Re: Pleiades, Aldebaran, lunar mansions - the frustration of theVoynich

[Zandbergen@xxxxxxxxxxx (Rene Zandbergen)]

Adam McLean wrote:

> It concerns the 'Pleiades' formation and 'Aldebaran' which
> are on folio 68r3. These are labelled
> 
> doary
> 
> dcholday
> 
> Also folio 69v  which has the supposed  28 'mansions of the
> moon'.
> 
> Now it is interesting that following the arabic, two of the
> mansions of the moon are actually known as the Pleiades
> and Aldebaran. So I wondered if I could not find some
> association between the Voynich labels on these two folios.
> 
> But I cannot find anything that strikes me. Has anyone else
> looked at this?

Same experience, a couple of years ago. Even more striking is
that the statistics of the word-initial letters of the 28 mansions
of the moon (see fig. 30 in D'Imperio) match that of the labels
of f69v rather well.

Various explanations:
- this is a blow to the theory that Voynichese is straightforward
  transcribed arabic
- the labels dcholday and doary actually do not mean aldebaran or
  athurayya.
- the mansions of the moon are not the traditional ones. Particularly
  disheartening is the possibility that these could in fact be 
  'invented' names, not at all uncommon in legible MSs.

Cheers, Rene