20-08-2025, 04:06 PM
I'd rather tend to the latter (workshop).
I strongly disagree with the hypothesis of the VM author being a genius who had stomached all knowledge of his time and invented an uncrackable cipher in both text and imagery. There is no evidence for that.
He certainly had access to a decent amount of imagery from different sources, but that does not necessarily mean he fully understood the meaning. I think there is at least some evidence that the author had a baffling lack of common sense and misunderstood several source images, especially things related to perspective and foreground-background.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. that originally may have been crossing stems
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. that appear to be a misunderstanding of the split bulb tunic in the background
Root tables that originally probably were pools of water or patches of soil
Zodiac animals eating bushes that were originally trees in the background
All the imagery and also the glyphs are a wild mixture borrowed from a multitude of sources (be it manuscripts or stock images). It all looks familiar but yet nobody managed to make sense of any of it. I do believe that the VM was important to the author, for the sheer amount of details he created. But whether any of this makes much sense beyond the author's imagination?
Still MS4986 is interesting, it has a good collection of VM-vibe roots, compound leaves and flowers/seedpods, especially the cup-disc style like 18r and 23 . But there is little that isn't found in other herbals. Curiously they all lack the huge flowers found in the VM. Most flowers in herbals are rather small and inconspicuous.
I strongly disagree with the hypothesis of the VM author being a genius who had stomached all knowledge of his time and invented an uncrackable cipher in both text and imagery. There is no evidence for that.
He certainly had access to a decent amount of imagery from different sources, but that does not necessarily mean he fully understood the meaning. I think there is at least some evidence that the author had a baffling lack of common sense and misunderstood several source images, especially things related to perspective and foreground-background.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. that originally may have been crossing stems
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. that appear to be a misunderstanding of the split bulb tunic in the background
Root tables that originally probably were pools of water or patches of soil
Zodiac animals eating bushes that were originally trees in the background
All the imagery and also the glyphs are a wild mixture borrowed from a multitude of sources (be it manuscripts or stock images). It all looks familiar but yet nobody managed to make sense of any of it. I do believe that the VM was important to the author, for the sheer amount of details he created. But whether any of this makes much sense beyond the author's imagination?
Still MS4986 is interesting, it has a good collection of VM-vibe roots, compound leaves and flowers/seedpods, especially the cup-disc style like 18r and 23 . But there is little that isn't found in other herbals. Curiously they all lack the huge flowers found in the VM. Most flowers in herbals are rather small and inconspicuous.
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