Ladies with Rings

[MarcoP]

Great!  The ms is now being digitized ..? cause the link does not provide me with the ms at the Vatican..

What is interesting in this entire thread and the pictorial research is it seems we all have a mutual understanding:
that the images in with details have a symbolic value and meaning in the VMS.

So we assume that the pictures are not to be taken literal, like "a woman is showing a ring" but the drawing is symbolic.

Hello David,
it seems that the site is under maintenance right now. A few hours ago, it worked regularly.

The Balneological section is a great challenge. Scholars who have mentioned it (I am thinking of Alain Touwaide and Sergio Toresella) seem to take it literally. The closest parallels are actual depictions of bathing places (first of all, the often mentioned De Balneis Puteolanis). But this flying "pangolin" can hardly be taken literally, so there is at least a mixture of literal and symbolic elements. The fact that the ring in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is over-sized seems suggestive of its symbolic function. On the other hand, the magic ring in Reg.Lat.1283 is an actual ring (an amulet): it is so large only because it is an important element in the text.

Anyway, even if I am somehow undecided, I tend to think that the whole section is symbolic and that the bathing women do not represent bathing women.