the VMS creation period. I don't
immediately recall seeing this effect in my actual naked-eye Moon
observations - I might have, but it would
seem to be something noteworthy and remembered.
Greg [ providing a higher-resolution crop of the partial eclipse,
3_4jan2011-part-Moon-eclipse-GS.jpg ] says:
I mentioned it was taken through fog/low cloud?
The cloud was variable in density and changing with time, so the path
from one side of the image could be
through a different optical depth than from the other.
There are also infrared effects. The infra-red blocking filter isn't up
to blocking 100% of the IR when
pointed directly at a very strong source like the Sun, and with the
longer wavelength the focal point is
shifted relative to the visible, so you get an out-of focus red image
of the Sun - red because the red
filters on the pixels will pass more IR than the green or blue. In
principle that would give a symmetrical
glow, but if the source is slightly off-axis or the optical depth
varies (as above) it could well be
asymmetrical.
In addition, there seems to be some chromatic aberration - you can see
it better in the full size image on
the right-hand point of the crescent. Probably due to the small compact
digital camera lens being at full
zoom.
Richard SantaColoma says:
Nice shots, Greg.
Greg says:
Thanks!
The cloud made it possible to photograph without filters and added some
atmosphere. Only a small digital
camera lens though. My colleague took some with a Canon DSLR and a
better lens, I haven't looked at those yet.
Not long after the maximum the cloud thickened and we lost it here. We
had a live feed going from the
observatory though, displaying on some monitors in the main hallway
which normally are used for announcements
and such.
Berj says:
Greg, Ok, and I now notice something else in the higher-resolution
picture of the eclipse you just provided
( I have it filed as 3_4jan2011-part-Moon-eclipse-GS.jpg ) : the halos
are slightly different in color.
The partial halo, which earlier I called interior and is actually the
exterior limb of the Moon, is more reddish
than the complete halo of the sun's limb, which is more orange.
Curiously, the pattern with the f68r1 Moon
depiction apparently continues in this detail - see the attached tif
crop of f68r1's Moon ( cl6VMSf68.tif ) :
without any processing you can see that the smaller halo is denser in
color than the larger halo. If you push
the contrast on the tif this stands out all the more.
So, regardless of how this effect comes about, can it be seen with the
naked eye, say solely due to fog and
so on?
Greg says:
If the fog is thick enough to suppress enough of the light from the
Sun, then yes, some halo effects would be
visible. You see them often enough at night with the moon. Of course
there would not be any IR or chromatic
aberration effects.
Berj says:
Well, I would like to distinguish here between "some halo effects" of
the Moon, which I've seen often enough,
and the specific halo effects under consideration: asymmetric
halo-arc-lengths and slightly different arc
colors, with possibly the smaller arc specifically a denser color, more
reddish versus orange, during partial
eclipse. So let me frame it all this way:
1.) is the effect primarily to be seen in partial solar eclipses, which
are relatively rare occurrences in
one's lifetime, especially if one cannot get on a jetplane and travel
to observe the next eclipse?
2.) given sufficient fog, is the effect, in its above 1.) details,
unequivocally observable by someone with
sharp eyesight and high motivation to study the opportunity of a
partial eclipse, i.e. not a casual observer?
3.) is it reasonable to allow that the present difference in color
densities between the larger and smaller
colored arcs around the VMS f68r1 Moon, which at face-value coincides
with the color densities difference in
the photograph of the just-passed eclipse you shot, might have been
even greater several hundred years ago
when the f68r1 illustration was rendered? In other words: is it
reasonable to assume, that if the f68r1
artist mixed slightly different color density paints, that the aging of
the f68r1 panel since then brought
those colors closer and made them less dramatically different as we
currently see them in the SID's, than the
other way around?
4.) if fog is the necessary factor to observe the effect, then is it
more likely that, IF the f68r1 Moon
depiction is INDEED indicating THIS effect, THEN perhaps the f68r1
observer was observing from a location
more favorable for routine fog, like London versus say Prague?
5.) IF the f68r1 Moon is intentionally depicting the asymmetric and
different-color halo-arcs effect, THEN is
this not once again an indication that the VMS author was inclined
toward serious, i.e. scientific astronomy?
Greg says:
There are at least three levels of effects here which are hard, if not
impossible, to separate : scattering,
diffraction, refraction (which depends largely on particle size) and
absorption effects in the fog,
complicated by the fact that across the solar disc the fog was not of
uniform density, secondly in-lens
effects (primarily chromatic aberration, but also perhaps internal
reflections ), thirdly enough infrared
getting through the filter to cause a defocussed additional image. On
top of that there is post-processing in
the camera which may affect the colour balance in subtle ways. Now
separating out exactly which one is the
cause of the apparently asymmetric halo-arcs and different colours is
difficult, particularly as they overlap
- halo caused by fog will be further confused by aberration, and some
of the halo will be in the infrared
which may distort the infrared image. A sufficiently complicated
ray-tracing model might shed some insight,
but it would be a lot of work to produce.
One thing which can be done is to look at other images of the eclipse
taken with different equipment, which
will have different aberration and infra-red response. That would at
least narrow down the fog component.
" 1.) is the effect primarily to be seen in partial solar
eclipses, which are relatively rare occurrences
in one's lifetime, especially if one cannot get on a jetplane and
travel to observe the next eclipse? "
Only the fog effects would be visible, the others are in-camera. The
fog effects should be more or less
similar for any sufficiently bright source, say the Sun out of eclipse.
There are no effects here which are
solely linked to the Sun being eclipsed.
" 2.) given sufficient fog, is the effect, in its above
1.) details, unequivocally observable by someone
with sharp eyesight and high motivation to study the opportunity of a
partial eclipse, i.e. not a casual
observer? "
Sufficient fog means enough to reduce the brightness of the Sun (in or
out of eclipse) to the point where
looking at it would be possible. Looking at it and being able to
distinguish faint colour differences
requires even thicker fog. Again, though, this would in principle be
possible without an eclipse as well.
The colour effects were not obviously visible to me looking at the
eclipse today; neither were they visible
the last time I saw a partial eclipse through cloud (in 1994 I think).
Then again I wasn't going to ruin my
eyesight staring at the Sun.
" 3.) is it reasonable to allow that the present
difference in color densities between the larger and
smaller colored arcs around the VMS f68r1 Moon, which at face-value
coincides with the color densities
difference in the photograph of the just-passed eclipse you shot, might
have been even greater several
hundred years ago when the f68r1 illustration was rendered? In other
words: is it reasonable to assume that
if the f68r1 artist mixed slightly different color density paints, that
the aging of the f68r1 panel since
then brought those colors closer and made them less dramatically
different as we currently see them in the
SID's, than the other way around? "
I'm not clear - do you mean the two yellow arcs, or the yellow and dark
(green?) arcs?
That's possible of course, but I don't see how you could prove it
either way.
" 4.) if fog is the necessary factor to observe the
effect, then is it more likely that, IF the f68r1 Moon
depiction is INDEED indicating THIS effect, THEN perhaps the f68r1
observer was observing from a location
more favorable for routine fog, like London versus say Prague? "
Surprisingly perhaps, London isn't actually very foggy. The popular
image of foggy London was from the late
19th and early 20th century (well, up to about the 1950s) and was the
result of smog, due to coal-burning,
rather than pure fog. Krakow being in a depression surrounded by hills
is foggy far more often than London.
