Swallowtail merlons... or provenance

[-JKP-]

Onion domes stretched all the way across Europe into Spain at that time, so although the onion domes have to be considered, there were enough of them around that it would not be unusual for them to be included in a map of central European origins (I'm not saying it originated there, but that onion domes were not unprecedented in that area at the time).

Really? It was my understanding that although onion domes appeared in Russia by the 13th century, it was only later that they were found elsewhere in Europe, eg. in Austria in 1576.
Maybe I haven't been thorough enough in my searches, or maybe we don't have the same definition of "at that time"...
I'd be very interested to see some central/south european 15th century or earlier onion domes: do you have any examples?

Actually, that was a slip on my part. I intended to write "rounded domes" since onion domes are a very specific kind of decorative architecture. Rounded domes have been around a long time.

Muslims conquered Spain in the 8th century and traveled throughout many islands of the Mediterranean, building mosques along the way (many of these were later converted to Catholic churches as Muslim influence receded). Rounded domes are found throughout Europe, even if in small numbers in some areas.


I don't think the domes in the VMS map are onion domes, unless they symbolically rather than physically represent domed buildings. They're not attached to anything at the bottom. They have feet and appear to be separate from one another and freestanding. If you look at the one on the right, especially, it resembles the containers in the small plants sections.

When I first saw the "map" I looked for some time for architectural domes with the same kinds of decorative features as these (lines around the middle, vertical striations, etc.), but couldn't find any that resemble these (I probably downloaded about a thousand domes) but you can find analogues to the shapes on Folios 89v et al.