Froggie the frog

[davidjackson]

Here's Froggie the frog (f101v1):

I think this is the only realistic animal depiction in the VM.
What concordance can we see with other era-similar manuscripts?

[-JKP-]

I've only collected a few frogs. I probably have more than this, but I can't search for them during the workday.

Sometimes one eye with the head turned, sometimes two eyes.

They tended to draw them in the same way. Sometimes there's a line of dots or dashes down the back, sometimes textures, but the legs are mostly the same:

   

There are frogs in Bibles (the biblical pestilences), and there are usually frogs in the alchemical manuscripts. I was trying to find examples in a variety of contexts.

[Aga Tentakulus]

   
There is everything.

But you do not want to have experienced the discussion about the frog.

[davidjackson]

Hmm, red pill or blue pill?  
I have over the years investigated many different frogs. But I've never seen one that fits this situation in a narrative way.
So, is our frog unique? No.
I'm starting to think that Froggie is a mistake, a frog drawn because you'd expect a frog to be there.
In which case, what are the plants? Why is Froggie there, that the scribe draws him in an absent minded way?

[Anton]

Why is Froggie there, that the scribe draws him in an absent minded way?

Maybe it's one of the ingredients.

[Aga Tentakulus]

Unfortunately deleted. 2015, or so
Actually it was about the origin of the VM.
It is from a book about symbolism and application, meaning.
I think I left the link to the book at Bax.
The picture is safe there.

[davidjackson]

Maybe it's one of the ingredients.

Very possible. But why the only one?
Recipes of the era tended to combine plant and animal indiscriminately.

[Aga Tentakulus]

   
It all has a meaning.

Can you see the frog?

Actually it is a possibility where you see in the plants.
I am not the first to consider this possibility.
I also rely on the work of others. I just don't know who anymore. Maybe Eliska

[RobGea]

Could it be that the artist is referring to him/herself ?
"From the 15th century to our current day, the Renaissance maxim holds true: “Every painter paints himself.”
Beyond straightforward self-portraits, artists through the ages have left special signatures on their canvases"
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[Koen G]

Just a sidenote about Biblical frogs: a frog coming from a mouth means speaking blasphemy (there is a very blasphemous dragon in Revelation).