Anyway, fog causes some optical effects, but we have not yet determined
whether the ones we have on the photo
are intrinsic or extrinsic to the camera or some combination of both.
" 5.) IF the f68r1 Moon is intentionally depicting the
asymmetric and different-color halo-arcs effect,
THEN is this not once again an indication that the VMS author was
inclined toward serious, i.e. scientific
astronomy? "
If there is a halo-arc effect, and if it is visible to the naked eye
rather than a camera, and if that view
is consistent with the depiction, and if it can be shown that the f68r1
Moon depicts that particular effect ,
etc , then it might be just an indicator that the artist liked drawing
what he saw. Too many Ifs. not to
mention that there are no astronomical effects as such here.
The f68 moon could just as easily be depicting earthshine with a thin
crescent moon: compare the photo and
Leonardo drawing attached. " [ Leonardo-Earthshine.png,
Blog-0905-old-moon.jpg ]
Berj says:
" There are no effects here which are solely linked to the
Sun being eclipsed. "
Well, just off the top of my imagination, what about instantaneous
micro-thermal effects in the fog,
involving also the fog's micro fluid dynamics as the sunlight is
changing?
" I'm not clear - do you mean the two yellow arcs, or the
yellow and dark (green?) arcs? "
Well the green arc, if the VMS author intended it within the present
context, would overwhelmingly strengthen
the case that he/she observed something worth diagramming in f68r1,
especially so since that green arc and
the larger yellow arc to its left are arcing / bowing in the same
direction, just like the arcs under
consideration in your photograph. No, I meant the oppositely bowing
yellow and denser-yellow arcs. I realize
they bow oppositely, but implicit in that is allowing for artistic
license by the VMS illustrator, something
he/she does to an advanced degree in the VMS's botanical illustrations
and which there is taken in stride in
VMS research. As you pointed out earlier in so many words, the eclipse
is a dynamic situation, and the VMS
author, if diagramming eclipse details in a single picture, would have
to incorporate some artistic license
in order to integrate time-separated aspects of the event.
" The f68 moon could just as easily be depicting
earthshine with a thin crescent moon: compare the photo
and Leonardo drawing attached. "
I don't find those pictures especially convincing as to being
comparable with the details we're considering.
However I too had first gone to look at other pictures of today's
partial eclipse - I did not find any which
show the effect under consideration which we see in your photo,
although one interesting one I saw seemed to
show a huge solar flare on the sun's surface, but if that were the case
I would expect we would be seeing
discussion about that by now.
Anyway, from all the foregoing, let me try this:
6.) If it be assumed that, rather than incidental factors having caused
the present color-difference between
the two different-sized "yellow" arcs in the VMS f68r1 Moon, the VMS
illustrator indeed intended depicting
those differences as definite details, then all things considered it
suggests he had both fog and some sort
of optical aid beyond naked-eye observation. Of course optical aid
beyond naked eye does not necessarily mean
lenses were involved.
Is this reasonable? Clearly we cannot solve this question easily, but
the greater point is, at least in my
view, that your fortuitous unusual photograph of today's partial solar
eclipse is stimulating new
possibilities for Voynich astro-panels analysis.
Greg says:
" Well, just off the top of my imagination, what about
instantaneous micro-thermal effects in the fog,
involving also the fog's micro fluid dynamics as the sunlight is
changing? "
What? The eclipse lasts 3 hours and the area in which it is visible is
tens or hundreds of square kilometers.
Any general effects from the changing solar flux (which of course
exist) will be thus be masked by local
heating, turbulence, winds etc.
" No, I meant the oppositely bowing yellow and
denser-yellow arcs. I realize they bow oppositely, but
implicit in that is allowing for artistic license by the VMS
illustrator, "
Well if we're allowing 'artistic license' in a precise depiction then
I'll say that the wider arc is a bright
crescent against an earthshine face, and that the other thinner arc is
artistic license. At least the
crescent/earthshine is commonly observable without particularly special
conditions.
" I don't find those pictures especially convincing as to
being comparable with the details we're
considering. "
Artistic license :)
" 6.) If it be assumed that, rather than incidental
factors having caused the present color-difference
between the two different-sized "yellow" arcs in the VMS f68r1
Moon, the VMS illustrator indeed intended
depicting those differences as definite details, then all things
considered it suggests he had both fog and
some sort of optical aid beyond naked-eye observation. Of course
optical aid beyond naked eye does not
necessarily mean lenses were involved.
Is this reasonable? Clearly we cannot solve this
question easily, but the greater point is, at least in
my view, that your fortuitous unusual photograph of today's partial
solar eclipse is stimulating new
possibilities for Voynich astro-panels analysis. "
I think you're drawing way too many conclusions from the available
evidence.
The illustrator might well be depicting (to a greater or lesser degree
of accuracy) something real, but to
conclude that he had fog and optical aid on that basis is overreaching.
Berj says:
Well then, without overreaching, what might be a reasonable conclusion,
on the available evidence, of
something real the illustrator might well be depicting in the f68r1
Moon?
Just Earthshine, with extreme artistic license ?
Dana Scott says:
Perhaps it would help to consider r1 and r2 together. Notice that r2 is
essentially r1 with the sun and moon
flipped. Light on the top and dark on the bottom, with r2 containing
approximately twice as many stars (60 vs
29) as r1.
Berj says:
r, I do believe all three f68r panels are related.
Dana says:
R3 strikes me as possibly being a combination of r1 and r2. Notice that
the number of large stars increase
clockwise in alternating pie shapes from 1 (“Pleiades” pie) to 2 to 3
to 4 stars. And for the skipped pie
shapes, the number of stars total 29 and 30 when the stars in the two
pies across from each other are added.
The “composite” Sun/Moon in the middle now shines on both sides.
Berj says:
Those are indeed interesting observations!
Greg says:
Interesting. One at sunrise (Sun coming up, Moon setting), one at
sunset (Sun setting, Moon rising), perhaps?
f68r3 doesn't have the 'hairiness' (rays) of the other 'Sun'
depictions, thus I would contend that it is the
Moon solely, not a composite.
I have noticed the number of stars (29+30) before; it is a particularly
interesting pairing of numbers
because these are the numbers of days in a lunar month, which is
29.5... days long, so sometimes 30 calendar
days, sometimes 29. 30+29=59 days is thus a very good approximation of
two lunar months. In accordance with
this, the number of stars in the sectors with many stars would
represent days, while the named individual
stars would be stars occulted or visible or some such, perhaps indeed
in the sequence 1,2,3,4. However, my
attempts at tying this into some sort of interpretation of f68r3 (say
involving the period between lunar
occultations or other events) failed to find anything convincing, so I
put it aside. Somewhere the notes are filed.
Concerning Berj's comments:
" Well then, without overreaching, what might be a
reasonable conclusion, on the available evidence, of
something real the illustrator might well be depicting in the f68r1
Moon?
Just Earthshine, with extreme artistic license ? "
I don't see how it would be more extreme than the artistic license of
bowing a halo arc the wrong way, but
anyway.
Some other possibilities (with more or less license as desired):
- The moon, at any one of the phases, depending how much license we
allow, and whether the face is part of
the moon or just a 'label' and whether the thinner arc is 'license' or
'real'.
