By: Joel Stevens
Sunday, January 13th 2008 - Larry Grant has
recently done some work on the Voynich Manuscript which has prompted me to take a closer look at page 86v
(Beinecke 1006231). In doing so, I have found what I believe to be a
compass (please note that this compass is not related to Larry Grant's color research, it was just an excuse for
me to look at page 86v again). On this page, I will try to
explain my finding and how I came to my conclusions. If I am correct that this page contains a compass, I do not
know as of
yet what implications this has on the understanding of the document. There is a possibility that words such as
"North", "South", "East", and "West" can be found on this page if my theory holds. I invite all researches to
expand on this research as they see fit.
Figure 1 shows page 86v with four red squares drawn. I would like to draw your attention to these four places on the page. The lables A, B, C, and D indicate the progression of my finding. Below, I will describe what I saw section by section starting with A and ending at D.
While looking at the page, I noticed the image of the Sun in the upper left corner as seen in Figure 2. The Sun is labled as item "1" in Figure 2. Since this Sun was so close to one of the "tower"-like images, I decided to see what else was near the "tower"-like image. I saw nothing remarkable until I reached section B.
Figure 3 is a zoom of what I have labled section B of page 86v. I was shocked to find another image of a Sun. Assuming this image is not a depiction of a world with two Suns, there must be another reason to have two Suns. The Sun's motion has been understood by many cultures throughout history. It is known that the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West. I guessed that these two Suns may be an indication of direction, one image of the Sun in East and the other image in the West. If an indication of East and West is depicted, then it is logical to assume that there is some indication of North and/or South. Looking at section D, there was nothing remarkable to notice at first. I make the assumption that North is an important direction (North is usually given a special indicator in Western compasses. However I would like to note that South pointing compasses were popular in China), so I expect to find something that jumps out at the reader to indicate North. If the two Suns indicate East and West, there are only two places North can be, section D or section C. Since I saw nothing at section D, I moved to section C.
Figure 4 shows what I found in section C. I first draw your attention to the item labled "1" in this figure. It is a face similar to a clock, sundial, or a compass. There are eight symetrical markings in the ring. This is reminiscent of a compass labled with markings for North, South, East, West, Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast. If this is correct, then are looking at a small compass placed next to the North end of a large compass. I assume that this redundancy was built in to tell the reader that they are on the right track, to assure them that they are indeed looking at a compass. This goes along with my belief that while the Voynich MS was meant to be hidden from the wrong people, it was also meant to not be misunderstood by the right people! Inside the face of this tiny compass, we find a chevron that appears to be pointing in the direction that we expect, the direction we believe is North. This chevron does not resemble a typical compass needle. This atypical needle was probably meant to obscure the identity of this drawing as a compass. This is further hinted at by the small lines that may indicate the eight directions. The author chose to use three vertical strokes for each direction. Eight times three is 24, possibly to indicate 24 hours in the day. The chevron (our atpyical compass needle) even looks like the hands on a clock, yet it is off-center, leading me to believe this is another attempt of obscuring the meaning. The direction pointed to by the chevron is then extended by line of text (possibly one or two words) labled "2". This text seems to complete the picture of a needle trying to indicate North as it is aligned with the large North "tower", and the smaller North-pointing chevron as if forming the head of an arrow. With this knowledge, it is expected that if we look at section D, we should find some indication of South. Although I was unsure if I would find anything because once North is correctly labled, there is no need for any more lables.
In figure 5 we find section D. I have no clue what is in the corner of this page, possibly some fields divided by a forking river. But where is my indication that the author meant for this to South? That was difficult, until I noticed the text labled "1", and "2", as well as the castle labled "3". They are all upside down! This means that the top right corner of this page (the "South" end) was facing the author. The text is also upside down and side ways if we look at some of the text and drawings that compose the "North" end too. This leads me to the conclusion that the author was drawing a compass on this page, with him seated at the South end. This page should but rotated as in Figure 6.
Figure 6 demonstrates my conclusions about the compass on this page. I recognize that there is text in many different directions, but I believe that the majority of directions and orientations of the images make more sense when viewed this way. I hope that through the understanding of this page that words for "North", "South", "East", and "West" can be found thereby leading us to translate more of the manuscript. I do not have any theories at the moment as why there is a compass here. I do not know what it means for the rest of VMS. I don't know what it tells us about the castles and its towers. My guess is that these could be the general locations of certain kingdoms or regions (I believe many French regions used a combination of blue and gold on their crests and standards), but that is only a guess at this point.