Re: Voynich Manuscript

[Dana Scott <dfscott@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Carolyn,
   Welcome to the Voynich discussion group. You are on the right track and I
commend you on your observations in applying the keen eye of an artist to the
VMS. I too can see the man in a turban or two men in a basket with sprinkler or
helicopter blades twirling overhead. My interpretation would be something like
fleur-de-lis birds aflight among the cumulonimbus thunderclouds building up
towards the heavens with lightning bolts violently striking down towards the
unseen earth below and thunder clasps seen in the conjoined leaves between the
stalks of the plants. The three root systems also remind me of the three legs
of an alchemists stand. The ball of leaves above may be the alchemists flask.
The leaves inside the flask could be the boiling fumes that occur when boiling
substances that are mixed together. I note too the there are (from left to
right) three, then four, then five smaller branches leading to the leaves for a
total of 12. There are a total of 14 'flowers' above the leaves at the edge of
the drawing. Three root systems crossed at a single point is no doubt
meaningful to the scribe of the VMS. Arrows and darts pointing down as dragon
tails may also be significant. Without a color sample of the drawing at hand,
only my imagination can fill in the rainbow of colors as they reach toward the
heavens. Rorschach would probably have thrown up his hands at this point. In
all honesty I do appreciate your freedom of thought and encourage you to
continue, but wish to impress on you that I believe that the artist/scribe of
the VMS was far from being childish when putting ink and paint to vellum. In
part I am trying to say that we can all have wild imagination in what we see
and observe in life. What is import is what it means to the artist and how it
expresses inner thoughts to the viewer. Can you see into the eye of the artist
who wrote, drew, and painted the VMS. Was it done through the eyes of a child,
a madman, a philosopher, or a ghost? Was the VMS delivered to us from places
unknown. I think not. I am not a good artist and would probably have done no
better than the artist of the VMS. It is not so much for us to judge and
criticize, I would say, as it is for us to understand and interpret with a
kind, caring, and forgiving mind. In the end, my task is to try and understand
and match what I see and know to what Nature has already provided. An
understanding of the text of the VMS requires a much deeper level of thought.
By understanding what surrounds the text, I feel that we will be better
prepared to grasp the meaning of the text and be better prepared to discover
its interpretation. I am not a linguist nor am I a cryptologist. I am an
observer of nature and life. These are the tools I have to work with. You are
an artist and perhaps you can help us better understand from an artist's
perspective what the scribe of the VMS was thinking while making the drawings.
You can no doubt see the artwork much better than most of us can. I encourage
you to continue telling us what you see. Again welcome and thank you for
sharing your thoughts with us.

Regards,
Dana Scott

c allen wrote:

> Hi, I am Carolyn and have joined the discussion. I am an artist, also doing
> an MA. I am interested in the images although I have not been able to
> download a clear picture yet. I noticed that, if y6ou turn image 11r upside
> down, instead of seeing a single childish picture of a man in a tyrban, you
> see two men in what appears to be a basket (similar to ballooning baskets)
> plus some sort of blade arrangement (could be seen alternatively as a
> sprinkler arrangement). Any comment?
> Carolyn
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Dana Scott <dfscott@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: <voynich@xxxxxxxx>; <AFScott@xxxxxxx>
> Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2002 11:42 AM
> Subject: Re: Voynich Manuscript
>
> > Nick,
> >
> >    Very nice utility. Works great. Thanks.
> >
> > Tugba Onal Suzek: (picture)
> > http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~tugba/
> >
> > Here is another university ref to the VMS, a list of Voynich related web
> > sites at the University of Virginia (English Department)
> > http://www.engl.virginia.edu/~bpn2f/ENLT255/voynich.html
> >
> > Regards,
> > Dana Scott
> >
> > Nick Pelling wrote:
> >
> > > At 21:54 26/01/02 -0800, Dana Scott wrote:
> > > >http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~tugba/voynich/
> > >
> > > Note that you can still read the text of this page by pasting this link
> > > into the Wayback Machine:-
> > >          http://www.archive.org/
> >
> >