#
# Identification:
#
#   * Title: "T-O Map and Garden of Eden"
#   * Page: f86v3 = NL (Rene) = p176 (Stolfi)
#   * Folio: f86
#   * Panels: f86v3
#   * Bifolio: bN1 = f85+f86
#   * Quire: N (Rene) = XIV (Beinecke)
#
#   Newbold plate VII, calls it f86v
#   SciAm
#   Brumbaugh p54, calls it f85r
#   Same as or includes page 174?
#
#   This is the back side of the bottom center panel of a 12-panel fold-out.
#   The bottom side of the panel is a folio edge.
#   The top side of the panel is the horizontal crease.
#   The left side of the panel is a vertical ridge crease.
#   The right side of the panel is the binding gutter.
#
# Attributes:
#
#   * Language: B (Currier)
#   * Hand: 3 (Currier)
#   * Subsets: C (Rene), cos (Stolfi)
#   * Subject: cosmological
#   * Colors: ??? (Reeds)
#
# Description:
#
#   Gathering mark 14.
#
#   Text and drawing take up most of the page, right up to the 
#   edges, except for some white space left in the middle.
#
#   Four tapering, densely decorated "biological" structures
#   grow from the four corners of the page towards the center.
#
#   Between these structures there are four paragraphs of normal-looking text,
#   right next to the respective edge, to be read clockwise.
#   In the rectangular area bounded by them, there are two more
#   paragraphs, interrupted by part of the Northwest structure.
#
#   At the very center of the page, below the two extra paragraphs, there is
#   a mechanically drawn "T-O map"---a circle cut into three sectors
#   by a diameter (from 09:30 to 03:30) and a perpendicular radius (at 00:30).
#
#   At the left of the T-O map, and partly over it, there is a faint
#   irregular (pencil?) scribble, mostly illegible, resembling a young
#   child's scrawl. With some imagination, the first row can be read as
#   two EVA <l> (larger than normal), a latin "n" with acute accent, and
#   a latin "F"; below them is an EVA <s>, with very dark <c> and
#   lighter plume. But none of these readings can be considered
#   significant.
#
#   In the structure descriptions that follow, "up" means towards
#   the center of the page, "down" means towards its corner, 
#   "left" is clockwise and "right" is counter-clockwise.
#
#   The Northeast structure looks like a chalyx with thick stem, covered
#   with rounded, upward-pointing scales (or close-packed leaves). From
#   its hollow there comes forth a converging bundle of lines, like a
#   strong water jet (or a bundle of stalks). Halfway though the "jet"
#   but in front of it there is a bird with outspread wings. The "jet"
#   ends bruptly after a short distance, to be replaced by a dotted band
#   (dust? droplets? seeds?).
#
#   The Southeast structure has the shape of a light bulb, with the
#   narrow end pointing up . The base (wider end) is wrapped in a
#   leaf-like chalyx. The bulb is decorated with several bands of knobs,
#   hatchings, and upwards-growing scales. The narrow end (nearest to
#   the center of the page) ends in a hole with dotted lip. Coming out
#   from the hole we see the head of another bird, with its ouspread
#   wings partly visible, and three curved "stalks" carrying three
#   corncob-like objects.
#
#   The Southwest structure has a base that looks like a flattened
#   flower, whose petals are made of thick riveted metal plate. On top
#   of that "flower" there are three similar "stages", each smaller than
#   the previous one. Each "stage" looks like a ribbed stalk, short and
#   broad, ending with a multilobed sleeve which holds a heap of round
#   objects with dots at their centers. From the third stage there grows
#   a short "jet" (or a fourth ribbed stalk) that opens out into a 
#   funnel or corolla with serrated borders.  The right half of this 
#   funnel is dotted.
#
#   The Northwest structure looks like a wide and short cylindrical base
#   with a band of scales or flaps around its top part, pointing down.
#   On top of this base is a short conical dome covered with scales or
#   leaves. Each scale has a dot. From the very tip of the dome there
#   sprouts a divergent bundle of lines that ends with a cloud of dots,
#   like a water jet.
#
#   Behind the Northwest structure there is a human figure with light
#   long hair, probably a woman. Only her head and hand are visible,
#   just to the right of the "water jet".
#
#   Behind the Southwest structure there is another human figure with
#   short dark hair, probably a man. Only his right arm, part of his
#   breast, and half of his face are visible, on the left side of the
#   structure.
#
#   The man's right hand seems to be holding a short tube, pointed
#   towards the woman. Issuing from it is a short jet of dots that ends
#   abruptly after a couple of feet. (The man may also be throwing
#   things at the woman, and the "tube" could then be the motion traces.)
#   Stolfi [???] sees a similar jet issuing from the woman's hand 
#   towards the man, faded almost to invisibility.
#
# Comments:
#
#   Michael Roe [1] and others have observed that the drawing may
#   represent the Adam and Eve, the Tree of Knowledge, and the four
#   rivers out of Eden. However there are four "trees" in the picture,
#   only three of them with flows, and they are pouring *into* the
#   page. The inverted T-O diagram, the nestling birds, and the jets
#   between man and woman have no obvious relation to the Biblical
#   story.
#
# References:
#
#   [1] Michel Roe's Voynich site, page about illustrations.
#   http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/mrr/voynich/illustrations.html
#
# Last edited on 1999-04-16 15:39:40 by stolfi