VMs: St Mark's Basilica in Venice...?

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

A while back, I mentioned that I suspected (following Philip Neal's 
suggestion) that the central part of the 9-rosette "map" page might 
represent Venice (I'd previously suspected Istanbul). However, it remained 
(regardless of precisely *where* it represented) an open question of *how* 
such a view from above could have been created.

However, while looking through a Venice guide-book yesterday at a friend's 
house, I noticed that overlooking St Mark's Basilica (with its five 
distinctive "onion-skin" domes, arranged in the shape of a Greek cross) 
stands the Campanile (bell tower) - both of these were intact 600 years ago 
(though the Campanile did collapse 100 years ago, it was rebuilt extremely 
closely to the original design and location).

Here's a (modern) picture of the Basilica taken from high up on the 
Campanile (taken by Chris St John, posted on the Exploitz.com website):-
	http://www.exploitz.com/pictures/4177/index.php?pix=5&size=1

And (to compare it with) here's the VMs' central rosette:-
	http://www.voynich.info/phpwiki/central-rosette.jpg

In detail, they're different - but in essence, they're the same.

If you subscribe to the school of thought that says "everything in the VMs 
is likely to be completely imaginary, so poring over it for obscure art 
historical matches is a waste of time", then you won't find anything of 
interest here, for sure. But if you think (as I do) that "most things in 
the VMs are likely to have come from elsewhere, no matter how obscured they 
were in the process", then its iconography *is* important.

Whereas the Great Council of Venice had (according to its constitution) 
2,500 members in 1500, the Senate then was far fewer (70? 100?), and in 
turn was controlled by the Council of Ten. Might it be that the stars in 
the middle of the central rosette represent the Senate and/or the Council 
of Ten?

I believe that this and the "castle" rosette are members of the same family 
- that they are both encoded Quattrocento diagrams, referring obliquely to 
North Italian towns... but only if you are familiar with the source 
material (Venice viewed from the Campanile and circular maps of Milan, 
respectively). By this, my reading of Naples (as the long low sea-facing 
castle-like structure, located on one of the inter-rosette "causeways") 
would seem to be more probable as well.

Note that I'm not trying to explain either what the page is saying or what 
its function is, but am instead trying to explain *by what conceptual 
means* the images were produced. One thing at a time! :-o

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

PS: the expert on the history of St Mark's Basilica is Ettore Vio, the 
Procuratoria di San Marco, and editor of the (2000) book "St Mark's 
Basilica in Venice". If anyone out there knows of any early (pre-1500) 
sketches of the basilica (as viewed from the Campanile), it's likely to be him!


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