01-08-2022, 10:41 PM
The challenge of the VMs is to understand the manuscript. Since we can't read the writing, we are left to interpret the illustrations. There are a number of VMs illustrations that are examples for discussion regarding their interpretation and provenance.
I am not the originator of most of those interpretations. I did not invent the Golden Fleece hypothesis. You can dismiss it if you want. But if you take it seriously, then there you are: Burgundy, 1430. A clue based on an event that occurred in 1430, and look it up. This is something the artist knows, let's presume, because the artist was immersed in the culture of that era. And that has become the common factor in a growing set of interpretations. That it makes sense within the cultural interpretation, if the cultural interpretation is still known - like Melusine and Valois. The Valois of Berry and BNF Fr. 565. The Valois of Burgundy and the Golden Fleece.
In order to investigate, there needs to be a thorough understanding of the relevant era, there is also a range of variation within the relevant era. There were mystics and heretics with all types of ideological variations, not all of them got published. If the VMs had a purpose, what was that purpose? And what was the author's state of mind? Alchemy, astrology, religion, whatever, are opportunities for various forms of idiosyncratic ideology. It's yet to be proven that the writing is coherent. Parts of it maybe. Who knows? There are a variety of hypothetical options to consider.
I am not the originator of many of these interpretations, but I do agree with them. Melusine, the Oresme cosmos, connections to Mariology. And if one had never heard of the Arches of the Virgin, how can there be any type of recognition or comparison? It's not possible. It's the investigator's lack of knowledge that makes the connection impossible. While the VMs artist may have actually been inside the church itself.
What I'm doing here, I think, is collecting and putting together a set of previous and present investigations, by various VMs researchers, that are compatible with a historical / chronological perspective that fits in the 1430-1440 decade and makes use of traditions and mythologies that were prevalent in that era. That doesn't mean that I personally believe in them, if that's the problem.
I am not the originator of most of those interpretations. I did not invent the Golden Fleece hypothesis. You can dismiss it if you want. But if you take it seriously, then there you are: Burgundy, 1430. A clue based on an event that occurred in 1430, and look it up. This is something the artist knows, let's presume, because the artist was immersed in the culture of that era. And that has become the common factor in a growing set of interpretations. That it makes sense within the cultural interpretation, if the cultural interpretation is still known - like Melusine and Valois. The Valois of Berry and BNF Fr. 565. The Valois of Burgundy and the Golden Fleece.
In order to investigate, there needs to be a thorough understanding of the relevant era, there is also a range of variation within the relevant era. There were mystics and heretics with all types of ideological variations, not all of them got published. If the VMs had a purpose, what was that purpose? And what was the author's state of mind? Alchemy, astrology, religion, whatever, are opportunities for various forms of idiosyncratic ideology. It's yet to be proven that the writing is coherent. Parts of it maybe. Who knows? There are a variety of hypothetical options to consider.
I am not the originator of many of these interpretations, but I do agree with them. Melusine, the Oresme cosmos, connections to Mariology. And if one had never heard of the Arches of the Virgin, how can there be any type of recognition or comparison? It's not possible. It's the investigator's lack of knowledge that makes the connection impossible. While the VMs artist may have actually been inside the church itself.
What I'm doing here, I think, is collecting and putting together a set of previous and present investigations, by various VMs researchers, that are compatible with a historical / chronological perspective that fits in the 1430-1440 decade and makes use of traditions and mythologies that were prevalent in that era. That doesn't mean that I personally believe in them, if that's the problem.