I’ve finally done something that should have been obvious, but I just didn’t think of it– on the map of Europe with the pentagram I have added the color of the moon over the place name.
This clearly indicates the drawing path for the pentagram, and indicates it is for “active spirit banishing”, whatever that might mean.
The clear pattern also supports my decoding of the labels for the place names.
For more on the map, see “Folio f67r2”, above.
f67v2 is one of the most opaque folios in the entire Astro Section. I have interpreted it as four planetary conjunctions seen from a central location (see the individual page above).
But just yesterday I noticed that the folio is also a fractal; that is, a shape that is self-similar at different scales.
The smaller iteration is the conjunction in the lower left, where the planets are within colored fields arranged like a T-O map and connected by bars in a “U” shape.
The larger iteration is all four conjunctions arranged in a “U” shape indicated by moving from the earliest to the latest date. It is also oriented the same way as the smaller.
Below are four illustrations of the fractal:
The written file of my dates for the Astro folios is fine, but here they are laid out on a timeline for better presentation.
I think this is an example of “a picture is worth a thousand words”.
The tightness of the date clustering surprised me too.
The 1533 comet may be within the Zodiac range, as it is within 76 years (1° of precession) of 1471.
I wanted to do an update before much more time had passed. This isn’t really new, but is the most complete and far-ranging work so far.
This folio is a visual representation of an astronomical event that took place 7 December 1486. It is tied in with f67r2 and f69r, which are the astrological interpretations.
See the new page above for additional material.
There has been a lot of discussion and controversy about this folio, and with good reason.
I agree with those who say it’s a set of diagrams of planetary conjunctions. I also think the Author was trying to make it 3D, but didn’t know how. So using Paint.NET, I have finally gotten around to drawing what I think he(?) was going for:
I hope this is clear; my drawing skills aren’t the best.
The outer trees are shorter, which they would be because of perspective.
To demonstrate this interpretation, see the page Folio f67v2 above.
This might be related to f68v3, which I think is a diagram of the Universe as it rotates around the Earth.
I wrote a paper (announcement and link below) containing evidence of the date of f68r1 being 18 July 1533, showing the Great Comet of that year. I’m not going to rewrite the paper here; if you want details, read it.
To further call attention to it, I have made a new page with the diagrams. The link is above. (I am having trouble getting them set the way I want them, so expect modifications.)
The first is the folio in question. The second is a diagram of the comet’s path from Apian’s Astronomicum Caesarium 1540. The third is the folio and diagram overlaid, The fourth is a star chart from Starry Night Pro 4.
This date refutes the idea that the vellum of the VMs was used immediately after creation, circa 1420. Other dates found in the Astro section cluster near the late 15th Century (see the earlier entry).
There’s been a lot of speculation and suggestions on why the Zodiac section starts with Pisces instead of Aries. If you look at the Zodiac Nymph Overview file I mentioned below, you notice there are more aspects (details? characteristics?) to the Pisces, Aries, and Taurus folios than any of the others. My idea is that it starts with Pisces simply because that sign is involved with the information shown (i.e. of interest to the Author) , and having it several folios away would be inconvenient.
I’m making modifications to the Nymph Overview file, and will replace the one there shortly. I’m adding another table with my ideas for the meanings.
As I mentioned below, I recently had the idea that the stars with a tether in the Zodiac section might represent a comet’s path through the sign.
I think folio f68r2 shows the comet C/1490 Y1. It passed through Pisces in January of 1491, and its tail passed through Aries. There are 29 stars with tethers in the Pisces folio, along with 12 in Aries Dark and 4 in Aries Light.
I also think f67r1 shows a total solar eclipse in Pisces in 1485. In that case, if each nymph is 1° of the sign, the cans might indicate that the sun “covered up” the sign.
I uploaded to my MediaFire folder a file, Zodiac Section Nymph Overview, that lays out their characteristics.
In the J.VS Library, some new files by me have been added:
The paper The Event Depicted on VMs Folio 68r1 presents evidence that the folio shows the Great Comet of 1533 as seen on 18 July.
Additionally there are two animated .gifs showing that the person drawn in the upper circle (the comet) might be Copernicus, who wrote a treatise about it. A third animated .gif shows that the person in the center of f67v1 might be Tycho Brahe.
Voynichology 