VMs: Re: The castles

["Petr Kazil" <kazil@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> I get the impression that
> the main castle and the 'Prague-style' tower
> could be connected by a wall. This is of course
> possibly just a decorative element.

Well, if it's done on purpose it looks even more Prague-like, I was reminded
of the "Hladova Zed" (Hunger Wall) that runs down one of the hills of
Prague.

But that's just a coincidence - the tower could just as well be Chateau
Aigle (1488) or Schloss Chillon (1496) in Switzerland - I checked in my
Swiss tourist guide. They all have these "lightning rods" on top. Probably
that's not specific enough to go by.

'There is even one more wall on the scans that I posted. It connects two of
the "circles" in the opposite corner of the drawing. I'll look through my
volume of "Czech Castles" tomorrow, but I bet more on the Italian
connection.

The whole set of drawings reminds me of the landscapes on East-European /
Austrian playing cards. But that's no concrete likeness, more a vague
general feeling. Since I was a child I felt that these simple landscapes
contained some deep secrets. And I have exactly the same feeling with these
drawings :-)

I found one interpretation of the circles in Dennis's excellent summary
"Historical Precedents for the Voynich Manuscript" and some more references
to the castles. Sigh ... So much reading to do before one is able to make an
original contribution.

Excerpts from "Historical Precedents for the Voynich Manuscript":

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 16:46:33 -0500 (EST)
From: Karl Kluge
To: voynich@xxxxxxxx
In-Reply-To: (René  Zandbergen)
Subject: Re: Levitov, heretics, catholics

   My previously announced silly idea: in the centre circle of
   the mega-foldout on ff.85-86 there are some objects (reportedly
   six but they are too vague to make out) that could be pharmaceutical
   jars like the ones in the pharma pages, but to me they look
   quite like the images of minarets in old Arabic manuscripts.
   The centre circle could represent the Arab world, or Mecca.
   The other circles could represent other parts of the world
   or the Universe in a more abstract sense (Earth, Fire, the lot).
   In fact I like Greece or Italy for the top right circle. If has
   a castle not unlike Rhodos or Patmos, but a tower that
   more resembles the Veneto style. Some Greek(?) houses,
   a volcano (when was Santorini first identified as a remnant
   of an eruption? I have a feeling that it was much later).
   Maybe this represents.....  Atlantis :-)
   No, strike that last one.

Good eye, and I think close but not quite. *My* previously announced
idea is that this represents the old alchemic notion of how the four
elements earth, air, fire, and water are created from the qualities
wet, dry, hot, and cold. The circle in the upper right with the T-O
map and little castle would be earth. The structure is then something
like this:
         dry
fire O -- O -- O earth
     |\   |   /|
     | \  |  / |
     |  \ | /  |
hot  O--- O -- O  cold
     |  / | \  |
     | /  |  \ |
     |/   |   \|
air  O -- O -- O water
         wet


Subject: Re: Historical Precedents I Missed
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 10:47:43 +0200
From: René Zandbergen (Rene)
To: Dennis Stallings

By the way, what could be relevant is that Vat.Gr.1291 was in
N. Italy in the second half of the 15th C, in Brescia to be
precise, which is right in the middle of the area where the
castles look like the one in the Voynich MS. It is so easy
to speculate....

Subject:   Re: Sagittarius and crossbow
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 22:20:07 +0200
From: René Zandbergen (Rene Zandbergen)
To: Dennis Stallings

The little castle on the upper right circle in the rosetta. I've not
seen a castle that looks exactly like it, but there are plenty of
castles with such elements in Northern Italy. They date from the
14th-15th Century which doesn't help pinning the date down any
further, but the style of the crenellations is typical for N. Italy
(all the way from Aosta to Friuli / Trieste).
I even found a castle in the latter area for which there is a 15th
C drawing. It's called Villalta. Compare it with the modern
picture at (about 100k together):
http://www.voynich.nu/vilalold.jpg
http://www.voynich.nu/vilalnow.jpg

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