08-11-2017, 04:11 AM
I don't know if the connections between the pools in the VMS are literal, allegorical, or both, but natural thermal pools ARE like this.
I've seen two of them (in North America), where there are pockets of thermal pools (and colder streams also), where people go in the winter, especially, and soak in hot thermals in the nude.
So... there are natural thermal springs, even in this century, that are pretty much the same as those depicted in the VMS. They have parts that are bricked in with stones from the surrounding area, parts that are natural, and many pools that are connected to one another by streams that flow like little rivulets or waterfalls.
The VMS drawings could be from any one of hundreds (maybe thousands) of natural bathing pools. Using Google search, I discovered they are all over the Alps, eastern Europe, southern Europe, and the rest of the world. Unfortunately, quite a few of them have been remade with modern architecture, so you can't see what they looked like in the middle ages, but there are still many in protected areas or hike-in areas that haven't changed very much over the centuries.
The length of the rivulets in the VMS drawings might be extended to fit them to the page, but water that flows from bathing pool to pool, sometimes by aqueducts, sometimes by natural streams, is not unusual.
I've seen two of them (in North America), where there are pockets of thermal pools (and colder streams also), where people go in the winter, especially, and soak in hot thermals in the nude.
So... there are natural thermal springs, even in this century, that are pretty much the same as those depicted in the VMS. They have parts that are bricked in with stones from the surrounding area, parts that are natural, and many pools that are connected to one another by streams that flow like little rivulets or waterfalls.
The VMS drawings could be from any one of hundreds (maybe thousands) of natural bathing pools. Using Google search, I discovered they are all over the Alps, eastern Europe, southern Europe, and the rest of the world. Unfortunately, quite a few of them have been remade with modern architecture, so you can't see what they looked like in the middle ages, but there are still many in protected areas or hike-in areas that haven't changed very much over the centuries.
The length of the rivulets in the VMS drawings might be extended to fit them to the page, but water that flows from bathing pool to pool, sometimes by aqueducts, sometimes by natural streams, is not unusual.