That's a very interesting page, mr Tentakulus.
I'm viewing on my phone and can't quite make out the text. Can anyone see why the oak with vine is on this page?
From the same manuscript Aga posted:
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
The curly tailed creature is a crocodile.
I thought this imagery in a 14th-century English vestment was quite interesting because the oak tree itself is crafted as a double helix, a combination of oak and the shape of vines:
[attachment=3661]
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain
What I noticed, as I looked at these vestments is that the 14th-century English vestment shares many design features with this Spanish vestment said to be from the 13th century. If you look at the figures, the overall design, the way the demons are drawn, and the double-helix framing the images, there are clear similarities. But the Daroca cope does not explicitly add oak leaves and acorns to the double-helix:
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
I tried this page yesterday, it brings "flower of Colocynth Ivy".
By coincidence I came across this woodcut, where the vine very explicitly passes right through a hole in the tree.
[
attachment=5585]
Unfortunately it is without any reference, and I have not been able to find a source by image searching. You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
(11-06-2021, 01:26 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Unfortunately it is without any reference, and I have not been able to find a source by image searching. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Found with tineye.com:
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
Has anyone ever looked into the source of those wooodcuts?
The mentioned image is from the workshop of Peter Drach and was made in 1493, too late to be a source for the VM.
I have looked into the history of
Opus Ruralium Commodorum, and it appears only from the very late 15th century onwards, prints featured woodcuts with such illustrations.
Quote:Illustrations
Manuscript copies of Ruralia Commoda were popular (over 100 copies are known), making it an excellent candidate for the new technology of printing. The editio princeps appeared in 1471: in Latin, un-illustrated, it was printed by Johann Schüssler of Augsburg. Another 36 incunable editions exist, most printed in Germany. Peter Drach of Speyer printed a German-language edition in 1493; this edition has 234 woodcuts. Drach's workshop (one of the period's most prominent) also printed a Latin edition that utilized the same woodcuts, and the Library of the Arnold Arboretum's incunable was part of that edition (similar copies exist in the Royal Collection and in the library of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden). The text is arranged in two columns throughout, and blank spaces have been left at the beginning of each chapter for an initial (in the Library of the Arnold Arboretum's copy a previous owner has added the first few initials of Book 1 by hand).
Arnold Klebs describes the plentiful woodcuts - they occur at the beginning of most of the chapters - as "the most remarkable group of middle Rhenish woodcutting in the 15th century." Dating of the illustrated Latin edition is difficult: did it precede or follow the German edition of 1493? Anderson prefers the Latin version to antedate the German version. But the Latin version has more woodcuts (primarily in Book 10, on hunting, fishing, and falconry), which may indicate that it post-dates the German.
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
The earlier hand-written copies apparently only featured a few decorative illustrations, like You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
Apparently what we see in the woodcut is the ancestral form of viticulture dating back to antiquity - to
'marry the vine to a tree'.
Quote:The Etruscans grew vines in the same way they saw these plants growing wild in the forests. The vine is a climbing shrub, a type of vine. In a forest, its natural habitat in our latitudes, it tends to climb up a tree to reach the light as best it can (it is a very heliophilic species or in other words they need a lot of light). However, it is not a parasite: the vine does not weaken the tree to which it clings.
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
The image of the vine married to the tree was also used as a metaphor for unbreakable love of friendship.
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
However why the vine actually penetrates the tree eludes me and I haven't found other illustrations aside from Peter Drach's woodcut of 1493
This is pretty interesting. So if the VM image somehow refers to the cultivation of vines, it possibly refers to medieval practice, but then likely in Italy
We would probably not expect an oak - a prunable tree with shallow roots is preferred to give more resources to the vine. Also I haven't seen any mention of oak. One alternative is fig, which may have somewhat oak-like leaves, but that's a stretch.
I also haven't seen any reference to the tree being pierced. It must be much simpler and safer to tie the vine to the tree with whatever rope you have available. However, it does appear that the "vine on tree" motif had a strong potential for metaphor. In the case of the woodcut, there may be the idea of a ring (marriage). Or it may refer to the consummation of said marriage. Or it may simply reinforce the thought of an unbreakable bond, both parts of the union becoming one.
It's not unlikely that some kind of plant symbolism underlies the Voynich drawing, given the bizarre shape of the root structure.
I wonder if we can somehow find medieval images of the agricultural practice of growing grapes on living trees instead of dead supports. If it exists anywhere, then probably something like Italian "labors of the month".
In Tacuinum Sanitatis BNF Lat.9333, vines appear to grow on trees with red fruits. It's one of the first illustrations in the book.
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.#
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
[
attachment=9570]