Since vetted threads have yet to sprout, perhaps there are things that the VMs artist clearly needed to know in order to draw the illustrations found in the VMs today. What did this person know and see and transcribe in this text?
Feel free to contribute:
I'll lead off with heraldry: Heraldry was significant throughout the golden age of Burgundy. The jousts at Arras were historical. VMs heraldry is limited, subtle and disguised. It can barely be seen on the bathing tubs of VMs Pisces and the two Aries pages. A more specific and conclusive example can be seen through the identification of the nebuly line. The VMs artist's knowledge of the nebuly line is demonstrated by its use in the VMs Cosmos. The nebuly line is a cosmic boundary. It's all part of Social Media 1435 > of the years c. 1435.
Provenance of the Oresme cosmos is to the library of Jean, Duc du Berry (d. 1416). And one of the best examples of a nebuly line as a cosmic boundary in historical images is in the Berry Apocalypse, also belonging to the same duke. Of course, the books survived.
What else might the VMs artist have known? <<And skillfully have misrepresented in these illustrations.>>
I think this is a very interesting question that deserves a bit of careful thought.
Obviously the scribe needed to know latin scripts and abbreviations.
He needed to know the basics of scribal work - and how to cut nibs, and how to make ink, etc.
And I think he needed to know the herbal traditions of his time.
But I'm still trying to formulate an answer to the way you have phrased the question..
In answer to the last, I wanted it to be short enough not to get cut off. The VMs author knew WHAT?!?
So, yes, it is a basic fact that the 'author / artist' or scribe needed to know the necessary skills for the task. That would apply in any potential timeline. At the same time, there is a certain lack of scribal precision, The person was clearly a writer, not necessarily at a professional level, perhaps.
The VMs gives the appearance of possessing herbal information. A lot of work has been done trying to match VMs illustrations to known medieval examples. Even in examples of successful matching, what is learned from the VMs? Which historical herbal text has the best similarity to the VMs in artistic representation, plant selection, plant sequence? The problem here, at least as it seems to me, is that herbal investigations don't go anywhere. Succeed or not, take a look at the next one. It sort of seems to function like a heat sink. A lot of investigative interest has gone into herbal investigations, almost from the very start, and...........
One might ask if the illustrations of the herbal section are only a distraction. Though one does need some basic knowledge to create a good distraction.
The ability to write in the VMs C-14 era indicates a person of some education, ability, and advantaged position in a religious and/ or political capacity. Someone in a place to have some knowledge of historical events and *potentially* even access to what we call historical documents. What does the VMs creator know about the various items and events that have been proposed as potential sources of certain VMs representations; the cosmos, the mermaid, and so on and what does this say about the person who made the VMs and about that person's familiarity with what would pass for the 'social media" knowledge during the C-14 time span?
A short heraldic definition and a bit of etymology explain the nebuly line and its function as a cosmic boundary - like a plant ID. Placing this line in the VMs cosmos shows the artist's familiarity with this element and potentially with a source, BNF Fr. 565 fol. 23. The nebuly line is much used in Quire 13, with some ambiguous interpretation. Does the application and interpretation also hold for the VMs critter (f80v)? What animal can be associated with a cosmic boundary? BNF Fr. 13096 f. 18.
The VMs uses combined images, inserts a representation of Melusine in place of the generic mermaid among the sea monsters. This trick creates a gate that requires two keys. The VMs uses an optical distraction with obfuscation to hide historical heraldry. And it uses heraldic canting to identify historical figures. What the VMs author knew was sufficient to create these curious references to events of the C-14 era; the investigator needs the same familiarity to ferret them out. We need to know what the VMs maker knew.
If we assume only one scribe.... then he/she needed to know a whole lot of stuff.
If we take the approach that it was made by more than one scribe, the knowledge base may be decentralized.
Decentralized systems are more resilient to attack and failure.
so one theory is it is a group of clever renaissance people who get together and made it together.
another theory is its just a lone genius who knew alot of information.
if we take the lone genius theory, even such a master as Leonardo DaVinci may not have known some information in the VMS.
so he might've phoned a friend. or went and asked someobody at the local university.
but there was possibly at least one genius with the capability to know all of such information at the time...?
