(30-08-2016, 02:00 PM)Koen Gh. wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....to give you something concrete, these are some of the things I currently find likely. I'll add a (D) to those that are based on Diane's conclusions, (K) to my own additions/points of disagreement:
- The first documents that provided the base for the various sections were from the Hellenistic period (D)
- The various sections were not originally meant to for a whole. The manuscript is compound. (D)
- What unifies the material is its relevance for the Eastern trade (routes, products, astrology, navigation...) (D)
- The reason why the material was maintained relatively unaltered for such a long time is that trade = money. (D)
- References are made to the kind of astronomy the average Greek would know (Aratus...) (K)
- The small plants section was probably something like an illustrated glossary, teaching Greek speakers the most relevant foreign names for plants or derived products. (K)
I agree with the first point, but I rather consider this point in another context. I think that the closest to the VMs Zodiac is the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., to the point, it is also considered unusual, its source(s) is/are unknown, as well, and supposed to be Greek and Arabic, including Syrian.
Anyway, if we closer learn a certain manuscript, it is turned out to be unique and unusual in one or another detail. The main difference is that most of illustrated manuscripts are not enciphered.
Quote:You can see that the second approach requires more steps than the first one. If you think the MS is the work of a 15thC creative individual, you just look for the closest matching contemporary source and everything that does not match is the result of this author's unusual world view.
Yes, I think the author was pretty creative
Quote:What we are trying to do in this thread, is to find artifacts that might actually explain the weird aspects of the imagery. This is more difficult, but ultimately has more explanatory value and allows us to say more about the way this material was created and altered throughout the centuries.
As I understand, we are all see different signs in the same things. As I said, interpretation of images is a pretty thankless task, but I hope it will lead you to something that help to decipher the VMs. It seems, my attempt to pay attention to "lunar" and alchemical signs in the VMs and to obscure inscriptions is unsuccessful. And I have no idea, whether someone saw them or didn't.