Regarding the interpretation of certain VMs illustrations as having protential religious connections, this is a collection of items for further examination and possible recognition of their religious denotations and connotations.
Obviously, the recent discussions of the VMs Rosettes and the vision of New Jerusalem.
Clearly crosses are a symbol with religious interpretation.
Rainbows were a symbol with religious interpretation. Rainbows were thrones for deities - Christian and classical.
Rings can have a religious interpretation. Colette of Corbie had a mystical ring.
The other recent discovery is the potential interpretation of the 'chi-rho' designation at the top of f67v. Does it matter if it's backwards? Greek can be read in both directions.
Red hats and blue stripes are a connection to religious history, to ecclesiastical heraldry and religious tradition.
Nebuly lines and cloud-bands can represent cosmic boundaries that separate the holy from the profane. How religious is that? Even the VMs cosmos is religious in its simplicity and Parisian.
And then there is the wreath of the virgin - if it is a wreath, with occupants, no bees, and if the combo representation of the crescent moon was intended to be symbolic of Mary. Then surely that is religious.
Furthermore, all this seems to be compatible with the VMs parchment C-14 dating.
What I learned recently is that the T-O diagram in itself is also an indicator of Christian culture. This doesn't necessarily prove that the message of the VM is Christian, but it does show cultural affinity. The presence of things like cloudbands (of the styles found in the VM) and T-O diagrams argues strongly against theories that suppose an entirely non-Christian origin. The few obvious cultural markers we have show affinity with medieval Christianity.
Same here. Only a bit more so.
The standard medieval representation of the three continents has idealized the watery separations into a 'T inside a O' type of image. Also in Christian imagery, there is the "tau" cross. Shaped like the letter 'T'. Conflation is unavoidable. Someone will make the connection. "The world is marked as being Christian" - or some such interpretation. It was an era of sympathetic conflation leading up to Ficino.
But then there is the VMs cosmos, in which the T-O is inverted, as you know. So, does that count as Christian or anti-Christian?? Or what?
The simple structure of the VMS cosmic interior consists of three basic parts: earth, stars and cosmic boundary. It does not have the planetary spheres, or the signs of the Zodiac. It is clearly not representative of the "scientific knowledge" of the era. Is it more representative of a religious perspective?
The way it seems to me, if we posit one prospective interpretation for a certain illustration, say that the Rosettes are New Jerusalem, and the interpretation is religious and probably Christian, then it seems unlikely that we would find an alternate interpretation somewhere else, relating to the era of the C-14 dating. A person, the artist, who can be shown to have a decisive preference in one instance is likely to hold that opinion throughout on religious matters. Therefore, the images that might seem questionable and ambiguous to an outside investigation could appear as genuine and full-blown to those who know and believe in the symbolism and the religious interpretation. Not just for some of the symbols, but for *all* of them.
I generally agree, though I understand that people want a reason why the Christian imagery was obscured. This will have to be found in the reason why the makers obscured the
entire manuscript, including the text. The fact that the text is obscured does make it more acceptable that the images are
also obscured, but it doesn't tell us why.
Regarding the tripartite world, I learned only recently that the host was also often tripartite. In this case, it didn't matter much which part was up, since the connection to the world had become secondary.
See Cary's post You are not allowed to view links.
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Yes, I saw that. And we can toss in all the globus cuciger and non-cruciger images that represent the world in the many religious images, which are represented in various ways, as discussed previously.
This appears to be an era of ideological syncretism and conflation. Any three-part thing is a thing with three parts, so there is going to be some sort of mystical connection. It's pretty much BS, but that was the way they thought, and that's the way we need to try to see things, if we want to understand what is being represented in the illustrations and get a chance at understanding the language.
While I not especially hopeful of a linguistic solution, I've been around too long, there are too many pages missing from the VMs, and I know it's not my forte. If there is a chance, it is finding a connection between the illustrations and the language. I've made that suggestion.
Finding hidden images should spur us on to look for other hidden information. However, we are only picking up on these interpretations slowly over time. The artist had the whole thing from the start. If there is a message, perhaps the message is hidden. And the clues to find it are also disguised. But if that message is to be found by later investigations. Then the clues must be something that has a lasting, cultural presence, that is known to the intended recipients. Religion and religious tradition may seem to be the best option. The artist goes with what s/he knows.
The clues must be something that has a lasting, cultural presence. The clues are the cultural icons. And the ones that might be chosen and expected to last the longest would be those tied to long standing traditions and widely held beliefs. Alchemy and astrology are certainly possible influences for the VMs artist, but they lack both the ideological unity and the structural organization of medieval religion. One religion may contradict another, but there was no organization of alchemists or astrologers remotely comparable to the medieval church.
Heraldry was also a lasting, cultural presence and it is a method of visual communication. In certain parts, the VMs artist combines religion and heraldry, the strongest forms of lasting cultural presence available. Yet it is done in an ambiguous and subtle manor. The artist presents an intentionally obfuscated, heraldic representation that is meant not to teach, but to test. VMs White Aries was built to hold the Genoese Gambit. And to ask, does the reader know the origins of the cardinal's red galero? Does the path of paired icons lead to a text connection? It's VMs White Aries!! On this page rare markings are given special validation by nymphs that ambiguously <yet unequivocally> represent known historical, religious figures. What can they tell us?
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