Marche: VMS zodiac based on Hermetic sources going back to Dendera

["Bradley E. SCHAEFER" <schaefer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi;
	Here is the first fun email I received.  Again, I'd appreciate any
comments for forwarding (if you don't send responses directly to Marche).
Cheers,
Brad
schaefer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 23:15:10 -0500
From: "[iso-8859-1] \"Theresa A. Marché\"" <tamarche@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: bradley.schaefer@xxxxxxxx
Cc: tamarche@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Voynich manuscript

Dr. Schaefer: Thank you for your very interesting article on the Voynich
manuscript in the November 2000 Sky and Telescope. Many years ago, I first
learned about the manuscript from an excellent talk given by Norman
Sperling. Since then, I have occasionally delved into the topic during
brief periods of interest.

I an now a professional historian of science (Ph.D., Indiana University,
1999), specializing in the history of astronomy (chiefly nineteenth and
twentieth centuries). I am not a medievalist, nor do I read/translate
Latin. But I would like to address a few of the questions/issues that you
have raised in the article (and Web-related references).

First, you ask whether anyone is familiar with "another zodiac starting
with Pisces" that includes "a man/woman for Gemini." A quick look at the
Egyptian Dendera ceiling zodiac, dating from around 30 A.D., illustrated
and described in E. C. Krupp's In Search of Ancient Astronomies (1978), pp.
216-219, indeed shows "[a] man and a woman with joined hands [that]
represents Gemini, the Twins" (p. 217). Also, whether by design or
coincidence, Krupp starts his description of the Dendera zodiac with
Pisces. Has this connection ever been noted before?

Given this (and related evidence discussed below), I would like to ask
whether ther Voynich manuscript might not be related to, or an offshoot
from, the so-called Hermetic corpus, which is now thought to have been
authored ca. 250 - ca. 330 A.D. as part of the post-Christian (and
post-classical) Platonic tradition. As you may be aware, when it was first
recovered ca. 1460 A.D., the corpus was (wrongly) attributed to a
pre-classical writer named Hermes Trismegistus. [For a concise sketch of
the Hermetic corpus, see Colin A. Ronan, Science: Its History and
Development Among the World's Cultures (1982), pp. 273-277, including its
eventual debunking as a preclassical text.] These writings, translated into
Latin by Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), however, played a significant role in
the awakening of interest in natural magic (and later science) during the
Renaissance. Given the post-classical age of these writings, Pisces would
have been regarded as the sign of the vernal equinox, due to the
recognition of precession (since the time of Hipparchus and Ptolemy). And
certainly other permutations on the zodiacal signs may have been introduced
as well (though not a medieval crossbowman).

As noted in the Web-sites, other textual (and graphical) evidence from the
Voynich manuscript seems to point toward its creation in the period from
around 1400 to 1600. This is not at variance with the recovery and
dissemination of the Hermetic corpus by Ficino. Without undertaking more
in-depth research, I cannot expect to strengthen any of these claims, but
nonetheless offer them to those like yourself who may be interested. I hope
that you receive additional insights from readers of your article.

Sincerely,

Jordan D. Marche' II, Ph.D.
tamarche@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (wife Theresa'a account)