Voynich manuscript baths

Graphical parallels between f86r and aspects of the Rosettes page.
Back to index page

Folio 86r immediately precedes the Rosettes page and could be seen as some kind of bridging illustration between the preceeding balnealogical section and the Rosettes drawing.

We note here four formations similar to those in the Rosettes diagram.


Top left form. Here we see the overlapping circles like in form to bunches of grapes. Like as in the Rosettes drawing this matrix seems to emanate a stream of liquid or vapour. Here we see a little female figure partly obscured by the formation. This figure is similar to those in the baths depicted earlier. The Rosettes drawing is devoid of human figures.	Top right form. Here the formation from which the liquid emerges is more in the form of flattened circles or wavelets which are coloured blue. Clearly it is water that emerges rather than vapour as we see a bird swimming or bathing on its surface.

Surely folios 86r is closely connected to the Rosettes diagram. It seems inconceivable that one should pursue an interpretation of the Rosettes page without taking this preceding folio into account. The two are so intimately bound together that they can only refer to a common idea.

Bottom left form. Just as with the form at the top left we see the matrix from which a vapour or liquid emerges. In this case however, the structure is more complex with three separate layers of the circular forms. Could this be some sort of filter bed for cleaning the liquid? Here we see the emanating stream, passing through another matrix, then through another before finally emerging from the structure. Again we note a little human figure. A small stream of liquid descends onto the hand of this human figure from two small matrices.

Bottom right form. Here we have a structure similar to that on the bottom left. It has again three layers of matrices through which the liquid appears to flow. The final one toward the top of the form is similar to the wavelets we see in the top right form. The structure seems to end in a little pool in which a bird similar to that in the top right form is swimming or bathing. Above are three little linear matrices from which three streams appear to flow into the pool with the bird. This is similar to the streams which flow towards the human figure on the bottom left form.

These formations on f86r are so similar to those in the Rosettes diagram that they must be considered together. I seriously doubt that we can interpret the Rosettes diagram without taking this folio into account. To advance separate explanations for each of these folios would seem to turn ones face from reality. These two are intimately linked together. The one explains the other.