Might Gotha Chart. A 472 be connected to Voynich Q9?

While idly flicking through the splendid ex-library copy of Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt’s (1929) “Schwäbische Federzeichnungen” that landed on my doorstep this morning, my eye was drawn to Abb. 52, a drawing from Gotha Chart A 158 (and more on that another time). What is Gotha (and might it be home to Batma?), and how come it has so many wonderful 15th century German books?

Forschungsbibliothek Gotha

According to this page (containing descriptions of many Gotha mss):

The old German manuscripts of the FB Gotha [i.e. Forschungsbibliothek Gotha, now at Uni Erfurt] form one of the last large collections of medieval German-language manuscripts for which no modern scientific index has yet been made available. Its inventory shows the typical profile of a princely collection: it contains numerous literary and illustrated texts, including testimonies of classic Middle High German literature as well as unique pieces such as the verse novel “Reinfried von Braunschweig”. In addition, the entire spectrum of late medieval German literature is represented in Gotha.

The Gotha collection contains plenty of the German manuscripts we’ve been discussing: Der welsche Gast, Andreas Capellanus’ “De amore“, Macer floridus, Feuerwerkbuch von 1420, Ars moriendi, Astrologisch-medizinische Sammelhandschrift, Biblia pauperum, Sachsenspiegel, Minnereden, Parzival, Johannes Hartlieb’s Namenmantik, etc. As far as I can tell, few of these have yet been digitized: not many more have been properly studied.

Basically, Gotha is like the Mars of 15th century manuscripts – distant, little known, but with plenty to study. Time to send a probe down to its surface!

Gotha Chart. A 472

Cutting to the chase, one particular Gotha manuscript really caught my eye: Gotha Chart. A 472 [Handschriftencensus page] [Erfurt catalogue page].

This contains a series of circular volvelles described in Ernst Zinner (1956) “Astronomische Instrumente des 11.-18. Jh.s” (p.153). The catalogue description has the following to say (largely quoting Zinner):

17 disk-shaped diagrams of the instruments are described. These are the theoricae planetarum, first introduced by the astronomer Jakob ben Machir (Profatius Judaeus) around 1300: these are “discs of paper or parchment that rotate over the basic drawing. Threads run from the center point, adjusting the various movements of the planetary volvelles, so that the location marked on the epicyclic disc indicates the correct planet location. One volvelle was constructed for each planet ” [Zinner 1956, p.32]. Fol. 3r-8r have the titles: 3r Circulus orbis signorum, 4r Circulus anni, 5r Circulus Saturni, 5v Circulus Jouis, 6r Circulus Martis, 7r Circulus Veneris, 8r Circulus augum planetarum. 15r and 17v are diagrams without movable attachments. Pages 12r, 22r, 30r, 34r, 39r, 42r, 47r and 52r contain volvelles with multi-part, rotatable attachments, some of which have come loose (now included) though some have been lost. On 39v a thread is inserted into the center of the disc for line drawing; circular holes are in the center of the diagram.

To my eyes, the interesting thing about this is that the Voynich Manuscript’s Quire #9 (‘Q9’) has a super-wide hexfolio, which – if you virtually rebind it along the correct crease, as I discussed in Curse (2006) – contains seven full-page circular diagrams, starting with the Sun and Moon. And even though I have seen many 15th century manuscripts listing the seven ‘wanderers’ on consecutive pages, I had never yet found a 15th century manuscript with a set of full-size circular diagrams for those seven astrological planets.

Until now. So let’s just say I’m suddenly very interested.

The Voynich’s Seven Planets

For reference, here’s what the Voynich Manuscript’s seven planets look like:

In Curse (p.60), I labelled these:

Planet A, Sun, Moon, Planet B
Planet C, Planet D, Planet E

I also noted that the diagram for Planet B comprised 46 radiating lines, which I noted (p.61) matched Mercury’s goal year period of 46 years. But that was as far as I was able to pursue this back in 2006.

Might there be more to find here, possibly even a block paradigm match to be had?

Georg von Peurbach

Now, I also happen to know that Georg von Peurbach created similar epicycle-based volvelles in his Novae Theoricae Planetarum. There’s a really cool online page from the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection showing these in action (albeit in a later printed book):

Though LJS 64 was printed in Padua between 1525 and 1575, Georg von Peurbach (1423-1461) wrote his original work back in the 15th century: he was Regiomontanus’ teacher and mentor.

As an aside, I’d previously read the English translation of Zinner’s chunky book on Regiomontanus (which I mentioned here in 2018, in my discussion of nocturnals and f57v): but before now I’d never really considered von Peurbach’s Novae Theoricae Planetarum.

Note that von Peurbach was giving lectures in Italy in 1448 to 1451, so would be a plausible candidate for someone who somehow bridged between German scientific culture and Northern Italian culture at just about the right time and place. So there’s a lot of lines criss-crossing here.

Might all these things be tied together by Gotha Chart. A 472?

Gotha Chart. A 472 Bibliography

The Handschriftencensus page lists three references, the main one of which (Zinner 1956) I have just ordered from America (but don’t expect to see for a fair while, to be honest):

• Ernst Zinner, Verzeichnis der astronomischen Handschriften des deutschen Kulturgebietes, München 1925, Nr. 9839.
• Ernst Zinner, Deutsche und niederländische astronomische Instrumente des 11.-18. Jahrhunderts, München 1956, S. 153.
• Oliver Schwarz, Cornelia Hopf und Hans Stein, Quellen zur Astronomie in der Forschungs- und Landesbibliothek Gotha unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Gothaer Sternwarten (Veröffentlichungen der Forschungs- und Landesbibliothek Gotha 36), Gotha 1998, S. 54. This is also online here.

Meanwhile, I’m also going to contact the curators at FB Gotha to see if they can tell me any more about Chart. A 472. As always, asking is free!