|
Hmmm.. I'll have to look
closer, but as I recall they are only Ghibelline. Also, I've noticed with the
wonderful sid files that some of the nearby buildings with roofs have ghibelline
crenelations right under the roof - just like a lot of the older towers still
around Northern Italy (according to numerous web sites since I've never left the
continent).
I've also noted that the
upper left rosette's walkway is rather unique with the semi-circle defence on
one-side... Rene mentioned a piazza that might match, so I'll have to go look
around some more. The only wall I found with that particular semi-circle was in
southern Czech republic. I think the town was Prachatice or something close to
that spelling. The photo I saw was in a pdf file and unfortunately this old
machine can't seem to access the page again.
As for the castle being fantasy... well, if the artist was dreaming up a castle
- he certainly was influenced by something he was familiar with.
The Guelph/Ghibelline
conflict is quite old... I keep hearing Steve saying "It's older than you
think..." Of course, many of those castles survive to today - but many more were
destroyed or renovated.
John.
Actually, as I recall, the VMs castle has both Ghibelline and Guelph
crenelations which does occur in certain castles. It may help to narrow
down the search; however, we should probably keep in mind that the VMs castle
may be a fantasy castle, conjured up by the scribe of the VMs.
Regards,
Dana Scott
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, July 04, 2005 8:25
AM
Subject: Re: VMs: RE:
crenelations
John Grove wrote:
> The dove-tail battlements are
certainly a unique identifiable feature that
> helps place the
manuscript in the neighbourhood of northern Italy. Is there
> any
chance that there is a plaza or bridge that would meet the rough
outline
> of the rather unique one attached to the top left rosette
that would further
> aid in providing a locale?
>
> http://www.morewood.net/voynich/bridge.jpg
>
> John.
It is new to me that these are called ghibelline
battlements (Ghibelline
vs. Guelph). There are other pictures to be
found on the Web. An
inventory might be worth while for future
reference. First use would be
a probable early limit to the drawing. I
say "probable" because it is an
obvious improvement that could occur to
an artist and "first use" might
not be recorded correctly. I'll say very
probable.
There was a square, not round, tower at the side, not
center, of a
bridge in Florence in a painting (c.1490). The painting
shows other
bridges and one under construction. One of these may be the
one bridge
that survived WW2. One has a gatehouse at either end.
The one with the
tower supported two large buildings and another had
three smaller
buildings. Looking at the other rosette connectors some
might be
causeways, castle or city fortified entrances, mountain passes,
symbolic
whatever, or prominent scenery, undoubtedly discussed in the
past. If
this were the only part of the VMS to survive it would still be
a good
mystery. In another painting, there are many tall smokestacks but
they
are fluted. I do not think the straight tubes in the VMS represent
smokestacks. Or volcanic
stems.
Knox
______________________________________________________________________
To
unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body
saying:
unsubscribe
vms-list
|
