07-06-2021, 09:38 PM
If the VMs glyphs are astronomical symbols, what are they supposed to tell us? How is the reader supposed to make sense of the glyphs, when the glyphs compose the text, but your premise is 'No text, but a visual code'?
A small group of people or an individual could borrow and invent a series of glyphs to convey meaning, but if what was done cannot be reinvented, where should the investigation go?
Besides the text, which is still 'No text', [I see there is another new "aspirational" translation in the discussion today.], besides the text, there are the illustrations, - the visual code. What is the visual code? Is it astrology? Or is it alchemy? What understanding has been gained from botany or pharmacology as it is represented in the VMs? The attempt to match a valid medieval, herbal monograph with any text in the VMs was a failure.
Astrology and alchemy were obscure and arcane arts. They were prescientific adventures, misadventures and chicanery. They were often hidden and secretive, that's a possibility. That makes any interpretation more difficult.
Consider instead, what are the predominant areas for the use of visual coding in the first part of the 15th Century? After religion one has to consider heraldry as a widely known visual code, along with the system of heraldic mnemonics known as canting. Setting religion aside because of its complexity and for the greater part, but not total, lack of representation in the VMs, earlier heraldry of this era is much simpler, but, like religion, it also seems to be mostly though not entirely absent. And a bit of religion must also remain in that examples of heraldry are found in both armorial and ecclesiastical forms.
Heraldry is a visual code used in the VMs. It is diffuse and specific. It is diffuse in the examples of nebuly lines in Quire 13. And the use of this line in the VMs cosmos demonstrates the artist's knowledge of cloud-based interpretations established in heraldic lines of division and in its nomenclature. Not to mention the 43 undulations matching to BNF Fr. 565.
Heraldry is more specific on the first three pages of the VMs Zodiac sequence. It isn't perfect. The breadcrumbs are not all lined up in a row. Some may be more difficult to find. And there are some clinkers that make no sense, used on purpose to derail investigations before providing an important element.
Heraldry is even more specific in the use of certain ecclesiastical and armorial elements in the form of ret hats and blue stripes combined on a single character of VMs White Aries. History takes it from there for those who know the tradition of Pope Innocent IV and the cardinal's red galero. This is a visual code in action. Then there is the prior placement of two papelonny patterns, a structure to make a heraldic French pun (pope = pape).
The purpose of all this subtle design of trickery and verification, is to provide two hidden witnesses to verify the significance of the pair of Stolfi's markers that are present of the White Aries page. Their significance is verified because the marker and the armorial insignia are connected in the VMs image. If the images transfer their significance to the markers, don't the markers clearly pass it on to the circular segments of text (or astrological signs , if you will). Doesn't heraldry function as a subtle visual code, a puzzle that must be solved, in order to direct the investigator to this particular pair of text segments?
A small group of people or an individual could borrow and invent a series of glyphs to convey meaning, but if what was done cannot be reinvented, where should the investigation go?
Besides the text, which is still 'No text', [I see there is another new "aspirational" translation in the discussion today.], besides the text, there are the illustrations, - the visual code. What is the visual code? Is it astrology? Or is it alchemy? What understanding has been gained from botany or pharmacology as it is represented in the VMs? The attempt to match a valid medieval, herbal monograph with any text in the VMs was a failure.
Astrology and alchemy were obscure and arcane arts. They were prescientific adventures, misadventures and chicanery. They were often hidden and secretive, that's a possibility. That makes any interpretation more difficult.
Consider instead, what are the predominant areas for the use of visual coding in the first part of the 15th Century? After religion one has to consider heraldry as a widely known visual code, along with the system of heraldic mnemonics known as canting. Setting religion aside because of its complexity and for the greater part, but not total, lack of representation in the VMs, earlier heraldry of this era is much simpler, but, like religion, it also seems to be mostly though not entirely absent. And a bit of religion must also remain in that examples of heraldry are found in both armorial and ecclesiastical forms.
Heraldry is a visual code used in the VMs. It is diffuse and specific. It is diffuse in the examples of nebuly lines in Quire 13. And the use of this line in the VMs cosmos demonstrates the artist's knowledge of cloud-based interpretations established in heraldic lines of division and in its nomenclature. Not to mention the 43 undulations matching to BNF Fr. 565.
Heraldry is more specific on the first three pages of the VMs Zodiac sequence. It isn't perfect. The breadcrumbs are not all lined up in a row. Some may be more difficult to find. And there are some clinkers that make no sense, used on purpose to derail investigations before providing an important element.
Heraldry is even more specific in the use of certain ecclesiastical and armorial elements in the form of ret hats and blue stripes combined on a single character of VMs White Aries. History takes it from there for those who know the tradition of Pope Innocent IV and the cardinal's red galero. This is a visual code in action. Then there is the prior placement of two papelonny patterns, a structure to make a heraldic French pun (pope = pape).
The purpose of all this subtle design of trickery and verification, is to provide two hidden witnesses to verify the significance of the pair of Stolfi's markers that are present of the White Aries page. Their significance is verified because the marker and the armorial insignia are connected in the VMs image. If the images transfer their significance to the markers, don't the markers clearly pass it on to the circular segments of text (or astrological signs , if you will). Doesn't heraldry function as a subtle visual code, a puzzle that must be solved, in order to direct the investigator to this particular pair of text segments?