03-09-2021, 10:05 PM
I think we have to be careful assuming that the person who drew these merlons (no, autocorrect, I don't mean melons) took them from his own surroundings. I can draw a mosque or a Greek temple or an igloo but that doesn't mean I live near any of those structures, nor that I have ever seen one in real life, nor that I have ever even visited the places where they occur.
That is one of the two questions I've been looking into, though without much success: since the architecture is typical for a certain region, may it also be used by outsiders to refer to that region? I think this is certainly possible, though perhaps not the most likely. I see no reason why the VM should have been produced outside of the region where these merlons may have been known from proximity.
What I wonder most though, is whether these merlons still meant something more than an ornament in the 15th century itself.
That is one of the two questions I've been looking into, though without much success: since the architecture is typical for a certain region, may it also be used by outsiders to refer to that region? I think this is certainly possible, though perhaps not the most likely. I see no reason why the VM should have been produced outside of the region where these merlons may have been known from proximity.
What I wonder most though, is whether these merlons still meant something more than an ornament in the 15th century itself.