[split] BAV Pal. lat. 291. De rerum naturis. 1425

[Linda]

Yes, and sorry to get off topic again, but i was thinking about the idea you have presented before that the vms is not the product of an author, but a copy of something older. What if it was the product of someone presenting various concepts perhaps seen elsewhere, old, new,  repeated in various ways, but presenting these various concepts in yet a another way, with hints towards the references, like to this work, and others. 

Precisely. Right now I'm in doubt between two options. One, it's fairly standard material processed in an unusual way for mnemonic purposes.

Alternatively, and in my opinion more likely, is that it's unusual material covered witha vaguely familiar coat. This could be either again for mnemonic purposes or for secrecy (to avoid the censor, or competitors, or ..)


The images of the houses/springs look just like this.

Combinations of concepts, perhaps, like house in terms of to what house do you belong, one's origins. Then take that concept of river origins and apply people to it, and how they evolved from that point forward. The Indus civilization, the Euphrates, the Nile, the Danube...

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The big-foot guy is also in one of the early medieval mappae mundi in the Bodleian? Library (I think that's where I remember seeing it) and made its way into many of the copies of "John Mandeville's" adventures.

I very much get the feeling that De Rerum Naturis was inspired by multiple sources. It's a pretty extensive manuscript, one would almost have to.

Yes me too, and the vms also. I feel like it was put together by someone who came across a lot of manuscripts in their time.