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

["Jeff" <jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote

> 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
>

VERY INTERESTING! Particularly as I have recently been able to 'decrypt'
Italian words from the VMS. I use the word decrypt very loosely. I have also
seen and heard of some peculiarities of Italian that seem to mimic 'some' of
those of the VMS.

> 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!
>

I feel that the observations you have made might have a great bearing on
where I go next. At the moment I am trying to contruct a method to produce a
modified text with the same properties as the VMS. Some of the letter
occurance peaks have been troubling me for some time. In the back of my mind
I instinctively feel I know why it happens I just haven't had the flash of
inspiration yet!

Keep on pluggin'

Regards

Jeff


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