In answer to the last, I wanted it to be short enough not to get cut off. The VMs author knew WHAT?!?
So, yes, it is a basic fact that the 'author / artist' or scribe needed to know the necessary skills for the task. That would apply in any potential timeline. At the same time, there is a certain lack of scribal precision, The person was clearly a writer, not necessarily at a professional level, perhaps.
The VMs gives the appearance of possessing herbal information. A lot of work has been done trying to match VMs illustrations to known medieval examples. Even in examples of successful matching, what is learned from the VMs? Which historical herbal text has the best similarity to the VMs in artistic representation, plant selection, plant sequence? The problem here, at least as it seems to me, is that herbal investigations don't go anywhere. Succeed or not, take a look at the next one. It sort of seems to function like a heat sink. A lot of investigative interest has gone into herbal investigations, almost from the very start, and...........
One might ask if the illustrations of the herbal section are only a distraction. Though one does need some basic knowledge to create a good distraction.
The ability to write in the VMs C-14 era indicates a person of some education, ability, and advantaged position in a religious and/ or political capacity. Someone in a place to have some knowledge of historical events and *potentially* even access to what we call historical documents. What does the VMs creator know about the various items and events that have been proposed as potential sources of certain VMs representations; the cosmos, the mermaid, and so on and what does this say about the person who made the VMs and about that person's familiarity with what would pass for the 'social media" knowledge during the C-14 time span?
A short heraldic definition and a bit of etymology explain the nebuly line and its function as a cosmic boundary - like a plant ID. Placing this line in the VMs cosmos shows the artist's familiarity with this element and potentially with a source, BNF Fr. 565 fol. 23. The nebuly line is much used in Quire 13, with some ambiguous interpretation. Does the application and interpretation also hold for the VMs critter (f80v)? What animal can be associated with a cosmic boundary? BNF Fr. 13096 f. 18.
The VMs uses combined images, inserts a representation of Melusine in place of the generic mermaid among the sea monsters. This trick creates a gate that requires two keys. The VMs uses an optical distraction with obfuscation to hide historical heraldry. And it uses heraldic canting to identify historical figures. What the VMs author knew was sufficient to create these curious references to events of the C-14 era; the investigator needs the same familiarity to ferret them out. We need to know what the VMs maker knew.
So, yes, it is a basic fact that the 'author / artist' or scribe needed to know the necessary skills for the task. That would apply in any potential timeline. At the same time, there is a certain lack of scribal precision, The person was clearly a writer, not necessarily at a professional level, perhaps.
The VMs gives the appearance of possessing herbal information. A lot of work has been done trying to match VMs illustrations to known medieval examples. Even in examples of successful matching, what is learned from the VMs? Which historical herbal text has the best similarity to the VMs in artistic representation, plant selection, plant sequence? The problem here, at least as it seems to me, is that herbal investigations don't go anywhere. Succeed or not, take a look at the next one. It sort of seems to function like a heat sink. A lot of investigative interest has gone into herbal investigations, almost from the very start, and...........
One might ask if the illustrations of the herbal section are only a distraction. Though one does need some basic knowledge to create a good distraction.
The ability to write in the VMs C-14 era indicates a person of some education, ability, and advantaged position in a religious and/ or political capacity. Someone in a place to have some knowledge of historical events and *potentially* even access to what we call historical documents. What does the VMs creator know about the various items and events that have been proposed as potential sources of certain VMs representations; the cosmos, the mermaid, and so on and what does this say about the person who made the VMs and about that person's familiarity with what would pass for the 'social media" knowledge during the C-14 time span?
A short heraldic definition and a bit of etymology explain the nebuly line and its function as a cosmic boundary - like a plant ID. Placing this line in the VMs cosmos shows the artist's familiarity with this element and potentially with a source, BNF Fr. 565 fol. 23. The nebuly line is much used in Quire 13, with some ambiguous interpretation. Does the application and interpretation also hold for the VMs critter (f80v)? What animal can be associated with a cosmic boundary? BNF Fr. 13096 f. 18.
The VMs uses combined images, inserts a representation of Melusine in place of the generic mermaid among the sea monsters. This trick creates a gate that requires two keys. The VMs uses an optical distraction with obfuscation to hide historical heraldry. And it uses heraldic canting to identify historical figures. What the VMs author knew was sufficient to create these curious references to events of the C-14 era; the investigator needs the same familiarity to ferret them out. We need to know what the VMs maker knew.


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