14-12-2025, 01:49 PM
These examples given by Marco are really good. Especially You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
By the way the woman at the picture looks like coming from a modern cartoon for kids and not medieval herbal
Anyway will try to do some summary:
- roots in old herbals were often drawn in symbolic and not realistic way so they would resemble some stuff
- the symbolism was usually more obvious than in VM but pictures similar to VM did happen
- in case of VM these roots unfortunately don't help with identifying the plants
Even if we have some strong hint like "lavender" at You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. then it is rather not lavender because the leaves are totally different
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And here we come to "the imaginary plants" concept. What if the plants are some frankensteins built of parts of real plants?
In such case the symbolism for roots wouldn't work. The plant was invented by the artist so it doesn't really have any folklore connected to it.
And roots were probably copied in a mindless way from some reference.
Or maybe the author was totally freestyling and made some roots look like a dog just for fun, without any deeper story behing it.
It would also mean that we cannot for sure say that the roots were meant to be a dog. If the plant doesn't exist and the supposed text doesn't mention dogs, what is the sure way to say that roots represent a dog?
And generally what would the text say if the plant is an unexisting frankenstein?
"It grows on sunny hillsides and blossoms in June. It is liked by dogs who eat it to feel better. Drink it hot with wine for your stomach and kidneys"
Does it make sense to think up such fake stories for fake plants? Or would you rather make some filler text about whatever or about nothing at all?
Just a few thoughts.
By the way the woman at the picture looks like coming from a modern cartoon for kids and not medieval herbal
Anyway will try to do some summary:
- roots in old herbals were often drawn in symbolic and not realistic way so they would resemble some stuff
- the symbolism was usually more obvious than in VM but pictures similar to VM did happen
- in case of VM these roots unfortunately don't help with identifying the plants
Even if we have some strong hint like "lavender" at You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. then it is rather not lavender because the leaves are totally different------------------------------------------------------------------
And here we come to "the imaginary plants" concept. What if the plants are some frankensteins built of parts of real plants?
In such case the symbolism for roots wouldn't work. The plant was invented by the artist so it doesn't really have any folklore connected to it.
And roots were probably copied in a mindless way from some reference.
Or maybe the author was totally freestyling and made some roots look like a dog just for fun, without any deeper story behing it.
It would also mean that we cannot for sure say that the roots were meant to be a dog. If the plant doesn't exist and the supposed text doesn't mention dogs, what is the sure way to say that roots represent a dog?
And generally what would the text say if the plant is an unexisting frankenstein?
"It grows on sunny hillsides and blossoms in June. It is liked by dogs who eat it to feel better. Drink it hot with wine for your stomach and kidneys"
Does it make sense to think up such fake stories for fake plants? Or would you rather make some filler text about whatever or about nothing at all?
Just a few thoughts.