The zodiac pages are the easy celebrities of the Voynich Manuscript.
Two fish look like Pisces.
A ram looks like Aries.
A bull looks like Taurus.
For once, the manuscript seems to give us an external anchor.
Then we turn a few folios and the circles remain while the anchors disappear.
Stars multiply.
Faces appear inside suns or moons.
Writing runs around rings.
Concentric bands divide the page.
Radial structures suggest cycles, sectors or directions.
And suddenly even scholars disagree about whether a page is better called astronomical or cosmological.
This is exactly why these pages deserve their own owner: the geometry is clearer than the subject.
Quick Read
- The Voynich Manuscript contains circular celestial-looking diagrams beyond the twelve familiar zodiac pages.
- Researchers commonly classify folios around 67 and 68 as astronomical, while several neighbouring circular pages are called cosmological.
- The distinction is provisional because some diagrams combine stars, faces, rings, sectors and abstract geometry in ways that fit more than one historical genre.
- Recognisable zodiac symbols provide stronger external anchors than most non-zodiac circular diagrams.
- Sun-like and moon-like faces, star fields and concentric structures suggest celestial organisation but do not identify every object or function.
- Radial text and circular writing imply that spatial position may carry information.
- Counts, symmetry, centre-periphery relationships and connections should be studied before modern names are assigned.
- The Rosettes foldout belongs to the broader cosmological-looking world but already has its own dedicated article because its topology is exceptional.
- The safest conclusion is that Voynich uses circular geometry as a serious information architecture, not merely decorative framing.
Why Circles Matter
A circle is one of the most efficient information structures humans have ever used.
It can represent repetition.
Return.
Hierarchy.
Inclusion.
Cycles.
Directions.
Degrees.
Time.
Cosmos.
Memory.
A circle has no natural first line in the way a paragraph does.
That changes reading.
A modern transcription usually linearises text. A circular diagram can make that choice interpretive rather than neutral.
If labels were intended to be read clockwise, anti-clockwise, inward, outward, sector by sector or in relation to a centre, flattening them into a list can erase part of the information architecture.
Astronomical, Astrological and Cosmological Are Different Words
Modern readers often blend these categories because all involve the sky.
Historically, however, they can point toward different jobs.
Astronomical
Concerned with celestial bodies, positions, motions, cycles or observational models.
Astrological
Concerned with relationships between celestial configurations and earthly or human affairs.
Cosmological
Concerned more broadly with the structure or ordering of the world or cosmos.
A single medieval diagram can participate in more than one of these categories.
That is why classification becomes slippery precisely where the diagrams become most interesting.
Folio 67: A Page Family That Refuses One Easy Name
Folio 67 contains several circular arrangements that researchers usually place in the astronomical/cosmological transition zone.
Some surfaces show radial sectors, central faces or celestial-looking bodies. Text can run in rings, around margins or inside sectors.
The strongest first questions are not:
Which planet is this?
They are:
- How many sectors?
- What occupies the centre?
- Which rings carry text?
- Which rings carry stars or faces?
- Does the text orientation change?
- Are repeated glyph families concentrated in repeated positions?
- Does one sector differ systematically from its neighbours?
Those questions remain meaningful even if every astronomical identification changes tomorrow.
Folio 68: Stars Without a Comfortable Modern Caption
Folio 68 contains some of the manuscript’s most visually persuasive star-field material.
There are circular structures, star-like marks, central or peripheral faces and dense arrangements that naturally invite the sky.
But “star chart” is still a functional claim.
A page can depict stars while organising them for:
- astronomical reference;
- astrological calculation;
- calendar structure;
- medical timing;
- mnemonic organisation;
- cosmological teaching;
- or another classificatory purpose.
The celestial category may be strong while the operational purpose remains open.
When a Sun Has a Face
Human-faced suns and moons are familiar visual devices in medieval and early modern manuscripts.
They turn an astronomical object into an icon.
That helps recognition.
It does not mean the object is literally a person.
This matters because Voynich uses human figures elsewhere too.
A face can function as:
- personification;
- identifying icon;
- mnemonic device;
- celestial body marker;
- decorative convention.
The same broad human form can therefore carry different jobs across the manuscript.
Counts Are Tempting Because They Feel Like Keys
A circle divided into twelve sectors invites months or zodiac signs.
Thirty figures invite days.
Seven units invite planets or weekdays.
Four invite elements, seasons or directions.
Numbers are powerful because historical systems really did use them.
They are dangerous because many systems use the same numbers.
Twelve can mean months, zodiac signs, hours, apostles or another ordered set.
Therefore a count becomes identifying evidence only when surrounding structure also agrees.
A number is a constraint, not a noun.
The Boundary Between Astronomy and Cosmology Is Itself Evidence
René Zandbergen’s research-oriented classification explicitly notes that some pages are difficult to place cleanly between astronomical and cosmological groups.
That ambiguity should not annoy us.
It should teach us something.
Our modern categories may divide one medieval visual language into several subjects that were not separate for its makers.
A diagram of celestial order can simultaneously be:
- a model of the sky;
- a model of time;
- a model of influence;
- a model of the human body’s relation to the heavens;
- a model of world order.
Medieval intellectual life did not owe us modern disciplinary purity.
Why the Zodiac Still Matters Even When We Leave It
The zodiac sequence provides a control.
There, recognisable external iconography gives us relatively strong semantic anchors.
We can compare how circular text behaves on zodiac pages with how it behaves on non-zodiac circles.
Do similar labels occur?
