A return to f25v - the dragon is the key, obviously, but is it basil?
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(26-02-2017, 07:43 PM)davidjackson wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Quote:The three dragons that appear in these illustrations seem to be illustrating plants that cure snake bite: nothing more specific than that, as far as I can tell.
Great stuff Marco. However, I would suggest that they aren't dragons being depicted, but snakes - what the English called wyrms. The second example cited specifically mentions serpientes - snakes.

Hi David, as I wrote, I think the cure of snake bite is mentioned in all three pages (but some are hard to read). I agree that the Trento illustration can be described as a horned-snake with a prominent crest (but I am not sure this necessarily excludes it is a dragon). 
Do you think that also the BNF Latin 17844 and Bertoliana (Vicenza) illustrations of reptiles with 2 legs should be considered as snakes and not dragons? The BNF animal is winged too. How exactly can we tell a dragon from a snake?

And aren't wyrms dragons?
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Of course, comparing an imaginary animal with a real animal is not easy.
According to Isidore of Seville "The dragon is the largest serpent" ("draco major cunctorum serpentium"). So, all dragons are snakes (but of course not all snakes are dragons). 
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[Edited to add] I have checked the three ms:

Trento (as you already noted): "vale contra morsegadura de serpente" (Veneto dialect): helps against snake byte

BNF Lat 17844: line 6 "valet contra colubrum serpentem" helps against the coluber snake  

Vicenza Bertoliana: line 4 "ad sanandum morsuram serpentis" to heal the bite of a snake

All three manuscripts are about plants to be used to cure snake bite. It seems clear to me that at least two of the three are clearly dragons. Isn't a winged reptilian with two legs a dragon? Since a dragon is a kind of snake, it seems legitimate to use it to illustrate this plants (with some hyperbolic implications about the power of the plants in question).


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RE: A return to f25v - the dragon is the key, obviously, but is it basil? - by MarcoP - 26-02-2017, 07:51 PM

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