299 figures, 294 stars
Every figure on the Voynich Manuscript's twelve zodiac pages, read by eye from the full-size Beinecke images: what is drawn, and the marks that break the pattern.
Wallet: bc1qtphsftylaj9s0wvapvs50ltsl5saalny4dhyv9
Ten readers went through the Voynich Manuscript's twelve zodiac pages figure by figure, each from the full-size Beinecke image and the transliteration's label list, recording what is drawn and not what it means.
For every figure: clothed or naked, what is on the head, whether she stands in a barrel or on one, her posture and facing, which arm holds the star, whether the star hangs on a string, how many points it has, its paint, and anything else drawn with her. Every page was checked against the transcribers' count.
The twelve zodiac pages — click any thumbnail for the full Beinecke image
Contact sheet of all zodiac pages in binding order, Pisces to Sagittarius
By signWhat each page holds
| Sign | Figures | Clothed | Naked | Barrel | Star on a string | No star | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pisces | 29 | 0 | 29 | 26 | 26 | 0 | 6×11 7×15 8×3 |
| Aries | 30 | 16 | 8 | 30 | 13 | 0 | 5×2 6×4 7×23 8×1 |
| Taurus | 30 | 12 | 17 | 20 | 5 | 0 | 7×20 8×7 9×3 |
| Gemini | 30 | 4 | 26 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6×4 7×9 8×11 |
| Cancer | 30 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 18 | 2 | 7×12 8×8 9×4 10×1 |
| Leo | 30 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 7×3 8×9 9×7 10×2 11×1 |
| Virgo | 30 | 0 | 30 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 7×3 8×22 |
| Libra | 30 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6×2 7×12 8×13 9×3 |
| Scorpio | 30 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6×3 7×14 8×13 |
| Sagittarius | 30 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 6×1 7×3 8×14 9×7 10×2 |
Barrels and clothing fall away in one direction. Every Pisces and Aries figure has a container; Taurus keeps them on one page and loses them on the other; Gemini has three standing on barrels; after Gemini there is one tub in all of Virgo and nothing else. Clothing follows the same line — 16 clothed in Aries, 12 in Taurus, 4 in Gemini, none at all from Cancer onward.
The light page of each doubled sign is the clothed and painted one; the dark page is the bare one.
The fiveFigures that hold no star
The five nymphs drawn without a star
| Figure | Ring | Clock | Label | As recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 13 | second ring | 04:00 | otair,dy | HOLDS NO STAR: no star is drawn for this figure and no second arm; checked at high contrast. Drawn smaller than her neighbours. Legs crossed at the sh |
| Cancer 10 | outer | 07:00 | ofsholdy | NO STAR and no tail: the only outer-ring figure without one; the label stands where the star would be; raised crease in the vellum above the head |
| Cancer 18 | middle | 03:30 | of???.o.eeesaly | NO STAR and no tail; lower body crossed by the fold, legs plain lines; a crack in the vellum runs down just to the right; the label is split either si |
| Virgo 22 | inner | 01:00 | opalg | HOLDS NO STAR: both arms are down and no star is drawn for this figure; the star at her left belongs to the raised arm of figure 21, and the next star |
| Sagittarius 18 | Outer full circle of labels | 07:30 | okeos | NO STAR: the space between figures 18 and 19, where her star would stand, is blank vellum (checked at 4x with raised contrast). Small green paint drop |
Taking a figure as one degree of the Sun's path, these five are the reading's anchor: in 1408 Gemini 13 falls on the new Moon and Virgo 22 on the full. Worked on The Sky.
The fourCrowned figures
| Figure | Ring | Clock | Label | Head, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cancer 27 | inner | 03:30 | ytoar.shar | crown: four tall points, drawn in darker ink than the figure |
| Leo 24 | inner | 03:00 | odairan | crown (an open crown with points, painted red) |
| Libra 7 | outer | 00:30 | oees | crown: three points, an arch over them and a small cross on top, all in darker black ink |
| Scorpio 14 | outer | 05:30 | oteedyy | crown: black-ink circlet with a scalloped or arched upper edge |
One per page where a crown appears at all. The gaps between them are not a whole number of lunar months in either direction, so the crowns do not mark a phase.
Star pointsThe whole distribution
| Points | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | not counted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stars | 2 | 25 | 114 | 101 | 24 | 5 | 1 | 27 |
Six-pointed stars are commonest in Pisces; eight-pointed stars grow from Taurus onward, and Virgo is almost entirely eights. Sagittarius carries the most points of any page.
all_299_figures.json — merged from twelve per-page tables
images Beinecke MS 408, Yale IIIF service