Do the same glyph families occupy ring positions?
Does Currier type change?
Does line orientation change?
Does a known zodiacal context help us infer what the diagrammatic grammar is doing elsewhere?
This is more promising than pretending every circle is already decoded.
See The Zodiac Pages.
Rosettes Is the Extreme Case, Not the Whole Category
The Rosettes foldout is so visually spectacular that it can swallow the cosmological conversation.
It should not.
The nine-rosette network deserves a separate article because its geometry is exceptional.
But other cosmological-looking pages are valuable precisely because they show the manuscript using circular organisation without the same nine-region topology.
That lets us ask which design principles are Rosettes-specific and which belong to the wider manuscript.
See The Rosettes Foldout.
Circular Text Is a Transcription Problem
A modern corpus wants rows.
A medieval diagram may want rings.
When a transcription project converts circular writing into a linear sequence, somebody must choose:
- where the sequence begins;
- which direction it runs;
- how sectors are ordered;
- whether inner and outer rings are linked;
- how labels are associated with nearby figures.
Those choices can alter statistical adjacency.
This does not make transcription useless.
It means the geometry should remain recoverable alongside the text.
See EVA, Transcription and the Segmentation Problem.
Could These Be Calendars?
Some diagrams may have calendrical functions.
Cycles, sectors, repeated counts and zodiacal context make calendars historically plausible.
But a calendar hypothesis should make specific predictions.
- counts should align with calendrical units;
- ordering should behave consistently;
- exceptions should be explicable;
- labels should recur in expected ways;
- related pages should preserve compatible structure.
“Circular and repetitive” is compatible with a calendar.
It does not uniquely identify one.
Could These Be Astronomical Tables?
Again, possible.
Historical astronomical manuscripts use diagrams to represent positions, motions, spheres and relationships.
A strong astronomical-table interpretation would need to explain:
- what the units correspond to;
- why particular counts appear;
- how labels relate to celestial bodies or positions;
- whether geometry encodes measurable relationships;
- why some diagrams differ sharply from neighbouring ones.
The visual atmosphere of astronomy is not yet an astronomical model.
Could These Be Medical-Astrological?
Medieval medicine often interacted with astrology.
Timing could matter for bloodletting, regimen or treatment.
Zodiacal correspondences could organise parts of the body.
Therefore a manuscript containing plants, bodies and celestial diagrams is historically compatible with a medical-astrological environment.
But compatibility is not identity.
We still need internal evidence connecting those page families.
Could These Be Memory Diagrams?
Circular and spatial diagrams can support memory because they give information stable places.
A centre, ring, sector or repeated star can function as a retrieval cue.
This possibility is especially attractive when labels are short and spatially attached.
But a mnemonic hypothesis must still explain repeatable spatial logic rather than merely saying “medieval people used memory systems”.
Geometry Before Geography, Astronomy Before Astrology, Structure Before Story
The best sequence for these pages is:
- describe the geometry;
- count repeated units;
- record orientation;
- map labels;
- compare neighbouring diagrams;
- compare known historical diagram traditions;
- only then assign function.
The sequence matters because once the page is named “a star chart”, every ring becomes astronomical evidence.
Description keeps alternatives alive long enough for the manuscript to discriminate among them.
Primary School: What Does a Circle Let You Do?
Ask a child to arrange twelve cards in a line, then in a circle.
In the line, one card is first and one is last.
In the circle, every card has neighbours and the sequence can repeat.
The child has just learned why page geometry can carry information.
Secondary School: Compare Three Circular Diagrams
Record:
- number of rings;
- number of sectors;
- centre object;
- outer markers;
- text orientation;
- repeated symbols;
- symmetry.
Then ask whether the three diagrams belong to one family or three.
The exercise teaches classification without pretending to decipher.
Reader Checklist: Before You Call a Voynich Circle a Star Chart
- What exactly is circular?
- How many rings?
- How many repeated units?
- What occupies the centre?
- Are there recognisable celestial icons?
- How is text oriented?
- Where would reading begin?
- Does the count uniquely fit an astronomical system?
- Could the same geometry support calendar, medicine, memory or cosmology?
- Does another folio use the same structure?
- Does a proposed interpretation predict anything elsewhere?
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there astronomical pages besides the zodiac?
Yes. Researchers classify several non-zodiac circular diagrams, especially around folios 67 and 68, as astronomical.
What makes a page cosmological?
The label is generally used for more abstract circular or world-structure diagrams that do not fit a straightforward astronomical category. The classification remains descriptive and sometimes uncertain.
Are the stars real constellations?
No complete identification of the non-zodiac star fields with a modern constellation map has been established. Star-like imagery supports celestial comparison without automatically fixing individual identities.
Are the circles calendars?
Some may have calendrical functions, but circularity and repeated counts alone are not sufficient to prove that job.
Why separate this article from the Zodiac Pages?
The zodiac pages have recognisable external iconographic anchors. The non-zodiac circular pages are more ambiguous and therefore require a geometry-first method rather than starting from known signs.
Research Foundations
- René Zandbergen — Voynich illustrations and astronomical/cosmological classification
- Yale Beinecke Library — Voynich Manuscript
- Voynich — eduKateSG Master Article
The Final Idea
The non-zodiac circular pages are important precisely because they resist easy naming.
They show that Voynich’s makers could build information through rings, sectors, centres, repeated stars and spatial text without giving modern readers a familiar emblem at the centre.
That is not failure.
It is a better research object.
Before we ask which sky the diagram depicts, we should understand what the diagram knows how to do.