Koen Gheuen found some images in Laufenbergs Regimen / Hausbuch, Cod. Karlsruhe 2790 and combined them with VMS image:
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This is coming close, but there are quite a lot additions to do.
The "Hausbuch" source shows some more things that were skipped before,
the previous chapter there showed all 4 ladies:
Das erst(e) ist d(a)ß *Lenz = the first is the spring
Das and(ere) ist der sumer = the other is the summer
D(a)ß dritte ist d(er) herbst = the third is the autumn
Das vierd (=vierte) ist d(er) winter = the fourth is the winter
Those four women represent the 4 seasons.
After that, this guy appears in "Hausbuch":
xxxx d(er) Mensch nat?et ist nach d(en) vier Conplexion(en) =
???? the man is made?/born? following the four temperaments
So the next images are adressing the 4 temperaments according to those developed by ancient greek Galenos of Pergamon or even the Egyptians before.
Die erste conplexion Sang(i)nea = the first temperament Sanguine
Die and(ere) heisser Colera = the other one is named Choleric
Die dritte Flegma = the third (is) Phlegmatic
Die vierde melancolia = the fourth (is) Melancholic
During the later medieval the "4 temperaments" were also loaded with the meanings of
- the ages of (wo)man
- the four directions
- the year's four seasons
- 3 zodiacs to each temper etc.
In the times before (~beginning of 12th century) this here was a representation (MS428 Cambridge lib., sorry for the quality, did not find the direct source):
"Flegma" is here a "just talking" guy, "Sa(n)guis" next to him holds an interesting item: looks like the thing his VMS opponent (sanguinis is counterclockwise in Voynich) holds up.
I think both items are birds, not flowers.
"Colania" and "cola rika" are both doing something with spindles, but this symbolism is at least 300 years before VMS and "Hausbuch" -- VMS sticks closer to principles which also applied to Hausbuch. But "spindle representation" could also be found in 15th century (german source):
The temperaments' sequence is:
" Phlegma" -- winter & night; Baby--old man; birth/death
"Sanguine" -- spring &morning; childhood
"Choleric" -- summer & noon, Youth
"Melancholic" -- autumn & evening, adulthood
GOTO "Phlegma"...
So the lady with the wreath (seems not like a rosary) in VMS is autumn/melancholia and the sequence is not round-circle in those drawings, but jumping between segments.
I understand the "just talking" guy at the top of VMS circle as "Phlegma"; the one with the small bottle as "choleric".
Here is another one, also MS428 (and copy-from-copy):
Can recognize just 2 calida and 2 frigida for the different tempers, but these figures are doing funny things with a kind of liquid. Will come later in this post to that again.
The "4 tempers" theory was spreaded from ancient times to 16th century and lost ground from then on. It was even copied by the Arabs and translated to arab and syrian.
This here is an image from the end of this period (1574AD), mind the detail at "Sanguin" (and "Phlegma") bottle :
This all would allow the suggestion that VMS f85r(left) shows the 4 human temperaments or, in case of Melancholia, the autumn season.
Again one gets the strange feeling that the VMS draftsman did not completely understand what he was doing there.
The findings of this thread may prove that VMS was created with a "modern" version of 4-tempers-theory, but interlaced different levels of it without any sorrow.
This might also consolidate an european origin -- but honestly, the wreath lady looks a bit mongolian/tatarian/asian to me.
(by the way, the "Phlegma" guy on the right, holding up a small bottle, is driven by yellow bile. All tempers refer to body liquids and, thereby, bottles, as shown in 1574AD image. The Sanguine is often accompanied by birds of different sizes, not necessarily coming from a bottle. At all, there is no "doctor examining a bottle of urine" in VMS...)
The central "sun" is nothing less than the quintessence or fifth element, symbolized by the sun, gold or even diamonds.
Aether fills the skies beyond the moon according to ancient Greek understanding (and some others), this may be meant by these fountains.
An alchemistic or philisophical usage came after production of VMS, even the word quintessence was introduced not earlier than 16th century.
The fountains of aether may find their equivalent in one of the 12th century images where strange "flows" the figures' heads from or to a central figure.
That would complete this drawing as a representation of four tempers/complexions/elements according to Hippokrates and the fifth element in center.
Voynich manuscript is - again - mean enough and does not offer any words that may even distantly look like labels according to the "classic" namings "Phlegma", "Sanguine" etc.
All texts seem to be the usual unknown explanation-type word sets.
Another one:
"Sanguine" is accompanied by a goat eating grapes which severely reminds of f 70v/71r.
- I know that Ripa's book and this picture are at least 150 years younger, but it is founded upon an understanding assembled centuries before VMS' production.
This is the page with "Geissbock" (somewhere in the middle of it): http://www.enzyklopaedie.ch/dokumente/T ... ionen.html
- webpage also refers to the medical poem https://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chro ... _sana.html
- Italian readers may have noticed the citation of Pierio Valeriano already (who is too young as well for VMS), but also a reference to Aristotle
- the goat of Sanguine is not necessarily the zodiacs' Aries or even Capricorn;
as there is no clear evidence for both goats in 70v and 71r being Aries, apart from those weird, later-added "abril" labels,
there may be an understanding for both roundels of 70v, 71r being just collections of human, elementary or already alchemistic properties which only describe the Sanguine/Air under a brand sign of Sanguins goat, not Aries!
Aries and Capricorn are not connected to Sanguine, but to Phlegma and Melancholia.
This is shaking the understanding of VMS roundels as "zodiacs":
at least the "goat roundels" of 70v / 71r might have more a connection to the concept of 4 tempers/elements than being just standalone astrological signs -- and to be honest, none of both center animals really do remind of an aries, ram or capricorn...