VMs: Today's reading at the British Library...

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

I managed to grab an afternoon at the BL today: here are some of my 
research notes...

My news of the day: I found a tiny place where (the normally extremely 
thorough) Lydia Cerioni - the historian who produced a cross-reference of 
all the people referenced in the Milanese Tranchedino cipher archives - 
dropped the ball. (Please excuse any football metaphors I happen to use 
today, it's quite accidental).

The second (chronologically listed) cipher in the Tranchedino set to have 
the ligatured "4o" character in was marked down as being for "Orpheo de 
Rycano", who Cerioni didn't know. However, he turns out to have been one of 
Bona of Savoy's "Gentilhomini".

In 1470, he (and his 6 horses) were part of the Milanese ducal visit to 
Florence: in a 1476 ducal visit, he had 10 horses with him (so presumably 
had a larger entourage). And finally: when Galeazzo Sforza died, Orpheo da 
Ricano (also written Orfeo Aricano in Zelmira Arica's book) was right on 
the scene, and recorded his version of events in a letter (which still exists).

So: the two known (pre-numeric) cipherbets that included the ligatured "4o" 
were for (a) Tristano Sforza and (b) a courtier very close to Bona Sforza. 
(In the second cipherbet, "u" <--> "4o", and "b" <--> "4".

My hunch is this: that if either of those two needed their own personal 
cipher, there's only one person who they would have asked to build it for 
them - Cicco Simonetta.

Now: whether Cicco Simonetta designed the VMS's code is quite another 
matter - my intuition is that he probably didn't (bear in mind that 
Simonetta was executed in 1480). However, I *do* suspect it may have been 
re-used as a kind of tribute to the master. Regardless, this probably does 
place the VMS not too far from Milan...

There are a number of (mainly 19th Century, mainly in French, IIRC) books 
on Simonetta, so he is a natural next target of mine...

I also found a second reference to Bona Sforza's mysterious speziale 
Cristoforo da Brugora: Gregory Lubkin (in his book "A Renaissance Court", 
recommended reading) mentions him in the index as "Duke Galeazzo's spicer", 
though the only mentions of him in the book are in the same lodging and 
ducal party manifests that I found Orpheo da Ricano in.

The speziale is never fully mentioned by name: he's merely down as "El 
spiciaro", "Xp.oforo Speciaro", and "M.ro Xp.oforo Spiziaro". Which leads 
me to ask: what exactly was the difference between a "spicer" and a 
"speziale" in a 1450 courtly sense? I guess I'll have to go and find out...

BTW: my letters to Prof. Anna Laghi (who wrote a book/paper on Cristofora 
da Brugora) still have had no answer... I'll have to try yet other routes 
to the peak...

Next: I also found out (today) that Dante Alighieri's "Divina Commedia" was 
printed in Milan in 1477-1478, and that a copy of this incunabulum still 
exists in the Biblioteca Trivulziana (as if it would be anywhere else?). 
I'd be very interested to know if this had illustrations for Canto XIV, 
where the Vinci theme was alleged to have started - this may have been the 
precise point where "vinci" (as a visual motif) may have kicked off. 
Another point of interest (for me, at least)...

I also found time to read "Artists' Pigments - a Handbook of their History 
and Characteristics" (ed. Robert L Feller). The two key VMS colours would 
appear to be yellow and red.

Circa 1500, there were four main sources of yellow (giallo), the one 
addressed in the book being Lead Antimonate Yellow (later called, 
confusingly Naples Yellow - but that's actually quite different). In the 
world of maiolica, 1500 is the approximate date when Lead Antimonate Yellow 
started regaining popularity. But Piccolpasso describes the different 
recipes used in Urbino, Castel Durante, Castello and the Marches (of 
Ancora), so it may be possible to identify this.

Leonardo also describes a recipe for a different yellow (giallo) in the 
Codex Atlanticus: "realgar or orpiment dissolved in aqua fortis". (Pedreti, 
1964, p.56. note 62). Note that in a different place da Vinci mentions 
"Gialorino" (which the translator also translates as "yellow"), which may 
be closer to the "giallolino" described by Cennino Cennini. See also the 
15th Century Bolognese ms "Segreti per colori" for more on this.

For red: if it's a carmine red, there are two sources - Cochineal and 
Kermes. Cochineal came from the New World, so identifying the red as being 
Cochineal Carmine would give us an earliest (physical) date of (say) 1492-3.

Finally: the green may be "green earth" from near Verona, described as 
early as 1574 in Mercati's catalogue of the Vatican's mineral collection. 
This was often mixed with plant greens to give a more realistic hue.

I also saw the Carrara herbal for the first time today (though we were 
separated by thick glass, sadly). Nose to the glass, you can see that it's 
really exceptionally well executed - nothing like the VMS at all in any 
obvious sense I could see. :-/

I also found one completely unexplored avenue: Kieckhefer mentions 
(Forbidden Rites, p.155) a goddess figure Oriente (known as Madonna 
Oriente), worshipped in Milan right at the end of the 14th Century. 
Sibillia Zanni and Pierina de Bugatis were burned at the stake for 
worshipping the Madonna of the East, who had given them knowledge of herbs 
etc. Hmmm.... might this be connected with the VMS? Certainly heretical, 
women-oriented, herbal-oriented, northern Italian, secret knowledge... not 
a bad starting point for research. :-)

Kieckhefer says: for more on Madonna Oriente, see Carlo Ginzburg 
"Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath", trans. Raymond Rosenthal 
(New York: Pantheon, 1991), especially pp. 92-6, 100-107, 131-6, 276-8. I 
will, I promise...

One last open question: dipping into Josef Krasa's book on "The Travels of 
Sir John Mandeville" made me wonder - has anyone tried to reconstruct what 
type of stylus or pen was used in the VMS?

For example, silver point and lead point styli have different writing 
characteristics, and may be physically detectable on the page. To my eyes, 
some of the detail in the VMS (for example, in the 9-rosette map) is really 
extremely fine - what kind of pen would have been used to draw it?

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....

PS: has anyone here read A.E.Waite's translation of the supposed 1676 
Munich edition of Edward Kelley's book on alchemy? The BL has two copies, 
but one is missing and the other was in use today (what are the chances of 
that, eh? Bah!). :-/

Having read Waite's book on Ceremonial Magic (which I found a bit 
disappointing), I don't hold out a lot of hope of it being much good, but 
I'd be interested to see it anyway. :-)