(Consider - if a 'face' labels a smooth circle as the moon - as opposed
to a hairy circle as the sun - how do
you depict and differentiate a crescent, gibbous or full moon?)
- The moon with a 'conventional' halo, or any one of the similar
phenomena seen when shining through various
thicknesses of cloud/water droplets/ice crystals,
- An annular total eclipse (as an aside - I wonder when it was realised
that a solar eclipse was caused by
the Moon, and how common that knowledge was in VMS time; I don't recall
if I've seen anything on that topic)
- The Moon low in the sky, and thus appearing bigger and yellow.
It would be useful to have a reference of conventions of depicting the
Moon during the approximate period
(say 1200-1600) to compare with. Again, something which I don't recall
seeing - I don't think these are
particularly well-documented topics.
Berj says:
" Consider - if a 'face' labels a smooth circle as the
moon - as opposed to a hairy circle as the sun -
how do you depict and differentiate a crescent, gibbous or full moon? "
Ok, good point I'd say.
Concerning useful-to-have references of conventions of depicting the
Moon during the approximate period (say
1200-1600) to compare with, and for that matter many other astronomical
details, more and more old material
is coming online via google books. Just the other day I noticed for
example there is available Nunez de
Zamora's book on Comets:
Liber de cometis:
in quo demonstratur Cometam anni 1604. ...
Antonii Nuñez a Çamora, Salamanticae, 1610
Nunez de Zamora was one of the heavyweights in the math department at
Salamanca which Philip II had set up so
as to keep Spanish competence in the sciences top-notch. His book
includes discussions of specific comets
going back to Anno 453.
Robert says:
I'm still looking for what the lower object is on f68r2. Possible
objects would have been somewhere near RA
4h 30m, Dec +14 degrees, but so far, no planet has appeared in that
position, no comet, and now I've
eliminated historical novae.
Looking at the face in the lower object, the person has a mole over his
right eye, and it's there in the B&W,
color, and .sid scans. I've looked for any astronomer or astrologer who
had such a thing, but no luck.
Any suggestions?
Berj says:
Don't know, but there is also a "mole" of sorts, a dual-color one,
above the labeled star nearest the upper
moon of f68r2. Also, I've often wondered about the a,b,c labels of the
f68r folios at their upper-left corners.
Robert says:
I'd never noticed those before. On a first glance they look the same as
in the letter column on f1r.
Berj says:
I noticed the a,b,c folio labels on f68r years ago, but tentatively
assumed they were put there much, much
later than when the VMS was created, but that could be wrong of course.
I had a thought: could the "mole" on the f68r2 sun-face be indicating a
transit phenomenon of some kind?
Robert says:
I don't think so. But transits of Venus happened in the time frame of
interest in 1396, 1518, and 1526. After
that was 1631 and 1639.
Berj says:
Well my time frame of interest does go into the 17th c. of course :).
What about Mercury?
Robert says:
I expected that question. The catalog starts in 1600 :
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/catalog/MercuryCatalog.html
Berj says:
Nice that it mentions that Great Britain didn't adopt the Gregorian
calendar until 1752. Anyway, conventional
astro-history has Mercury and Venus transit observations starting
rather late in the game - in the 1630's.
Robert says:
While looking up Venus transits I saw there are websites talking about
earlier observations. I looked at a
few, but didn't get any URLs.
I don't believe for a second the mole has anything to do with sunspots
or transits-- the angle of the moon's
shadow clearly shows the sun is 'off-folio' to the right, not at the
bottom. But for the sake of fairness,
and because I have the resource, give me a few minutes to check
Corliss' Mysterious Universe. ..... I've gone
through Corliss in the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Environs of Earth and
Enigmatic Objects sections, but nothing.
[ end J.VS comm. #361 ]
*************************************
362
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 2-25-2011 10:48:17 PM EST
J.VS: Iacobus Barschius / Barschio
Dear Colleagues
I just came across this with google books:
Lexicon Mathematicum
Astronomicum Geometricum
by Hieronymo Vitali, Paris, 1668
On page 334 is mentioned Iacobus Barschius / Barschio in connection
with astronomical matters. I wonder if
this Iacobus is directly related to Georgius. Some other VMS familiars,
notably Kircher and Marci are also
briefly noted elsewhere in the book, which looks to have been a nice
volume to own in the 17th century.
This work may be useful for some more star-names variations.
Berj / KI3U
**************************
363
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 2-27-2011 10:04:51 AM EST
J.VS: Re: Iacobus Barschius / Barschio
[ redacted from off-J discussions 26-27 FEB 2011 ]
Berj / KI3U says:
Did anyone have a look at that to see from the context (written in
Latin) if there is any hint as to who this Iacobus Barschius / Barschio
mentioned in a 1668 book is?
Greg Stachowski says:
This is the Latin, transcribed:
Atque adeo ipse caelum Christianum molitus est,
duodecim signa Zodiaci ab duodecim Apostolorum nominibus appellans,
aliisque characterismis ex instrumentis martyriorum ipsorum designans.
Planetarum vero, relictis antiquis characterismis,
(quos tamen iuerso ordine praecepit denotari) ab Adam, Moise, Iosue,
Elia, Chriso, B. Virgne, et Ioanne appellat orbes,
et Astra; Quod ne memoria excidat in sequentes versiculos redegit
Iacobus Barschius.
Adam Saturno; Moses Iove; Iosua Marte,
Solus Sole micat Christus; Venere ipsa Ioannes.
Merrcurio Elias; Lunaque Beata Maria.
Similiter alia sidera extra Zodiacum aliis Sanctis,
et Patriarchis novi et vetersis Testamenti dedicavir, ut Perseum Paulo
Apostolo,
Cepheum S. Stephano, Bootem S. Sylvestro, etc. ut ex sequentibus
versibus a Barschio, item compositis videre licebit :
quorum tamen aliquos Alstedius, nosque metri causa non nihil
inmutavimus.
It's not worth translating the whole thing in detail, the sense is easy
enough to understand. Essentially, the author is describing a project
by one Julius Schiller,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Schiller
to assign the names of the Apostles to the constellations (signs) of
the Zodiac, the names of important prophets, Jesus and Mary to the
planets,
and the names of other saints and patriarchs to other constellations
and stars, apparently instead of heathen beasts and mythical figures.
As a mnemonic he quotes a verse apparently written by Iacobus Barschius:
Quod ne memoria excidat in sequentes versiculos
redegit Iacobus Barschius.
"Which will not be forgotten[1] [thanks to] the following short
verses[2] rendered[3] by Iacobus Barschius."
(though if I was translating for smooth prose rather than for literal
accuracy I'd go with:
"Which can be remembered by means of the following short verse by
Iacobus Barschius"
which renders the sense of 'quod' better, but loses the detail of 'ne
memoria excidat' and 'rediget'
and uses the less formal but more common usage of 'verse' = 'stanza'
rather than the more formal (and literal) 'verse' = 'line of poetry'.)
[1] lit.: 'fall from memory'
[2] lit.: 'little lines'
[3] interesting use of redigo
The assignments of the planets are:
Adam - Saturn, Moses - Jupiter, Joshua - Martha
the Sun - Jesus, Venus - John (the Baptist),
Mercury - Elijah, the Moon - Mary
After the paragraph there follows a list of constellations with
assigned Saints, again according to Barschius ("ex sequentibus versibus
a Barschio").
