No text, but a visual code

[-JKP-]

That the medieval world was a world of symbolism is pretty obvious. I don't think there was any kind of decoration without symbolic meaning. The most common decoration in the margins of the manuscripts, the vine leaf, alludes to the wine and blood of Christ....

Hebrew manuscripts are full of vine leaf (foliate) patterns. Dragons in Jewish manuscripts often have foliate tails, as well. Just because they are sometimes symbolic does not mean they are always symbolic, and if they are symbolic, they don't always mean the same thing.