Re: VMs: Finding

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jorge,

> Nine sephiroth are showing in folio 86, arranged as usual in three triads. I
> believe that the missing and lowermost sephira, Malkhut-kingdom may have
> been deliberately excluded  here, or maybe that drawing was conceived
> before the graphical addition of Malkhut to the other nine sephirot, aimed
> to sum up a so interpreted perfect number of 10 elements. Additional
> connections or paths between the sephiroth were probably excluded here or
> added later, totalling 32, in order to convey a mystical sum of 3+7+12+10
> elements, matching the 22 letters of jewish alphabet and  numbers 1 to 10.

> Is this accessment of folio 86 that I have described really new to the VMS
> list? I feel even surprised that presumably no researchers involved in the
> decypherment of the VMS have detected yet that unmistakable resemblance to
> something so pertinent.

The suggestion that this represents "the mysterious device described in the 
Cabal" is in the .evt interlinear file: and there have been numerous 
suggestions for what this diagram might represent. The key question is (or 
perhaps should) always be - if it were true, what would it tell us about 
the VMS, and what would it predict?

Here I would say that a picture displaying 9 (out of the 10) sephiroth and 
only a handful of the (conventionally recognised) connections between them 
might make a claim of "unmistakable" seem somewhat overly strong. However, 
I would agree that the Tree of Life could very well have been a theme 
underlying the construction of this page - though probably only one theme 
of many.

However, I would also point to there being five "active" rosettes (ie, the 
corners and the centre) in this image (the other four [N, S, E, W] appear 
to be decorative, perhaps representing watermills?) Garrett Mattingly says 
in his "Renaissance Diplomacy" (p.72)
        Thus by the early 1440s, Italy was dominated by five major
        states, Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples, and the papacy, no
        one of them strong enough to make head against the other four,
        no two, as the combinations of the next decade were to show,
        decisively stronger than any other two.

In the past, I have pointed out the strong association between circular 
maps and Milan: and have argued that the circular castle/town depicted in 
the NE rosette is indeed Milan. From discussions with Philip Neal, I also 
believe that the central rosette is Venice, with its shapes an encrypted 
version of Byzantine architecture (rather than seed pods or whatever); and 
that the SW rosette is Rome (based on the "tiled roof" motif, and the 
classical marble columns supporting them). The SE rosette, then, I predict 
is Naples (there's a long castle by the sea beside the rosette); and the NW 
rosette is Florence (by elimination - though the picture may well be based 
on a pun or a similar conundrum).

I'd also predict the decoding key for the map's ciphertext is to be found 
under the ornate gallows character which is half on and half off the page 
beside the SW rosette. :-)

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

PS: I should also apologise that, despite having had H.P.Kraus' book 
containing its fold-out photo of the "9-rosette" page by my side for 
several months now, I have as yet completely and utterly failed to get a 
suitably hi-resolution scan done - I can only point to a combination of 
pressures of work, pressures of study, and sheer indolence. :-o 


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