The zodiac section of the Voynich Manuscript (f70v–f73v) has been interpreted primarily as a calendar or astrological illustration series. We present a systematic structural analysis of the zodiac section's figure organization that identifies five convergent discriminating features inconsistent with the strong-uniformity null hypothesis that all zodiac nymph figures are decoratively identical. (1) The same zodiac sign (Aries, Taurus) is rendered in two structurally distinct registers: a detailed colored version (LIGHT) and a minimal faint version (DARK), with figure differentiation concentrated in the LIGHT version. (2) Nymph figures holding cylindrical barrel-shaped containers appear exclusively in Aries LIGHT (f71r) and Taurus LIGHT panels — the container holder format is sign-specific and absent from all other zodiac panels and from the balneological section. (3) Across four of the zodiac wheels examined (f70v2, f71r, f73r, f73v), 3–5 nymph figures consistently appear at an elevated position (11:00–1:00 clock position) at larger scale than the ring-figure majority. (4) The cross-section anchor token `otedy`, which links the herbal interior folios (f48v, f43v, f34r), the balneological preparation index (f76r), and the balneological section to the zodiac section, resolves not to a folio or zone but to a specific labeled nymph figure at the 9:30 clock position on the Sagittarius wheel (f73v.23), consistent with figure-level cross-referencing between manuscript sections. (5) The Sagittarius wheel (f73v) is the only zodiac wheel in the section with a clothed figure at its center; all other zodiac wheels display animals or unclothed figures at center. Lattice analysis additionally shows that all four observed `otedy` occurrences in the zodiac sweep fall in the Cancer–Scorpio–Sagittarius range (zero occurrences in Pisces through Gemini sub-folios; one each in Cancer/f72v1 and Scorpio/f73r; two in Sagittarius/f73v); concentration vs. a uniform-null bootstrap has not been formally tested at this n. The substrate comparator for the zodiac section peaks at f72v1 (Wellcome b19672676:p0014, score 0.341). The Pal.lat.1373 codex is a witness within the Prosdocimo de Beldomandi textual tradition and is present in the substrate as a related manuscript. These five convergent structural features falsify the strong-uniformity null hypothesis; the broader encoding-grade null — that the differentiation reflects constitution-archetype encoding rather than other structured but non-typological variation — remains open. Per-figure mansion assignment is the next-step target, pending a tradition comparator with labeled constellation-figure typology in a similar visual register. Zodiac architecture (substrate-corrected, 2026-06-11; confidence-tier split): The VMS zodiac is a 10-sign architecture paired with a lunar 15 / 30 / 29 nymph-count distribution per the substrate-current findings, at explicitly distinct confidence tiers: the 10-sign architectural count is substrate-Supported (F-152); the lunar 15/30/29 nymph-count distribution is substrate-Candidate (F-160); the Picatrix-decan 10-per-decan arithmetic reading is substrate-Falsified (F-156), independently of the present paper.
Honeycutt, Edwin Marshall, III (Thu,) studied this question.