03-04-2016, 02:00 AM
I understand the poem's relationship to alchemy, but it may also explain some strangeness that I've noticed in some of the herbals.
In an herbal that has recognizable and naturalistic, reasonably well-drawn plants, one suddenly comes across "lunaria" drawn not as well, not as recognizable, and sometimes in several versions. If there was myth and superstition surrounding the plant (and poems describing a plant of the same name, whether alchemical or not), it might account for how they differ from drawings of other plants in the same text.
One of the things that characterizes the VMS is that quite a number of plants are naturalistic and yet some have some very stylized properties. This is not unusual if the plant has mneumonic design elements, but if the naturalistic ones are based on plants that are known and recognized, and stylized ones on more mythical plants, it might explain the dichotomy within a specific volume that appears to include both.
In an herbal that has recognizable and naturalistic, reasonably well-drawn plants, one suddenly comes across "lunaria" drawn not as well, not as recognizable, and sometimes in several versions. If there was myth and superstition surrounding the plant (and poems describing a plant of the same name, whether alchemical or not), it might account for how they differ from drawings of other plants in the same text.
One of the things that characterizes the VMS is that quite a number of plants are naturalistic and yet some have some very stylized properties. This is not unusual if the plant has mneumonic design elements, but if the naturalistic ones are based on plants that are known and recognized, and stylized ones on more mythical plants, it might explain the dichotomy within a specific volume that appears to include both.