BTW:
http://www.voynich.net/Arch/2001/03/msg00058.html
Dana Scott says:
I think that Iacobus Barschius is possibly Jacob Bartsch, Kepler's
son-in-law.
Jakob Bartsch
Jakob_Bartsch_and Sussana Kepler
http://www.voynich.net/Arch/2001/03/msg00063.html
http://www.voynich.net/Arch/2001/03/msg00085.html
http://www.voynich.net/Arch/2001/03/msg00077.html
Greg says:
Yes, indeed.
[ end J.VS comm. #363 ]
***************************************
364
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 3-04-2011 4:20:00 PM EST
J.VS: Wilfrid Voynich's 1902
collection of 157 unknown and lost books
Dear Colleagues
Toward a better understanding of Wilfrid Voynich's book handling career
in the years around his
acquisition of the Voynich Manuscript, we may note:
London Bibliographical Letter
by Alfred W. Pollard, pg. 157 :
The Literary Collector
Vol. 4, No. 5, September, 1902.
(available online with google books)
Pollard writes:
" A very interesting collection has attracted a good deal of attention
from London bookmen during the last
few weeks, the curious array of one hundred and fifty-seven "unknown
and lost books," as they are quaintly
called, brought together by Mr. Wilfred Voynich. The line between the
two classes of lost and unknown
seems rather uncertainly drawn. "
" Among them are the first edition of the Palladis Chymicae Arcana
Detecta of Marengus, printed at Genoa
in 1674, its existence having previously been inferrable from the date
of the license in the edition of
1678; ..... and the De Conceptione of Petrus Mons (1492), which seems
never to have been heard of since
the days of Antonio. "
" Of the remaining 143 books in Mr. Voynich's exhibition, which he
claims as "unknown", the majority are
undescribed editions, but perhaps a fourth are really unknown books,
some of them of very considerable
interest. Among these is a letter to the Polish poet Trzycieski, ..... "
" But there is something which captivates the imagination in a
collection of which not a single volume is
known to exist elsewhere, and it is from its point of view that Mr.
Voynich himself desires it to be
regarded. "
" But the collection can only be bought as a whole, and it is so
curious and offers so much food for
reflection as to the possibilities which even now await the diligent
ransacker of old libraries, that it
would indeed be a pity if it were dispersed. Mr. Voynich, who never
uses the word "unique", describes in
his preface the diligent search through catalogues and bibliographies
of every kind by which these 157
volumes were sifted out of a very much larger number of candidates for
admission to the collection. "
So, even by Pollard's standards, Wilfrid in 1902 shows up, just like
that, with a batch of three dozen
"really unknown books". And letters. Not bad. We see that Wilfrid is
interested in having his collection
be regarded as "of which not a single volume is known to exist
elsewhere". Sounds like he's warming up for
his Opus Magnum :).
These 157 volumes were sifted by Wilfrid "out of a very much larger
number of candidates". We would love
to know the details on all those candidates. Well, whenever we read
things like this about Voynich's
amazing book discoveries, we naturally think of his acquisition in
1907-1908 of the Libreria Franceschini [1,2],
which, I would reasonably guess, he was visiting well before he had the
good fortune to buy it all.
Finally, I again voice my ongoing suspicion that Wilfrid, or his wife
Ethel, discovered the Voynich
Manuscript before the conventionally accepted 1911-1912, perhaps even
before the turn of the century.
Berj / KI3U
[1] J.VS Communication #335 (Vol. IV, 15 FEB 2010):
J.VS: The history of the Libreria Franceschini
http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/JVSvolIV2010.htm
[2] J.VS Communication #336 (Vol. IV, 21 FEB 2010):
J.VS: Some Wilfrid Voynich matters across ten years before and after
the Libreria Franceshini acquisition
http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/JVSvolIV2010.htm
***********************************************
365
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 3-09-2011 1:33:16 PM EST
J.VS: Wilfrid Voynich in the 1908
Catholic Who's Who
Dear Colleagues
I came across the following which I don't recall seeing before: Wilfrid
Voynich is listed, married to
Ethel Lilian "Poole" :), in "The Catholic Who's Who & Year-Book
1908", edited by Sir F.C. Burnand, London,
Burns & Oates, Orchard Street W. [see online via google books ].
The listing is brief and gives no new
information, other than being situated in a Catholic directory.
Berj / KI3U
**************************
366
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 3-15-2011 5:39:06 PM EDT
J.VS: Wilfrid Voynich's family
Dear Colleagues
We know little about Wilfrid Voynich's family. This book (available
online via google books) :
Shematismus fuer das Kaiserliche und Koenigliche Heer und fuer die
Kaiserliche und Koenigliche Kriegs-
Marine fuer 1890.
is extensive data on the imperial and royal Austro-Hungarian army and
navy. Among the personnel listings
is one Lt. Alexander Voynich, Hussar Cavalry, 1889 : pgs. 517 & 615.
Perhaps he was directly related to Wilfrid.
Berj / KI3U
*******************************************
367
From: Greg Stachowski
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 3-16-2011 9:16 PM
J.VS: Re: Wilfrid Voynich's family
In comm. #366 Berj wrote:
" Among the personnel listings is one Lt. Alexander Voynich, Hussar
Cavalry, 1889 : pgs. 517 & 615.
Perhaps he was directly related to Wilfrid. "
Yet "Voynich" was not Wilfrid's name; he anglicised it to "Voynich"
from "Wojnicz" at some point, most
probably in the 1890s (around the time he married Ethel).
In any case, there are people around today with the surname "Voynich"
who we know cannot be descended from
WMV and ELV, since they didn't have children, thus there must have been
a family with that name extant at
some point.
Further making it unlikely, Alexander was in the I&R army, which
means he would have been essentially from
southern or south-western Poland if he was of Polish origin, not from
the north-east (Lithuania) like WMV.
It's then perhaps possible that he or his family were originally from
the region around the town of
Wojnicz (which would have been in the Empire, and we know from at least
one example was latinised as
"Voynich") – from off-J discussions on 11 March 2011, when Berj found
the following 1871 history on Google
books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=6zxGAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA29&dq=Voynich&hl=en&ei=-ll6Tc79HYaglAePhIX-
BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwADge#v=onepage&q=Voynich&f=false
which refers to the southern town of Wojnicz which we already discussed
once before; the text describes
the freeing by King Boleslaus the Chaste (well, technically High Duke,
not all of them were actually
crowned King by the Emperor at the time - hence "Herzog Boleslaus") of
the vassals of the monastery at
Tyniec from taxes imposed by the Castellan of Wojnicz. The history was
written in 1871 but the event (as visible
in the image) occurred in 1258.
As I commented then, this gives the latinisation "Voynich", which we
haven't seen before. It's possible
WMV was aware of it when he anglicised "Wojnicz"; then again, "Voynich"
is the natural (as in, closest
approximation to pronunciation) anglicisation of "Wojnicz".
