River of Life

[R. Sale]

Looking through the old illustrations over the past few days, a number of examples showing the Biblical concept of the 'River of Life' have shown up. Similar inquiries like the Agnus Dei or the Virtues and Vice have revealed some interesting considerations.

What with all the hydrology and balneology in the VMs, this would seem to have natural connections. Is there a discussion history I've missed?

Problem is there aren't that many ways to draw rivers. Also what is the example of VMs correspondence? And it's just a little tricky to find good medieval examples.

Google image search for: "river of life" has a relevance of zero. But adding 'medieval' or 'apocalypse' brings up some interesting images.

Maybe something will click for those VMs bathing beauties.

[-JKP-]

You can find some of this imagery online under "fountain of life" (it appears in pagan imagery and in biblical images of Paradise).

Also, "rivers of Paradise" (the four rivers, often shown as four pipes or outflows and four rivers) includes some imagery that might be of interest.


Also, quite a few of the drawings of medieval garden fountains are allegorical rather than literal.

Here are some examples in a search for fountain of life and rivers of paradise:

      
  



A fountain of youth search will sometimes also yield some imagery in a similar style to fountain of life:

[MarcoP]

The "fountain of life" (fons vitae) is mentioned in the bible. E.g.

Psalm 36
quoniam apud te est fons vitae, et in lumine tuo videbimus lumen.
For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light

Proverbs 13
lex sapientis fons vitae ut declinet a ruina mortis
The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.

Ecclesiastes 21
Scientia sapientis tamquam inundatio abundabit, et consilium illius sicut fons vitae permanet.
The knowledge of a wise man shall abound like a flood: and his counsel is like a pure fountain of life.

It is possible that this allegory is related with the fountain of youth discussed by JKP. I seems quite clear that it is related with the fountain of life found in alchemical works where, as in the old testament, water could stand for some kind of arcane wisdom. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. also is the title of the XII Century Latin translation of a work by the Andalusian philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol.



I cannot find early references to a "river of life" (flumen vitae). It seems to me that the meaning of this allegory is different: an allusion to the shortness and incessant mutability of life (rather than to the healthy power of wisdom).

Petrarch (De Otio Religioso) appears to be discussing a similar concept, but without using the words "river of life". He wrote:
evidentior est hominis mutatio et fuga quam fluminis
human changing and flowing are even more evident than those of a river

This is his reply to a passage by Seneca, ultimately going back to that famous quote by Heraclitus:

None of us is the same man in old age that he was in youth; nor the same on the morrow as on the day preceding. Our bodies are hurried along like flowing waters; every visible object accompanies time in its flight; of the things which we see, nothing is fixed. Even I myself, as I comment on this change, am changed myself. This is just what Heraclitus says: “We go down twice into the same river, and yet into a different river.” For the stream still keeps the same name, but the water has already flowed past. Of course this is much more evident in rivers than in human beings.

[R. Sale]

I've rounded up some examples. They seem to come from far and wide, geographically and chronologically, but they all seem to be  
structurally and ideologically similar, with ties to the concept of the apocalypse.



Apoocalypse XII
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Bamberg Apocalypse
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Las Huelgas Apocalypse
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Cloisters Apocalypse
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Apocalypse flamande
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Yates Thompson MS 10 - f. 38r

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River of Paradise / Apocalypse of Angers  
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[R. Sale]

On the VMs side of this comparison, there are a number of examples to consider - all concentrated in Quire 13. There are numerous depictions of apparent liquid flowing into and out of pools, which contain a varying number of 'nymphs'.

The example of VMs You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. best represents the artistic technique that I was seeking - the use of a group of nearly parallel, long, sinewy lines. But you know the VMs is not consistent. Take a look at VMs f75v. The river is filled with little crosswise waves. It flows to a pool with ten 'nymphs'. The pool is surrounded by a nebuly line. Is this line also to be interpreted as a cosmic boundary? If it is valid for one then it is reasonably valid for both within the interpretations of historical tradition.

Another good example is f81r. Also f78v; f79r; f80r; f81v; You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. a trio of pools.