24 March 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve mentioned a few times that maybe the Voynich Manuscript was a family project. This seems possible because medieval fathers sometimes created books of wisdom to hand down to their sons. One medieval family codex might be of particular interest to Voynich researchers because of visual similarities to the rosettes folio.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A Book Disembodied<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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The Cocharelli family previously of Proven\u00e7e and Acre settled in Genoa and created a beautiful 14th-century codex for their children. Parts of it are based on stories told by the compiler’s grandfather. It was produced around the 1320s or 1330s, but has a murky history. At some point it was cut into pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S. Nicolini (University of Bologna) reports that the cuttings appeared inside a 15th-century missal in the 19th century and were sold as part of an anonymous book collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clippings have turned up in several different countries: England, Germany, Italy, and the United States. Some of the content is allegorical, being a treatise on the vices, but there are also historical events, and the folios are enlivened by naturalistic images of flora and fauna that would appeal to any age group. The drawings are surprisingly detailed considering the small size of the codex (approx. 160 x 99mm):<\/p>\n\n\n\n