Greg
*****************************
368
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 3-31-2011 7:11:10 PM EDT
J.VS: Very early Christian Codex made
of cast lead from a Jordanian cave
Dear Colleagues
Here's an interesting illustrated online BBC News article by Robert
Pigott, dated 29 MAR 2011 :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12888421
" Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics "
" A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead
leaves bound by lead rings, was
apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan
somewhere between 2005 and 2007. "
" The director of the Jordan's Department of Antiquities, Ziad al-Saad,
says the books might have been
made by followers of Jesus in the few decades immediately following his
crucifixion. "They will really
match, and perhaps be more significant than, the Dead Sea Scrolls,"
says Mr Saad. "
" The books, or "codices", were apparently cast in lead, before being
bound by lead rings. Their leaves -
which are mostly about the size of a credit card - contain text in
Ancient Hebrew, most of which is in code. "
" One of the few people to see the collection is David Elkington, a
scholar of ancient religious
archaeology who is heading a British team trying to get the lead books
safely into a Jordanian museum.
He says they could be "the major discovery of Christian history",
adding: "It's a breathtaking thought that
we have held these objects that might have been held by the early
saints of the Church."
" Location clues
Philip Davies, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament Studies at Sheffield
University, says the most powerful
evidence for a Christian origin lies in plates cast into a picture map
of the holy city of Jerusalem. "As soon as
I saw that, I was dumbstruck. That struck me as so obviously a
Christian image," he says. "There is a cross
in the foreground, and behind it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus],
a small building with an opening, and
behind that the walls of the city. There are walls depicted on other
pages of these books too and they almost
certainly refer to Jerusalem." It is the cross that is the most telling
feature, in the shape of a capital T, as the crosses
used by Romans for crucifixion were. "It is a Christian crucifixion
taking place outside the city walls," says Mr Davies.
Margaret Barker, an authority on New Testament history, points to the
location of the reported discovery
as evidence of Christian, rather than purely Jewish, origin. "We do
know that on two occasions groups of refugees
from the troubles in Jerusalem fled east, they crossed the Jordan near
Jericho and then they fled east to very
approximately where these books were said to have been found," she says.
"[Another] one of the things that is most likely pointing towards a
Christian provenance, is that these
are not scrolls but books. The Christians were particularly associated
with writing in a book form rather
than scroll form, and sealed books in particular as part of the secret
tradition of early Christianity."
The Book of Revelation refers to such sealed texts. "
" But tests by metallurgists on the badly corroded lead suggest that
the books were not made recently.
The archaeology of early Christianity is particularly sparse. Little is
known of the movement after Jesus'
crucifixion until the letters of Paul several decades later, and they
illuminate the westward spread of
Christianity outside the Jewish world. "
Berj / KI3U
*****************************
369
From: Greg Stachowski
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: Fri 4/01/11 5:11 AM
J.VS: Re: Very early Christian Codex
made of cast lead from a Jordanian cave
From the BBC article cited in comm. #368 :
"... most of which is in code. "
alarm bells #1 ...
" The Book of Revelation refers to such sealed
texts. "
alarm bells #2
"apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in
northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007."
" claims they have been in his family for 100 years"
Wait, it's 2107 already?
alarm bells #3
" But tests by metallurgists on the badly corroded lead suggest that
the books were not made recently. "
It's not the physical material I'm worried about (though it may have
been altered), but the interpretation of the text.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are at least written in plain text, not code.
Greg
*****************************
370
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 4-2-2011 10:17:00 AM EDT
J.VS: “Standard routes of
cryptanalysis seem to have hit brick walls”
Dear Colleagues
Our colleague Dennis Fedak / N3ZCK just sent me an interesting item -
the FBI is asking for cryptanalysis
assistance from the public in the 1999 Ricky McCormick open murder case
:
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/march/cryptanalysis_032911/cryptanalysis_032911
The 29 MAR 2011 dated webpage shows images of the encrypted messages
written by McCormick before he was
murdered - but even the enlarged versions provided are not especially
excellent resolution. Here are some
excerpts from the accompanying article:
" On June 30, 1999, sheriff’s officers in St. Louis, Missouri
discovered the body of 41-year-old Ricky
McCormick. He had been murdered and dumped in a field. The only clues
regarding the homicide were two
encrypted notes found in the victim’s pants pockets. Despite extensive
work by our Cryptanalysis and
Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU), as well as help from the American
Cryptogram Association, the meanings
of those two coded notes remain a mystery to this day, and Ricky
McCormick’s murderer has yet to face
justice. “We are really good at what we do,” said CRRU chief Dan Olson,
“but we could use some help with
this one.”
The more than 30 lines of coded material use a maddening variety of
letters, numbers, dashes, and
parentheses. McCormick was a high school dropout, but he was able
to read and write and was said to be
“street smart.” According to members of his family, McCormick had used
such encrypted notes since he was a
boy, but apparently no one in his family knows how to decipher the
codes, and it’s unknown whether anyone
besides McCormick could translate his secret language. Investigators
believe the notes in McCormick’s
pockets were written up to three days before his death.
Over the years, a number of CRRU’s examiners—who are experts at
breaking codes—have puzzled over the
McCormick notes and applied a variety of analytical techniques to tease
out an answer. “Standard routes of
cryptanalysis seem to have hit brick walls,” Olson noted. Our
cryptanalysts have several plausible
theories about the notes, but so far, there has been no solution. "
" “Even if we found out that he was writing a grocery list or a love
letter,” Olson said, “we would still
want to see how the code is solved. This is a cipher system we know
nothing about.” "
Berj / KI3U
*****************
371
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 4-25-2011 9:16:08 AM EDT
J.VS: Voynich Manuscript impossible
blue (sun) flowers, alchemy, fabricated ancient esoteric books, symbols
and motives
[ redacted from off-J discussions 22 - 23 APR 2011 ]
Berj / KI3U says:
In this 1661 book by Johan Conrad Wechtler on western and eastern man,
Homo oriens et occidens :
http://books.google.com/books?
id=zvxCAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA220&dq=Marcus+Marci&hl=en&ei=VlayTeaEMoq8sQOy9JHuCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum
=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwADgU#v=onepage&q=Marcus%20Marci&f=false
his frontispiece illustration seems to use a sunflower as part of the
symbolism of wisdom. I don't seem to
recall sunflowers as wisdom symbols - anybody know anything about this?
Marci is mentioned in this book.
Hmm - Cirlot, in his Dictionary of Symbols, says the flower symbolizes
two major things, transitoriness
(birth/death and so on), and "Centre", which then the soul. He says the
alchemists deemed shooting stars
celestial flowers, and for alchemists the flower was the work of the
sun. Then he says something very
interesting:
" The significance would be adapted according to the colour of the
flower. .... The 'blue flower' is a
legendary symbol of the impossible ... "
So, lots of blue flowers in the VMS, the text of which is impossible to
decipher ?
Rich SantaColoma says:
In my old theories, it was that the sunflower was a symbol of the New
World... which as you know it was,
early 17th. I'm sure it meant many things to many people(s), but
without a triangulation of a theory with
such observations we are lost. Good to keep these things in mind,
though.
Berj says:
r, well nowadays of course in the VMS the "sunflower" is usually taken
as the one on f93r, but the plant on
f33v has also been considered a possible sunflower. Now the interesting
thing about f33v is that the two
flowerheads have some prominent blue coloring. So altogether with the
foregoing, we have an association of:
sunflower, alchemist/philosopher, wisdom, center of essence, soul,
transitoriness, blue flower as a symbol of
the impossible (or perhaps impenetrable mystery).
Lets note that "New World" could well fit in with these, in the sense
of the transitoriness - a transition
from the old world to the new, as if the *discovery* of the New World
was itself being viewed as an
alchemical process. Is there any hint of anything like that in Francis
Bacon's Bensalem story?
