Re: VMs: Re: Voynich MS Theory

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Colin,

> having had the good fortune to visit napoli a number of times.. i can see
> where you are coming from regarding the castle in the middle of the bay...
> the castel dell'ovo seems to have been around or it's location used for a
> long time maybe 1st cent onwards by the romans. but from what i have read of
> it's history it seems to have been used more as a prison and military
> fortification than anything else.

It certainly doesn't seem central to that page - but someone still thought 
it important enough to draw, and in quite fine detail as well. I guess I'll 
have to read up more on Quattrocento Napoli (I've never been to the town, 
unfortunately)...

> As for the milano castle. it's walls seem to stretch nearly all the way
> around the rosette, as there are towers on the walls (i think that it could
> represent some kind of walled garden, although the castle itself looks like
> it is sat on a cliff face, with the cliffs being represented as two wide
> lines that come off left from the castle.), the stars could just as easily
> represent the sea... with maybe the writing representing some kind of
> whirlpool.... who knows!

Having bought a load of books on the history of Milan's canals during my 
last stay there, I suspect that the curve of the writing you're describing 
may well represent the "inner Naviglio" (first properly dug in 1156, and 
later to be known as the "Fossa interna") that loops into the centre of 
town (it was covered over in 1928-29)... but that's just my guess, mind. :-)

> i definetly do not think that the castle in the middle are seed pods. I am
> open to all theories, but that it could be classed as venezia puzzles me
> somewhat, as if the map represented somekind of map of italia surely
> something depicting roma should be in the middle.... I only believed it was
> arabic because the 'bulb' shaped towers remind me of palaces that sultans
> may have lived in.. from what i can see there are 6 towers, with equal
> spacing between each two.. hence TT--TT--TT-- etc.

The rest of the VMS doesn't leave me with any lasting impression of 
Christian spirituality - the two examples of the latter generally given as 
evidence (the nymph's horizontal "cross", and the handful of crowned nymphs 
in the astrology section) seem distinctly secular to me - so the question 
of what ought to be in the centre (if not Rome) seems strongly unresolved 
at present.

For example, it could instead be representing trade coming in to Italy via 
Venice as if it were rainwater hitting the top of a mountain, and filtering 
down through various routes out to the other four major economies - what 
you might call "trickle-down economics". :-)   In short, it need not be 
geographically representational at all - Venice as the "centre" of Italian 
import/export trade would make just as much sense here as Rome the 
spiritual centre. :-o

> This middle castle (pepper grinders...whatever!), whatever it's origins has
> to be important.... after all i'm sure if you were creating a map in the
> middle ages.. you'd probably put what you believe the most important
> location is in the middle, and make everything else relative to it...

Of course - but that would depend on what's most important to you!

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


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