19-03-2018, 02:04 AM
(18-03-2018, 10:00 PM)Morten St. George wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Sorry about the confusion. I should have phrased it better. Everywhere in your posts you have given us (or me) the impression that you think the current VMS is the first and only writing of what we see in the manuscript, whereas I postulate that the current VMS is an exact copy of earlier writings. I hope that clarifies it.
No. I explicitly stated upthread that encyclopedic books, books of knowledge (and a book that is primarily plants certainly piggybacks on previous knowledge) are based to some extent on what has gone before. I've never said anything that indicates I think the VMS was a wholly original work created in a vacuum, without influence from the past.
Medieval custom was to copy and they were especially eager to look back to classical authors such as Galen, Pliny, Avicenna, Dioscorides, Ptolemy, or whoever was considered the "sage" for their culture or subject matter.
The method of interpretation or execution was sometimes original, but it was very rare for content to be original.