Rich says:
Well it could be, but the reasoning I was referring to, for its
interest as a symbol of the New World, was
simply that it was from the New World... a plant new to the Europeans,
and exciting as such... just as the
animals, such as the armadillo and so on, were. And also the people...
remember Europeans brought Native
Americans back... Squanto, Pocahantas, and others... not for any
symbolic reason, just because it was
exciting to find new anything.
The first painting of a sunflower, known in Europe, appears in a
painting which also includes Drebbel's
perpetuum, as you know. Funny coincidence? Yes I guess so. Along with
one of the "letters" mentioning both
the Voynich and the New Atlantis; along with Bacon working with
artificial languages and cipher; along with
Drebbel being in Prague with Keppler; along with Kircher being famous
for microscope work AND seeing the VMs;
along with Hooke being a close friend of Drebbel's daughter AND making
microscopes which look like VMs tubes;
along with hundreds of other funny first hand similarities between the
arts, history and science of early
17th c. Europe, and what seems to be in the Voynich... maybe optics,
armadillo, sunflower, and
native/artificial language... not to mention a recurring and deep
fascination with bizarre old books filled
with hidden knowledge in cipher... the Book M, Prospero's books,
Faust's books, and the parchment books of
knowledge from New Atlantis. All cipher, some with optics, and with
weird animals and plants. But you have
heard this all before.
But all this is why, to me, if that is a sunflower, and that is an
armadillo, in the Voynich, then whammo!
But "whammo" was thrown out with the C14 bathwater. It was such a full
tub too... Hard to pursue these
theories, considering the importance placed in C14.
Berj says:
Rich, what was the letter mentioning both the Voynich and the New
Atlantis ? Can you refresh me on that, and
also the "Book M" - years ago I harped a while on an observation of
mine that the Roman letter "M" seemed to
be of some significance to the VMS author.
Rich says:
The letter which mentions both was the "Kinner" letter. I wrote about
this coincidence in my blog post:
http://proto57.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/a-strange-coincidence/
I'll just post the link, since it has all the images of the actual
parts of the letters mentioning each.
As for the Book M, it was the fictional book the Rosicrucians said was
in the tomb with Rosenkreutz, written
in "a magical language and writing", with all the knowledge of the
world, and more. But rather than cut and paste:
http://proto57.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/the-book-m-john-heydon-and-the-book-of-solomon/
Part of my conclusion reads, "Looking at these fantasy cipher tomes:
Book M, The Book of Solomon from
Bensalem… and remember, Prospero’s books: I’m not so certain, if all
three of these faux books were created
in 1610/20, that we would be able to tell them apart today… or, for
that matter, apart from the Voynich
Manuscript."
And I still feel that way, even if the Voynich is too old to "be" it,
it would be very hard to tell from...
in my opinion... the others, if they were ever found. One last thing on
this subject: In the movie,
Prospero's Books, the director created some of what he thought
Shakespeare envisioned in his play... and
again, interestingly, one of them does not look all that different than
the Voynich. I wrote a blog post on
that too, and it has a video clip with the book. :
http://proto57.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/aura-of-the-ancient-tome-circa-1611/
It is a beautiful movie, by the way... if you don't mind dozens of
naked woman frolicking about. Sound
familiar, too? Greenaway even has microscopes in Prospero's
repertoire... looking all the world, in one scene,
like Voynich tubes. As I said in the post, "Here you have a Shakespeare
character, Prospero, as created in
about 1611, being interpreted as having such books more evocative of
medieval hermetic knowledge than late
Renaissance. Why? Greenaway did not get this wrong, the others did not
get this wrong. This was important to
these people, it was an aspect which lent power and import to their
ideas… by recreating the ancient tome as
an artifact of their art and politics and religion, they could trigger
a romantic notion of a body of lost
knowledge, which held the answers to the situations they faced."
Berj says:
Yes the Kinner letter, I had forgotten. Of course with the reservation
that the mysterious book Kircher got
from Marci is indeed the VMS, plus also the Kinner two-books problem
(J.VS comm. #264, Vol. III, 2009, etc.).
Concerning "Book M" and the others, although I believe the VMS records
real scientific knowledge of its time,
those blog-posts of yours are good to revisit once in a while - your
arguements are tough to dismiss. Now,
specifically with respect to making an esoteric book look old, it is
curious that if one takes the C14
"dating" of the VMS parchment as likely, then the C14 numbers of
1404-1438 fit right into the active lifetime
of the alleged Christian Rosenkreutz.
Rich says:
Yes and so it brings me to another point I made at various times: The
chicken/egg thing. Picture the Voynich
(made entirely by 1450 or so) coming into the possession of Maier, or
Andreas, or Bacon... or being seen in
the Kunstkammer of Rudolf II, with this story attached: "This book was
found in the tomb of Christian
Rosenkruetz... it is the book Mundi, of all the knowledge of the
world". Or some such story... just that it
was found in a cave, or whatever, to hide the fact it really had no
provenance other than a huckster's
writing desk. A phoney story, but beyond a Dee, Kelley, Fludd, or
Forman... and it fits our present, common
notion that this was presented as some valuable text of hidden
knowledge (as a motive for it's creation).
Then if this happened, all the "ancient tome" stories may be influenced
BY the Voynich, and not the other way
around.
Each story: Book M, Prospero's and Faust's books, and Bacon's concept
of the books of knowledge of Bensalam,
all may be reflections of the Voynich. This scenario is not so
outlandish as it seems at first: Because
Rudolf and his collection was known throughout Europe, and probably
Asia... and there is some evidence this
was in that collection. So it follows that if it was, many of these
people, several of whom actually saw the
books of Rudolf, or we know, could have, would then have had access to
the Voynich. Maier and Andreas could
have written it into their mythical movement, Shakespeare into his
play, and Bacon into his New Atlantis.
After that, history is rife with similar descriptions, arguably
influenced by the former three.
So rather than reflecting the popular archetype of the ancient tome,
maybe the Voynich IS the prototype of
the ancient tome. It maybe the Mother of all Mysterious Tomes! I've
scattered that idea about, maybe it is
time to consolidate it into a blog post.
Berj says:
r, well as you know I've always liked your chicken/egg scenario. It
could even be angled so that the seeming
obscurity of the VMS is more generally taken into account: for example,
the VMS directly connects to the
original inspiration of the Book-M etc. genre, but is a private copy,
separate from the more "public"
exhibited copy - that could also bring the various copyist-scribe
hypotheses of the VMS into the picture
without strain or pain. Of course personally I still think the VMS is a
private science book, but the
preceeding shows the comprehensiveness of the chicken/egg scenario.
[ end J.VS comm. #371 ]
***********************************
372
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 5-17-2011 6:51:10 PM EDT
J.VS: P. Han's VMS PM-curves
comparisons and supernova SN 1054
Dear Colleagues
Available now in the J.VS Library are four annotated images from P. Han
developing the VMS f68r3 astro-panel
PM-curve area with the f87r Cartesian-framed PM-curve superimposed,
with additional data for studying the
possibility that supernova SN 1054 may be being indicated by the VMS
author:
http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/library/1-7-2011-05-17/
This is all quite interesting, and is a welcome addition to VMS
PM-curve studies.
