06-03-2017, 02:17 AM
I see the VMS as being similar to a "hausbuch" in the sense of being a general reference, but being more targeted toward certain kinds of information.
These books included astrology, cosmology, health, and medical recipes, sometimes a bit of alchemy, occasionally some proverbs or poems—a very good fit for the VMS. They were, in a sense, like our modern version of a one-volume illustrated encyclopedia of general knowledge (as it was at the time). The small, portable size suggests it was intended to be carried along by whoever was using it.
The VMS strikes me as quite targeted, it doesn't appear to stray from a certain overall plan. I'm not saying I think it is specifically a hausbuch. It might be designed to look like a hausbuch or to be used as a reference in the sense of a hausbuch, for whatever purpose, just as the text is designed to look like Latin, but I think the illustrative focus on the plants is real, whether or not the text matches the drawings.
These books included astrology, cosmology, health, and medical recipes, sometimes a bit of alchemy, occasionally some proverbs or poems—a very good fit for the VMS. They were, in a sense, like our modern version of a one-volume illustrated encyclopedia of general knowledge (as it was at the time). The small, portable size suggests it was intended to be carried along by whoever was using it.
The VMS strikes me as quite targeted, it doesn't appear to stray from a certain overall plan. I'm not saying I think it is specifically a hausbuch. It might be designed to look like a hausbuch or to be used as a reference in the sense of a hausbuch, for whatever purpose, just as the text is designed to look like Latin, but I think the illustrative focus on the plants is real, whether or not the text matches the drawings.