Quote:From my point of view, it is obvious that the Rosettes "map" relates to some liquids and processes with them (distillation, Earth and/or Cosmic water circulation, water engine, etc)
This is why I searched extensively for You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. Unfortunately, documentation on the early water gardens (14th and 15th century) is sparse. They aren't well documented until the 16th century when piping technology became more sophisticated and "theatrical" effects were possible.
Also, it's possible that some of the 16th-century water gardens were built on top of older ones (extensive renovations), so there are no traces of the earlier designs. There may be some garden plans in dusty corners of libraries that remain unstudied, but finding them would be challenging and very time-consuming. There were a few around Rome but, again, documentation is sparse. Despite the relative scarcity of plans for water gardens, I gathered many plans of medieval gardens in general but there are so many common themes and layouts that it's hard to know if any specific one could be related to the VMS.
The Villa di Pratolino was a water garden built in the 16th century. Water was sprayed, as in the Villa d'Este gardens, and of interest is a series of cascading pools much like the pools in which the VMS nymphs are bathing.
The garden of Perugia (on the site of the first Benedictine monastery) is not expressly a water garden, but it dates back to the 12th century and includes an area with zodiac signs and plants that relate to specific constellations. Two trees mark heaven and earth. The entire thing is steeped in ancient symbolism and gardens of this sort could potentially have inspired the kinds of imagery we see in the VMS.
It's been my feeling for a long time that whoever created the VMS may have been interested in water gardens or may have lived in or near a villa with water gardens, or near a resort-style area with natural bathing pools. Unfortunately, there are many such places (far more than I would have guessed, I have hundreds of pictures) and they all look very much the same.