Berj / KI3U
**************************************
373
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 5-25-2011 3:53:00 PM EDT
J.VS: Analysis of the Voynich f9v
"Viola" plant illustration by P. Han
Dear Colleagues
Available now in the J.VS Library is a progress-making analysis by P.
Han of the f9v "Viola" plant:
Abstract:
"The plant in folio f9v in the Voynich Manuscript has been most often
compared
to the Viola and more specifically "Viola Trinitas/Tricolor" (Petersen,
1931),
also known as the "Wild Pansy" or "Heartsease".
Morphologically it is the
most easily and reliably identified of all the plants in the
manuscript, yet
there are some issues that the view of many that the plants are either
fantastical or images drawn from memory and certainly cannot be
considered
botanically accurate. I do not agree with this view and suggest
the plant
on f9v is without doubt a Viola and that it was copied from an actual
specimen,
though probably not by a botanist."
http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/library/2-7-2011-05-25/
We have it both in doc and pdf formats; the doc version comes out well
on my computer;
the pdf will probably see some improving in the future.
Berj / KI3U
**************************************
374
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 5-29-2011 2:19:11 PM EDT
J.VS: Voynich illustrations and Garden
layouts and designs
Dear Colleagues
Returning for a moment to the ideas of Garden (Herb and/or other) and
certain Voynich illustrations having
some common suggestions, I just came across some interesting material
on the web:
History of Garden Design
http://www.superbherbs.net/design.htm
from which:
" Formal Gardens
The formal garden, associated with the French, begins to distinguish
itself from the gardens of Italy by the
year 1600. The Mollet family is at the very heart of the development of
the formal garden. In 1651, André
Mollet published Jardin de Plaisir, which codified the concept of the
formal garden. "
Filoli Gardener's Reference
http://www.filoli.org/downloads/garden/gardeners-reference-sheets/knot-gardens.pdf
from which:
" Knot gardens are thought to have their origins in ancient Arabian
gardens, but are more commonly associated
with European gardens of the Middle Ages and Elizabethan England, where
lords enjoyed their colors and
patterns from castle windows. Knot gardens were commonly designed to
display royal coats of arms, figures of
plants or animals, or stitches of embroidery, and the interstices would
be filled with colored sand and earth
(open knot, as at Filoli) or with flowers (closed knot). "
Medieval and Renaissance Gardens
http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/medievalgardens.htm
English Gardens
The history of gardens in England from Roman Britain to the Victorian
era.
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/english-gardens.htm
And some pictures:
http://www.raftertales.com/home-garden/garden-styles/formal-or-knot-garden/
http://www.canstockphoto.com/formal-gardens-0419005.html
http://fun12friends.blogspot.com/2011/04/marqueyssac-beautiful-gardens-of-france.html
http://iheater.org/top-10-gardens.html
http://ookaboo.com/o/pictures/topic/11853309/Andr%C3%A9_Le_N%C3%B4tre
http://new-design-times.com/article/burgundychateaux.php
This one has what suggests a "tower in a hole" :
http://imagesofbirmingham.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/All-Stock-Images/G0000gya4TnMQet8/I0000es0cmbn.BZI
Here see the 17th c. German Garden pattern:
http://goldingcraft.com/embroidery05.htm
Here a 17th c. Aeolian Garden Harp on tripod base:
http://carverscompanion.com/Ezine/Vol3Issue2/Menendez/DecoratingMusical_2.html
Here Espalier gardening:
http://willowbeeinspired.blogspot.com/2011/05/espalier-gardening_16.html
The Voynich nine-rosettes illustration as a whole, and on a smaller
scale its southeast rosette, are somewhat
reminiscent of elaborate garden designs.
Berj / KI3U
**************************************
375
From: Greg Stachowski
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: Mon 6/06/11 7:09 PM
J.VS: Some references relating to
atacamite in manuscript pigments
The recently-published report on the inks and pigments in the Voynich
Manuscript by McCrone Associates, Inc.
[1] includes identification of copper and chlorine in the green
pigment, along with the suggestion that this
may be the mineral 'atacamite', a crystalline form of copper chloride
hydroxide. There has been some
discussion of this on the vms-list [2]. Here I provide a number of
references discussing atacamite (and other
copper compounds) and their use in manuscripts.
Atacamite, named after the Atacama Desert, where it occurs naturally in
copper deposits, is also formed by
corrosion on copper and bronze objects and can be made by applying
suitable chemical reactions [3,4],
particularly by a recipe given by the 12th Century monk Theophilus
Presbyter [3,4,5]. It has been used as a
pigment since ancient times [3,4], found amongst others on European
manuscripts and paintings [4], although
it is not always clear from microscopic analysis whether the atacamite
was in every case prepared as a
pigment or whether it formed later as the result of corrosion of a
different copper compound [4].
The primary reference is perhaps the 1994 paper by Naumova and Pisareva
[4], which examines the issues in
detail. Most interesting are photomicrographs of natural and
synthesised atacamite, which may be compared
with the photomicrographs from McCrone if and when they are released. A
second reference is the 2000 review
article by Scott [6].
A final reference is the book "The pigment compendium: optical
microscopy of historical pigments" by Eastaugh
anf Walsh [7]. The description of atacamite under the microscope given
in this book is not inconsistent with
that in the McCrone report. Photomicrographs are also included.
G.
References:
[1] Barabe, Joseph, "Materials Analysis of the Voynich Manuscript –
McCrone Associates Project MA47613",
McCrone Associates, Inc., 2009:
http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/manuscript/voynich_analysis.pdf
.
[2] Various vms-list threads initiated by Rich SantaColoma and Diane
O'Donovan, May-June 2011.
[3] Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, web page on materials:
http://cameo.mfa.org/browse/record.asp?subkey=829 .
[4] M.Naumova, S.Pisareva,"A Note on the Use of Blue and Green Copper
Compounds in Paintings" Studies in
Conservation 39:277-283, 1994 http://www.jstor.org/pss/1506588 .
[5] Theophilus Presbyter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophilus_Presbyter
[6] D.Scott, "A review of copper chlorides and related salts in bronze
corrosion and as painting pigments"
Studies in Conservation 45:39-53, 2000 http://www.jstor.org/pss/1506682
[7] N.Eastaugh, V.Walsh, "The pigment compendium: optical microscopy of
historical pigments", Elsevier
Butterworth-Heinemann, 2004 http://books.google.com/books?
id=2pJKuFn_KcEC&lpg=PA61&ots=SrmvyTiiC5&dq=naumova%20and%20pisareva&pg=PA61#v=onepage&q=naumova%20and%
20pisareva&f=false
***************************************
376
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 6-11-2011 3:40:00 PM EDT
J.VS: The National Security Agency
Releases Over 50,000 Pages of Declassified Documents
Dear Colleagues
Here is a press release from the NSA dated 8 JUN 2011:
The National Security Agency Releases Over 50,000 Pages of Declassified
Documents
http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/press_room/2011/50000_declassified_docs.shtml
Berj / KI3U
***************************************
377
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 6-26-2011 7:09:02 PM EDT
J.VS: Re: Comparison of VMS f68r2
stars-diagram with similar diagram in 1698 ASTROSCOPIUM by Wilhelm
Schickard Jr.
Dear Colleagues
Reference this subject's original J.VS communication #358 (Vol. IV, 23
DEC 2010) I've come across another
circular celestial diagram which is interestingly reminiscent of the
Voynich f68r2 stars-diagram and the
similar one in the 1698 ASTROSCOPIUM by Wilhelm Schickard Jr.
