Page f72v1

[f72v2]  [index]  [f73r]

Identification

  Title: "Libra"
  Page: f72v1 = KH (Rene) = p142 (Stolfi)
  Folio: f72
  Panels: f72v1
  Bifolio: bK1 = f71+f72
  Quire: K (Rene) = XI (Beinecke)

  This page is the innermost verso panel of an eight-panel fold-out.

Attributes

  Language: ? (Currier)
  Hand: ? (Currier)
  Subsets: Z (Rene), zod (Stolfi)
  Subject: zodiac
  Colors: yellow(stars) (Reeds), green(scales),blue(inside_scale_baskets) (Rene)

Description

  [To be checked and completed]

  Six faint, mostly concentric, mechanically drawn circles delimit
  three rings of text. The outer ring runs right up to the binding
  gutter on the right. There may be a wider word gap at 09:00 (but
  the image is very poor there). A radial stroke cuts across the
  middle ring at 08:30 (may be a modern scribble).

  The two circles that delimit the inner ring of text are quite 
  irregular.

  Inside the inner ring there is a two-plate balance scale,
  slightly offset to the right. The beam is a narrow rectangular
  ruler, with a darker stripe running down its middle. The pivot is
  not visible, but seems to be fixed at the bottom of an upright
  rectangular frame, with a handle or ring on top (partly hidden
  under the innermost text ring). A narrow triangular pointer rises
  from the beam's midpoint up to the top of the supporting frame. An
  object resembling a sliding counterweight seems to be resting over
  the beam, a little to the left of the pivot. Each end of the beam
  has a thin horizontal extension, from whose tip there hangs a
  hemispherical cup with thick walls, supported by three or four
  straight threads or wires.

  Below the scale there is a single word in non-Voynich script,
  apparently "oct~ebre" in lowercase Latin cursive (with a
  tilde or macron over the "te").

  Between the bands of text, there are two bands of naked figures
  ("nymphs"), 10 in the inner one, 20 in the outer one. Most of them
  are clearly female (visible breasts, long hair).  All nymphs are naked,
  mostly in 3/4 view (between frontal and facing clockwise).

  A hole in the vellum, less than 5mm across, covers a small segment
  of the middle ring. at 03:00. The preceding word runs up to the
  hole, but is apparently whole. A nymph in the inner band, at
  03:15, also has the hair squeezed against the hole.

  The outer nymph at 12:15 wears a crown, consisting of a ring of
  flaring triangular points, each with a dot; and a dome with double
  outline, topped by a spike or cross (too small to tell).

  Each nymph is holding or pointing to a star.

  There is a Voynichese label just clockwise of each nymph.

  Rene [07 Apr 1999] observes that this folio is all curled up.

Comments

  The scale is the standard symbol for the sign of Libra.
  Libra is from ??? to ???.

  The stroke at 08:30, if original, suggests that the text should be
  read starting from there.

  The way f72v3 overlaps f72v2 indicates that they were drawn in
  that order.

  The drawing of the balance is very accurate in all details, in
  spite of the relatively crude perspective and technique. It looks
  as if the author was very familiar with the instrument. I suspect
  that the model may be more appropriate for a druggist than for a
  grocer.

  The details of the drawings around the hole suggest that the
  hole was already there when the drawing was made.

References

[f72v2]  [index]  [f73r]