Elmar Vogt just posted a page with scans of René Zandbergen’s translation (from German to English) of Jens Sensfelder’s (2003) short article on the crossbowman in the Voynich Manuscript to his blog: but as I had the original HTML [though no pictures] lurking on my hard drive, I thought I ought to post it here as well (as they say in the Caribbean, is nice to be nice).
So here, for the benefit of infinitii and others, is Jens Sensfelder’s crossbow article. Enjoy!
Good idea to post this Nick (and Elmar)!
Unfortunately, while I still had a copy of the text, I don’t have the images anymore either…
Rene
Bashford Dean, ‘A Crossbow of Matthias Corvinus, 1489’,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin , Vol. 20, No. 6 (Jun., 1925), pp. 154-157.
[JSTOR]
“Unlike the later Roman and medieval crossbows, spanning the [gastraphetes] was not done by pulling up the string, but by pushing down an elaborate slider mechanism.” This may be the origin for the image, given the placement of the archer’s hand on the stock. As for the costume,quite apart from the custom of the time which was to modernise costume, the style closely imitates the traditional costume of the Illyrians, even given that traditional costumes can remain unchanged for millennia. So ‘case not proven’ (yet) I think.A reconstruction of the gastraphetes is shown on the wiki page. There’s more, but I’ll leave that for a post on my blog, sometime.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastraphetes#Other_ancient_crossbows
From France early fifteenth century (before 1416) a ‘Tree of Battles’ showing typical arms and weapons of contemporary kingdoms.
in Brit.Lib. MS Royal 20 C VIII f. 2v
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=40798
Only the ‘king of the Romans’ ~ here apparently Ferdinand I of Aragon (1380–1416) and Louis I of Hungary and Poland (1326–82) are shown with bowmen, only Louis’ being a crossbowman. Whether this weapon is ‘like’ the crossbow on f.72r-ii is debateable.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/imagenes_manuscrito/manuscrito133.jpg
(continuing from previous)
the semi-circular sight on the crossbow of early fifteenth century Hungary-Poland, compared with
(i) ‘ring-‘ sight pictured in a German or Netherlands ms dated to the 15thC
Brit Lib. MS Burney 199 f. 1 (upper right)
cf. squared look of Netherlands’ e.g. ms in Italianate style from Ghent-Tournai – note the very different type of hat
Brit Lib. MS Harley 2433 f. 81
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=38429
similarly squared-off with prominent trigger shown in a medical miscellany, English, last quarter of the 14th or 1st quarter of the 15th century
Brit Lib. MS Sloane 335 f. 5v
12thC Genoese crossbow (miniature repro)
with diagrams of the full-scale artefact
http://www.miniatures.de/crossbow.html
Writing up some bits about the archer, I read Jens article. It never stuck me at the time, but he wrote years before the radiocarbon dating, but narrowed it down to the fourteenth entury. It would have to be the copy before ours, but it’s astonishinglygood as a straight estimate.
In 2003!
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