The thread topic probably lacks a word, like "author". I like to think of the "mind behind the MS" and we don't know how much of the writing / drawing this person did. I trust the expert opinion that there were several scribes.
Apart from these details, the question is a very relevant one.
In the past, there have been some attempts to describe an "author profile", but without much impact.
To decide what the author ("mind behind the MS") knew, one has to distinguish between "accepted views" and individual hypotheses.
The observation that one (out of many) geometrical pattern on the Zodiac tubs matches one (out of many) heraldic pattern is not sufficient for me, to draw any conclusion.
The layout of the herbal pages, on the other hand, clearly shows familiarity with existing herbal manuscripts.
The zodiac drawings clearly show familiarity with zodiac representations.
We can probably also assume familiarity with 15th century written documents in general. These were not just people who learned how to write, got some parchment and started doing their thing. They emulate certain features of manuscripts and other documents that were current at the time. For example, larger ascenders at the top line.
Other common features like ruling and boxed images are missing, but of course we cannot with certainty attribute this to lack of knowledge.
There is ruling in 67r2, so they definitely did know about that.
We know a lot moe about the author, he must have been able to speak Latin and German, he must have passed the artes curriculum, he likely operated in or around an Italian university, he likely studied medicine and I suspect we ould be sure of some other things. And you an believe in the multiple scribes theory , but it will only lead you up the garden path.
Assuming one scribe penned the whole MS is one thing (and becoming increasingly hard to defend). Insisting that a main text scribe must also have written the German marginalia is quite another.
Rene,
I like the idea of 'the mind (or minds) behind the VMs'. That is exactly what we seek to understand.
However the statement below is problematic.
"
The observation that one (out of many) geometrical pattern on the Zodiac tubs matches one (out of many) heraldic pattern is not sufficient for me, to draw any conclusion"
This only reveals a lack of familiarity with the topic of heraldry or a failure to adequately examine the Pisces and Aries pages.
Alternating vertical stripes resemble a paly pattern. Horizontal stripes equate with a barry pattern, Diagonal stripes match a bendy pattern - both regular and sinister. Chevrons are clearly heraldic. Other patterns resemble a semy of roundels (circles) or a semy of annulets (rings). The scale-like patterns match the heraldic fur, papelonny. And there are examples that correspond to the representation of an engrailed chief. It is also true that examples of a single tincture are valid heraldic representations, a pattern called 'plain', the solid blue or green examples of You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. - and by extension, solid silver. [Silver = white; white = unpainted - but that's pushing it a bit.] Even the representation of the short red bar is an example of a fess couped.
It is true that some examples remain unidentified. My explanation is this. After the introduction of armorial heraldic patterns at the top of VMs Pisces, and confirming that connection with the chevron pattern at 3' o'clock, subsequent patterns become more ambiguous and undefined. The purpose of this is first to initiate the topic and then to introduce doubt and make it appear that the artist is not well acquainted with heraldic patterns, that similarities are coincidental, that continued investigation is not likely to be productive. In other words: "Nothing to see here, move along." Only after this, only if the investigator persists, can the papelonny pattern be discovered. The difficulty of this discover (the modern rediscovery) is further compounded by the omission of this traditional fur from many 'internet' references. The use and the placement of this pattern on Pisces and Dark Aries, is one of the hidden keys to the VMs. Hidden when the investigator is familiar with the elements being used, *a lot more hidden* when familiarity is absent. The papelonny patterns are positioned so that they correspond, in quadrant and in sphere, with the two blue-striped patterns of White Aries. The purpose of this construction is confirmed through heraldic canting of the terms 'pape' (pope) and 'papelonny'. The construction exists! It is either intentional or pointless. Even if it is pointless, the identification is further confirmed by other heraldic, hierarchical, and religious factors present in the illustration.
Seeing only one geometrical pattern is just the start.