24-06-2021, 08:30 AM
Seacher:
Right, so we agree that works exist which appear to be about something else, but are actually Christian. This means the VM could be one such work. We believe it is overtly about the health of the body, while it is actually concerned with the well-being of the soul. We also believe that enough indications of this intentional ambiguity are present in the imagery, which is what the post is all about.
What I realized while researching was the following: if you know about medieval iconography and look at the VM from a distance, you will conclude that it is a medical compendium. But if you zoom in on the details, you notice that there are tons of problems. Most interpretations seem to dwell on the extremes of these observations. Experts will often carefully remark that it looks like a medical compendium (going as far back as Baresch) or at the very least a compendium of knowledge with a large medical component. But people who are driven to explain the details of the images tend to look for symbolical explanations, because they realize that it's hard to explain the images literally.
I think in order to understand the imagery completely, one needs to take these two perspectives into account. The overall appearance of a medical compendium needs to be addressed, but the deviations from the traditional images must be explained as well. Therefore, I believe "moralized medicine" is an elegant solution.
The point of disagreement is not "can this be symbolical", because we both believe it is. Rather, the question is: what does it symbolize? Since this step involves a certain degree of interpretation, it is obviously not possible to convince everyone.
Right, so we agree that works exist which appear to be about something else, but are actually Christian. This means the VM could be one such work. We believe it is overtly about the health of the body, while it is actually concerned with the well-being of the soul. We also believe that enough indications of this intentional ambiguity are present in the imagery, which is what the post is all about.
What I realized while researching was the following: if you know about medieval iconography and look at the VM from a distance, you will conclude that it is a medical compendium. But if you zoom in on the details, you notice that there are tons of problems. Most interpretations seem to dwell on the extremes of these observations. Experts will often carefully remark that it looks like a medical compendium (going as far back as Baresch) or at the very least a compendium of knowledge with a large medical component. But people who are driven to explain the details of the images tend to look for symbolical explanations, because they realize that it's hard to explain the images literally.
I think in order to understand the imagery completely, one needs to take these two perspectives into account. The overall appearance of a medical compendium needs to be addressed, but the deviations from the traditional images must be explained as well. Therefore, I believe "moralized medicine" is an elegant solution.
The point of disagreement is not "can this be symbolical", because we both believe it is. Rather, the question is: what does it symbolize? Since this step involves a certain degree of interpretation, it is obviously not possible to convince everyone.