Different pages have been posted for discussion. White Aries is certainly interesting for a number of reasons. It has a depth that has not been recognized. Because, to be recognized, something must first be known. And when it is not widely known, over the passing of the centuries, it can not be easily recognized, still history is history.
For those of the VMs era, certain parts of history were more immediate and widely known. The VMs, in its chosen fashion, combines two methods of obfuscation on White Aries to disguise heraldic identifications. Even though visual similarities have been diminished, structural requirements remain and have been reinforced, color requirements remain. It's blue. Pattern requirements remain. Traditional requirements remain. Historical facts remain.
This page should be a focal point of VMs discussion.
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Thanks for all the great views. Now, the question is, what is there to be seen? And not to look at it so much from a modern analytical perspective, rather to try, to the extent possible, to see the illustration from the perspective of a person contemporary with the C-14 dates.
It must be acknowledged that the VMs creator(s) had an 'interesting' set of skills and talents. That such a person may or must have been well-educated. That much of education at this time was still the province of the Catholic church. And much of history also included the history of the church.
If such a person - or a person with some of the equivalent knowledge - looks at the White Aries illustration, then is there something to be recognized by the benefit of this knowledge, that would not be discovered otherwise? Does a person knowing the origins and heraldry of the cardinal's red galero in church tradition, on examining the 'nymphs' of the White Aries page, fail to respond to the Genoese gambit hidden in the illustration? One has to wonder what is going on with the red hats and blue stripes, and a bit of focused investigation helps to clear things up. The disguise in intentional. Therefore, deception is intentional.
White Aries is exceptional. It is the *best* painted folio in the whole of the VMs Zodiac. Is there a reason for that? Who has been placed among the nymphs? You know Lady Bertilak? And this fellow whose fess has been couped? It's just a little inside joke. What's with the blue stripes and the red and the white hats? Clearly there is a path of historical origin regarding church tradition and ecclesiastical heraldry, specifically the cardinal's red galero, as an ongoing tradition instituted by Pope Innocent IV. c.1245. And this was Sinibaldo Fieschi, a Genoese who, among other things, had a coat-of-arms, not like the modern era where armorial patterns have been given to all popes. The Fieschi blazon is bendy, argent et azur.
It is clear, with this knowledge, that the representation of the orientation the blue stripes is intentionally dualistic. There is the natural tendency to see the characters and patterns in the radial interpretation. However heraldry of either pattern provides nothing further. On the other hand, interpreting the orientation of the blue stripes as they exist in situ, with everything else removed, provides a deep and immediate connection to church history. These patterns are paired. The thread of heraldry and the thread of pairing, that begin on VMs Pisces, are tied together here.
There are two characters associated with the striped patterns. The inner one wears a red hat. This occurred historically at least three time as Pope Innocent IV. made several of his nephews to be cardinals in the church. The most noted of the nephews was Ottobuono Fieschi.
Orientation of the blue stripes is only the first consideration; there is all the extra inkwork that occupies the space where a blue and white striped pattern should be white. And it's not. Is 1450 to soon to start hatching? How should these markings be interpreted? They are a hybrid where no hybrid examples exist. Should the markings be interpreted at all? No. The reader must know heraldry. Heraldry does not mix tincture designation systems. They must be separated.
Two methods used combine to confuse and disguise. Other methods of interpretation have been placed in defense. Both pope and cardinal are in the proper hierarchical spheres. Both were placed in the most favored heraldic quadrant. Both members of the church have been placed with the only white animal suitable for sacred sacrifice. Where Aries normally starts the Zodiac, VMs White Aries is the third medallion.
The special painting of VMs White Aries has two reasons. With the blue stripes being essential, they can be disguised by being included with a lot of other painting and painted objects. And secondly, with the need to emphasize the 'white' animal, painting everything else makes the unpainted things appear more white. Sacred and unpainted just don't have the same connection.
And by the way, Ottobuono is also of interest, he was papal legate to England. He may have known 'argent, a fess gules', Thomas de Kent, or argent, three chevrons sable, Otto the Archdeacon. Apparently he also knew Roger Bacon. As it turned out, Ottobuono did make Pope, very briefly, as Adrian V.
And further investigation within the VMs may discover the presence (on Pisces and Dark Aries) of two examples of the obscure heraldic fur known as papelonny. Once the placement of these named patters, in quadrant and in sphere, which is seen to correspond with the blue-striped patterns of White Aries has been determined and the verbal similarity between papelonny and the French term for 'pope', which is 'pape', has been shown, (both really were actual, historical popes), it should be clear that this whole situation was built into the illustration. It matches history too well to be uninfluenced by relevant events and traditions.
R. Sale, have you investigated other members of the Fieschi family? Like e.g. Alagiaor or Catherine of Genoa? I dont have specific clues why it should be one of those, it is really just an example but one is mentioned in the divine comedy and the other was beatified (albeit quite a lot after the supposed VMS timeframe).
Or did you stick to the ones you could link to the hats and/or papelonny-pun?
I have run into further information about other historical members of the Fieschi family, but didn't have a reason to connect it with the VMs.
As I see it, it is the red hat and the blue stripes that link to the period of Catholic history under Pope Innocent IV. And in the VMs, it is the discovery, recognition, whatever you want to call it - of that link with history that is important. In a text of strange and exotic content, having some sort of historical grounding is a surprising discovery.
Blue stripes and and a red hat on a single VMs nymph is about as clear as is visually possible. Yet the whole manner of presentation is obfuscated rather than exhibitory. The use of the Fieschi information is not so much topical - about the Fieschi family - as it is fortuitously functional. It concerns physical facts and traditional events rather than anything too ideological. Fieschi heraldry is plain and basic enough to be hidden, it is early and valid, not later and added, and it is paired in the line of papal succession.
The purpose is to establish a historical grounding, intentionally disguised, but traditionally validated. The apparent intent is to pass the significance of that historical validation on to the physically connected, (also paired) Stolfi's markers, and thus to the associated circular bands of text - ostensibly for the purpose of communication - but, hey, who knows?