Re: VMs: La Vecchia Religione

[Dennis <tsalagi@xxxxxxxx>]

	On a lighter note (no offense intended to anyone!),

DANA SCOTT wrote:
> 
> Women were apparently revered as equals with
> distinctive roles in Etruscan society. 

	Been there...

http://www.geocities.com/ctesibos/voynich/etruscan.txt

> For example, the spindle held in the
> left hand of the damsel at the top left of f80v (also in f76v) has always
> caught my attention. 

	Hm.  This is Gabriel's "yellow submarine"!  FWIW
(which is zero), Levitov said this is the sistrum of
Isis, and the damsel is Isis.  A sistrum is a musical
instrument, a rattle.  I always thought it was a flower
bulb.  A spindle seems like a good idea, but it does
have the holes or dots on the side. Do spindles?

> The
> Etruscans were also with working bronze, which makes me think of the pans
> seen in f78v and f81r/v. 

	The Bronze Age?  Rather an early dating.   

> I can imagine the VMS confiscated by the Inquisition in Italy
> as a prime example of a "witchcraft bible" with the secrets of its
> translation having been lost along with its owner.

	Again, this was sort of Levitov's idea, although for
him it was the cult of Isis.  

	On the Manchu theory,

Jorge Stolfi wrote:
> 
> I agree that the VMS cannot have been compiled that far back. However,
> consider that many European manuscripts from the 15th century are
> copies (of copies of copies...) of Greek texts from the 4th century
> BCE. A foreign visitor to Manchuria who wished to take home a sample
> of the local knowledge would presumaby have chosen to transcribe their
> most revered books -- which, in China more than in Europe, usually
> meant the oldest ones.

	Ah, I've got it!  The VMs is the Insidious Dr. Fu
Manchu's secret master plan to conquer the world!  The
herbal pages are new strains of opium to addict and
enslave the people and add money to his Golden Hoard,
the biological pages are the nymphs being bred and
trained to seduce the people, the astrological pages
compute the most propitious moment to strike, and the
recipe pages outline the details and dates of the
plan!  If we can only decipher it, we may yet be able
to foil his dastardly plan!  

	And "michiton oladabas multos portas" actually
means...

	"The world shall hear of me again."  

;-)
Dennis
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