Re: VMs: Colored paints, touch-ups, and the michiton text

[Dennis <tsalagi@xxxxxxxx>]

Jorge Stolfi wrote:
> 
>   The zodiac names, e.g. on f71r, f72r are written in a different ink
>   and thicker pen than the surrounding text. So that practically closes
>   an old open question.

	Meaning that someone else wrote them, as we'd always
thought?

> The drawings on f116v are certainly by the same hand that drew the
> zodiac pages, and the "michiton" text seems to be in the same ink,
> pen, and hand as the drawings. Ergo, the "michton" text is very likely
> original.

	Perhaps I misunderstand?  I thought the zodiac labels
were by someone else.

	I would be very much surprised indeed if the VMs
author(s) wrote the "michiton" text!!  I never took the
"key" seriously, and doubt anyone here did.  I always
thought it was someone else's scribbling, trying to
understand Voynichese, and "michiton" etc. is distorted
Voynichese.  

	I have no comment on the colors issue; I haven't spent
enough time looking at the sids.

Dennis


	


> 
> Also the embedded EVA words "oror sheey" are written fluently with
> sure hand, while the rest of the "michiton" seems to have been written
> letter by letter with some effort. The simplest explanation seems to
> be that the author of the VMS was not familiar with the Roman alphabet
> (which also explains why he never used Roman letters in the whole
> book, not even as item or figure labels). But of course there may be
> other explanations (like the "copied upside-down" theory, or "atempt
> to copy cyrillic longhand mistaken for Roman longhand", etc.)
> 
> My conclusion about the color paints:
> 
> I am now almost completely convinced that most of the colored paints
> in the VMS are non-original. Because of the mistakes, bicolored
> leaves, and the way the zodiac/cosmo pages were painted, I would say
> that the painter was probably a kid; or two kids, one more careful than
> the other.
> 
> However, the painter was not simply having fun with the VMS as if it
> were a coloring book. Considering that the whole book was painted
> over, that the plants were generally painted "naturally" (green
> leaves, brown roots, blue flowers), and that outlines were hadly ever
> painted over, I would say that the painting was purposeful and
> constrained.
> 
> My guess is that the book was originally unpainted, but some later
> seller to whom the book was meaningless gibberish -- perhaps an
> impoverished heir, a book peddler, etc. -- figured out that a colored
> book would fetch a better price than an uncolored one. He would
> have recruited a kid or two to do the painting; these kids would of
> course have been told not to overrun the outlines, use green for
> leaves, etc. -- but would have been left free to paint the cosmo and
> astro sections at their pleasure.
> 
>   "You want to help mom? Here, why don't you take this book -- which
>   poor uncle Jakub, may he rest in peace, was so fond of -- and paint
>   all the pictures nice and good? But watch out, never paint over the
>   lines, OK? After you finish we can go to the big town, to see the
>   bad witches being burned. If you do a good job, maybe we can sell the
>   book at the market for a shilling, and buy some honey cakes..."
> 
> All the best,
> 
> --stolfi
> 
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