15-03-2016, 01:11 PM
Hi Koen Gh.,
As far as I know it would appear that only the yellow paint, and possibly some red, seems to have been added in the original version. As you will notice, the yellow paint is often applied in a rather precise and specific way, suggesting that the painter probably understood the text (see for example the yellow pot and belly of the person in the "der mus del" drawing). The greens and blues, and some reds, are another story...
There are various interpretations about why this green and blue paint job is so much sloppier than the drawing: I think it was JKP (?) who suggested that the painting quality is bad because it just didn't really matter. It is true that some other herbals are also sloppily colored, because the aesthetics of coloring just weren't that important for a technical reference book.
Personally, and until actual tests provide us with better answers about when the various colors were added, I tend to think that we cannot discount two possibilities: 1) that the blue and green and heavy red were added later, by someone who did not necessarily understand the text. 2) that they were added later by someone who did so in order to make things even more difficult to understand (Pelling's "obfuscation" theory). Either way, I personally don't rely on color at all for my views. There's more discussion of colors in the "green water" thread if you're interested, or as Diane suggested, Pelling's site.
As far as I know it would appear that only the yellow paint, and possibly some red, seems to have been added in the original version. As you will notice, the yellow paint is often applied in a rather precise and specific way, suggesting that the painter probably understood the text (see for example the yellow pot and belly of the person in the "der mus del" drawing). The greens and blues, and some reds, are another story...
There are various interpretations about why this green and blue paint job is so much sloppier than the drawing: I think it was JKP (?) who suggested that the painting quality is bad because it just didn't really matter. It is true that some other herbals are also sloppily colored, because the aesthetics of coloring just weren't that important for a technical reference book.
Personally, and until actual tests provide us with better answers about when the various colors were added, I tend to think that we cannot discount two possibilities: 1) that the blue and green and heavy red were added later, by someone who did not necessarily understand the text. 2) that they were added later by someone who did so in order to make things even more difficult to understand (Pelling's "obfuscation" theory). Either way, I personally don't rely on color at all for my views. There's more discussion of colors in the "green water" thread if you're interested, or as Diane suggested, Pelling's site.