Women as allegory for the life force of plants - or just a plant biology lesson?

[Aurara84]

The funny thing is that those pages which I interpret as referring to the constellations are all different ones than the ones people ususlly read as biological allegories. The one exception being the Cassiopeia nymph, which stands in a structure likened to organs or a collar bone.

Point is, even though for some nymphs I believe to have a decent understanding of their meaning, I don't know anything about the ones being discussed here. Maybe they're about plants

Laura, I'm afraid the problem with your theory, like with so many, is that it will be hard to find any external evidence. There are people like myself who believe the nymphs refer to stars and constellations. The VM would represent a novel representation, certainly, but we do know that people were used to represent heavenly bodies and constellations as human figures. Quire 13 is then analysed as an adaptation and extension of this custom.

Or, say, the radical idea that it's all about real rivers and other bodies of water, about rain cycles etc. Well we know of examples, like the marginal psalters VViews wrote about, where each river is accompanied by a nude figure. Or baptism scenes where a human personification of the river Jordan still reminds us of the pagan custom. 

I don't want to convince you of either option nor change your mind about the meaning of the section, but if you want to pursue this line of investigation, you may need to find this type of external evidence. Some existing custom from which it could have evolved.

I agree Koen, I literally did just look through the manuscript and say the first thing I saw, which is embarrassingly un-academic! I love reading all I can on various historical topics but my handle on hard facts is vague and I tend to think in impressions of images and feelings rather than empirical evidence (that's what art school does to you!). 
I'm intending to go away and read as much as I can around this idea. I was very focused on the VM itself so your comment about looking for other external evidence is very much appreciated. Context is everything!
I'll let you know if I find anything interesting...
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