David,
Yes, I see where you're coming from. Recognising historical and cultural cues is certainly a major part of provenancing - a different discipline from the creation of historical narratives.
You and I differ in our conclusions here. Where you are envisaging the imagery's being the original expression of a single 'author', and are seeking the things which you imagine might have 'inspired' the Voynich manuscript's pictures, my view is rather that no authorial theory is required by the primary evidence.
Recognising a single, creative, informing mind or hand is part of the work of provenancing, of course, but in this case the very absence of an individual 'hand' is most important. Like Renaissance Italian artists, or fifteenth century German draughtsmen, individuals whose profession was in the graphic or other arts learned to form images in the style they gained during their apprenticeship, even if that was gained after they joined a monastery, or had developed no further than lessons at school. That training has its own style - which is why we can usually tell at a glance if a painting or bit of woodcarving was made in Spain or in Germany - or even in England by a Spanish artisan, or in France by a German painter.
As Steele and many others noted long ago, nothing in this imagery refers to any later-medieval or Renaissance European Latin style. Simple as that. The copyists *may* have been Italian etc., but that's as far as I'd go.
For you, the interesting thing about the merlons is, I guess, where the hypothetical author may have travelled or lived and which castle, if it still exists, might be imagined having inspired him. That is a scenario which a writer of histories might well want to explore.
It doesn't have so much relevance to a provenancer - and provenancing imagery by what it contains and the style in which it was done, and by reference to materials and find-place is what I do. I'm not even interested in writing the story of any later owners. Luckily this field has room for all sorts of approaches and special interests - and all sorts of people, even those having as little interest in the written text as I do.
Yes, I see where you're coming from. Recognising historical and cultural cues is certainly a major part of provenancing - a different discipline from the creation of historical narratives.
You and I differ in our conclusions here. Where you are envisaging the imagery's being the original expression of a single 'author', and are seeking the things which you imagine might have 'inspired' the Voynich manuscript's pictures, my view is rather that no authorial theory is required by the primary evidence.
Recognising a single, creative, informing mind or hand is part of the work of provenancing, of course, but in this case the very absence of an individual 'hand' is most important. Like Renaissance Italian artists, or fifteenth century German draughtsmen, individuals whose profession was in the graphic or other arts learned to form images in the style they gained during their apprenticeship, even if that was gained after they joined a monastery, or had developed no further than lessons at school. That training has its own style - which is why we can usually tell at a glance if a painting or bit of woodcarving was made in Spain or in Germany - or even in England by a Spanish artisan, or in France by a German painter.
As Steele and many others noted long ago, nothing in this imagery refers to any later-medieval or Renaissance European Latin style. Simple as that. The copyists *may* have been Italian etc., but that's as far as I'd go.
For you, the interesting thing about the merlons is, I guess, where the hypothetical author may have travelled or lived and which castle, if it still exists, might be imagined having inspired him. That is a scenario which a writer of histories might well want to explore.
It doesn't have so much relevance to a provenancer - and provenancing imagery by what it contains and the style in which it was done, and by reference to materials and find-place is what I do. I'm not even interested in writing the story of any later owners. Luckily this field has room for all sorts of approaches and special interests - and all sorts of people, even those having as little interest in the written text as I do.