Actually this particular circular diagram is an element of a larger
circular diagram reflecting the
Rosicrucians. It hasn't been easy tracing this diagram's origin, so
lets first have a look at it - there are
several images on the web, and the following url's present the object
reasonably well for our purposes:
http://kanzaka.wikia.com/wiki/Secret_Symbols_of_the_Rosicrucians_of_the_16th_and_17th_Centuries
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kipbot/2282289917/in/photostream/#/photos/kipbot/2282289917/in/photostream/lightbox/
http://home.comcast.net/~taoistresource/rosenkreuzer/Tabula_Smargadina_Hermetis.jpg
from:
http://home.comcast.net/~taoistresource/art_7stars.htm
The main symbols-circle has the heading "TABULA SMARAGDINA HERMETIS.",
and the footer "VERBA SECRETORUM
HERMETIS." At the 5 o'clock position inside the main circle we see the
circular moon-opposite-sun-with-stars celestial diagram
I am referring to, and which is similar to the VMS f68r2 illustration
and the 1698 Schickard ASTROSCOPIUM.
Here's what I have been able to find out about this to this point
(subject to verification) :
The above web images are from a 1939 book titled "Secret Symbols of the
Rosicrucians", London: Rider & Co. &
The Aries Press, 1939 [1]. Possibly the full title of the book is
"Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the
16th and 17th Centuries" and it was edited by the 20th c. founder of
Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis
(AMORC), H. Spencer Lewis.
This 1939 book appears to contain a partial reprint of an 1888 book:
Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians [Full title:] Cosmology, Or
Universal Science, Cabala, Alchemy, Containing
the Mysteries of the Universe, Regarding God Nature Man, the Macrocosm
and Microcosm, Eternity and Time,
Explained According to the Religion of C, by Franz Hartmann, Boston:
Occult Publishing Company, 1888 [2].
From [2] we learn :
" The work from which this edition was drawn was originally published
under the title "Geheime Figuren der
Rozenkreuzer, aus dem 16ten und 17ten Jahrhundert" in Germany in two
parts, in 1785 and 1788 respectively. It is
now regarded as one of the source works of Rosicrucianism, with much on
alchemical and symbolism and other
aspects of the "Secret Tradition." The Hartmann edition is often
criticised for its incompleteness, and for
being more of a paraphrase than a translation, however it remains of
value on account of its 25 magnificent
hand-coloured plates, and to those interested in Hartmann's thought,
which permeates the text. "
Google books has available online a scanned copy of one of Hartmann's
books bearing his signature [3]. At the
end of this book (containing no illustrations) Hartmann announces a
forthcoming book:
" THE SECRET SYMBOLS OF THE ROSICRUCIANS OF THE SIXTEENTH AND
SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES,
copied and translated from an Old German MS. by Franz Hartmann, M.D.,
will be published November 1, 1887, by the Occult
Publishing Company. The plates of the Secret Symbols, 26 in number,
will be colored by hand, exactly duplicating the
originals which Dr. Hartmann secured during his researches among
ancient Mss. and occult works in Germany. ..... "
Hartmann was producing books at least as late as 1910, so one may
wonder if some time he and Wilfrid Voynich
had any interactions, or if Hartmann was a client of the Libreria
Franceschini [4].
So then, if the above chain of circumstantial evidence is assumed
accurate, then the Rosicrucian circular
moon-opposite-sun-with-stars celestial diagram dates to the 16th and
17th centuries. The late 17th c.
ASTROSCOPIUM version is closer in resemblance to the VMS f68r2 than is
the Rosicrucian, although this may
also be because like the VMS version it is by itself and not a
sub-element of a larger more complex diagram.
But all three clearly share the same major design plan. And of course a
number of Voynich researchers, myself
included, find post-Columbus indications in the Voynich illustrations.
We have yet to find a similar to the
VMS f68r2 illustration which dates to pre-Columbus.
I'll check with our Librarian Greg - perhaps without copyright problems
we can place a crop of this
Rosicrucian circular moon-opposite-sun-with-stars celestial diagram
into the same J.VS Library deposit [5],
wherein resides the comparison image of the VMS and Shickard
Astroscopium circles.
We last briefly touched upon the Rosicrucians in J.VS comm. #371 (Vol.
V, 25 APR 2011). In December of last
year on vms-list, I discussed with Rich SantaColoma some curious faint
marks on Voynich f83v as possibly
being a Rosicrucian symbol [6]. I really should deposit an image of the
f83v curiosity into the J.VS Library.
Berj / KI3U
[1]
http://www.bibliopolis.com/main/books/results.html?publisher=Rider%20%26amp%3B%20Co.%20%26amp%3B%20%
20The%20Aries%20Press%2C&search=1
[2] http://www.weiserantiquarian.com/cgi-bin/wab455/39361.html
[3] An Adventure Among The Rosicrucians. By A Student Of Occultism.
Franz Hartmann, Boston: Occult Publishing Co., 1887.
http://books.google.com/books?id=_wATAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA187&dq=Franz+Hartmann+Cosmology&hl=en&ei=BsAHTqqJE5O50AHc7u3fCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=r
esult&resnum=5&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false
[4] see J.VS comms #335 and #336, Vol. IV, 2010.
[5] J.VS Library deposit # 31-1-2010-12-23 :
http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/library/31-1-2010-12-23/
[6] First mentioned in voynich.net vms-list thread-post:
RE: VMs: Is the f85r1 man Martin Luther?, by Berj / KI3U; Sun 12/05/10
6:09 PM.
This post is available in the J.VS Library, deposit # 1-1-2007-05-05,
file 8VML2k10KI3U.txt
http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/library/1-1-2007-05-05/
***************************************
378
From: Berj N. Ensanian KI3U
To: Journal of Voynich Studies
Sent: 7-13-2011 9:39:21 AM EDT
J.VS: Roman-era medicines
Dear Colleagues
The Telegraph (UK) has this 13 July, 2011 dated article by Nick Squires
:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8627715/Roman-era-shipwreck-reveals-ancient-medical-secrets.html
" Roman-era shipwreck reveals ancient medical secrets
A first-aid kit found on a 2,000-year-old shipwreck has provided a
remarkable insight into the medicines
concocted by ancient physicians to cure sailors of dysentery and other
ailments. "
" A wooden chest discovered on board the vessel contained pills made of
ground-up vegetables, herbs and
plants such as celery, onions, carrots, cabbage, alfalfa and chestnuts
– all ingredients referred to in
classical medical texts. "
" They were found in 136 tin-lined wooden vials on a 50ft-long trading
ship which was wrecked around 130 BC
off the coast of Tuscany. Scientists believe they would have been used
to treat gastrointestinal complaints
suffered by sailors such as dysentery and diarrhoea. "
" Historians believe the presence of the medicine chest suggests that
the ship may have had a doctor on
board, or at least someone trained in rudimentary first aid. The chest
also contained spatulas, suction cups
and a mortar and pestle. "
" The ship was discovered off the port of Piombino in 1974 and the
wooden medicine box was found in 1989, but
it is only now that scientists have been able to use DNA sequencing
technology to analyse the contents of the
pills. "
Berj / KI3U
***************************************
J.VS Archive continued in
Vol. VI, 2012