Mark Knowles Wrote:
"I suppose to some extent it depends on one's perspective on the authors as to whether every detail in the manuscript was careful, calculated and well thought out or whether some things were ad hoc, inadvertent or just plain disorganised."
Indeed, it is all about perspective. Consider the value of ambiguity. How does the VMs artist create something that is strange and exotic, assuming the work was done prior to 1450?
The use of combinations creates ambiguity. Combinations in the plants, combinations in the cosmos, combinations with Melusine and the Golden Fleece. Taking what is known, the artist combines disparate parts to create ambiguity and the appearance of something strange and exotic. A marvelous text from an unknown source, from a land of great wisdom, as you can see.
It's all a matter of perspective. A question of who is fooling who? Is the VMs to be considered only based on its superficial appearance, or is something more subtle involved? Combination is part of the plan to create intentional ambiguity. It creates a more complex problem of identification that cannot be solved from a single source. The cosmic comparison, coming from the investigations of E. Velinska, is a great example of artistic manipulation. The comparison shows the full alteration of appearance yet a strong structural similarity with BNF Fr. 565, for starters.
Further investigation is an attempt to identify both parts of the combination. And to see that a combination of quite disparate parts is essentially an intentional challenge to the reader's familiarity with a set of historical events as ambiguously represented in certain VMs illustrations. But all interpretation of ambiguity is lost, from the modern perspective, when the necessary familiarity with that relevant history does not exist and recognition cannot occur. Who knows Oresme's cosmos? Who knows a nebuly line? Look at the history of VMs research. Who knows the list of things that the VMs artist knows and draws, combines and disguises? These intentional combinations use a subtle sophistication to disguise representations of a historical, religious tradition in VMs White Aries.
"I suppose to some extent it depends on one's perspective on the authors as to whether every detail in the manuscript was careful, calculated and well thought out or whether some things were ad hoc, inadvertent or just plain disorganised."
Indeed, it is all about perspective. Consider the value of ambiguity. How does the VMs artist create something that is strange and exotic, assuming the work was done prior to 1450?
The use of combinations creates ambiguity. Combinations in the plants, combinations in the cosmos, combinations with Melusine and the Golden Fleece. Taking what is known, the artist combines disparate parts to create ambiguity and the appearance of something strange and exotic. A marvelous text from an unknown source, from a land of great wisdom, as you can see.
It's all a matter of perspective. A question of who is fooling who? Is the VMs to be considered only based on its superficial appearance, or is something more subtle involved? Combination is part of the plan to create intentional ambiguity. It creates a more complex problem of identification that cannot be solved from a single source. The cosmic comparison, coming from the investigations of E. Velinska, is a great example of artistic manipulation. The comparison shows the full alteration of appearance yet a strong structural similarity with BNF Fr. 565, for starters.
Further investigation is an attempt to identify both parts of the combination. And to see that a combination of quite disparate parts is essentially an intentional challenge to the reader's familiarity with a set of historical events as ambiguously represented in certain VMs illustrations. But all interpretation of ambiguity is lost, from the modern perspective, when the necessary familiarity with that relevant history does not exist and recognition cannot occur. Who knows Oresme's cosmos? Who knows a nebuly line? Look at the history of VMs research. Who knows the list of things that the VMs artist knows and draws, combines and disguises? These intentional combinations use a subtle sophistication to disguise representations of a historical, religious tradition in VMs White Aries.