The VM as Outsider Art

[merrimacga]

Hello VM scholars! Here is my little essay on the nature of the VM, prompted by a cursory glance through the Yale University edition of 2016. I realize that this is a bit of a different approach than most here, but I'd love to hear any thoughts.  

Clearly you have already given this a lot of thought. I hope you will continue exploring this and develop your theory further.

The recipe of something like 90% Adolf Wolfi and Henry Darger and 10% JRR Tolkien and Leonardo DaVinci came at once to mind.

2. There is a strong impression of continuous creative flow throughout the MS.

Aside from the obvious weirdness of the illustrations and script, there is another peculiarity evident in the VM – the seamless, flowing uninterrupted creativity that seems to have created it.

4. The author seems to be familiar with the general appearance of contemporary texts but does not appear to fully understand their meaning.

Funny you should mention Da Vinci as one of my current theories is that the VM was originally the loose vellum sheets of notes of the original author written over many years, possibly decades, possibly including additional loose notes by others who inherited it from the original author. Much the same as Da Vinci's journals. The way the text flows and the rough nature of the botanical drawings suggest this. Further, I think it likely the original author had some higher education and exposure to other existing texts but that this education was probably incomplete. It is unlikely the author was anyone who would be remembered today, else someone would likely have identified the person by now. And I think it likely he or she practiced herbalism, alchemy, pharmacology and or medicine in a fairly remote area, possibly in some secrecy. Call it a working theory. Like you, I have a long, long way to go before I would classify it as anything more than that.

1. This is an Herbal of plants that do not exist.

3. The general quality of the illustrations is medium-low, like elaborate doodling.

Sure, you might manage to convince some people (even me) that You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. represents Cannabis, but this approach stubbornly turns its back on what must be the most plain and glaring fact about the botanical illustrations – that they are a flaming heap of ludicrous nonsense. Even by the admittedly low standards of early 15th century botanical illustration, the plants of the VM are blatantly silly. Sprouts emerge from a common root, put out leaves, then grow back into each other (F5v, F23r, F40r). Bizarre tubers abound, resembling Ernst Hackel’s fantastic sea creatures more than any root. Most interestingly to me, shoots often emerge from stems in a profoundly un-botanical fashion that recalls the plumbing seen in the balneological section (F9r, F11r, F13r, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and v, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and many others). While some illustrations can be found to resemble actual plants, there is simply no way that something like You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. or You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. can ever be decisively correlated to a known species.

That first line is an interesting way to phrase this but here is a different take. Rather than being fantastical plants (though fancifully drawn), my theory is all of these plants existed but at least some were (a) experimental and/or (b) became extinct sometime later. Add to this that the plant drawings are rather crude and inexact by comparison to other herbals of the time coupled with some unrealistic features that were characteristic of medieval herbals (at least the VM doesn't have any anthropomorphized mandrakes or human faces in the plants). There are elements in the VM that suggest it is partially alchemical, making it possible, if not likely, that at least some of the plants are experimental. Grafting techniques have existed for millennia. The VM author may have taken such experimentation much further. It is estimated that almost 600 plant species have become extinct since Carl Linnaeus published Species Plantarum in 1753. Who knows how many more species became extinct between 1400 and then? It is also theorized the VM originated somewhere in Central Europe, an area that contains several old growth or primeval forests currently that were likely much larger back then with additional forests that no longer exist. Even today, these forests contain many rare and unique species of plants. Imagine how many more such plants existed in that area back then. It is estimated there are currently 300,000-400,000 known species of plants in the world today. Mother Nature is highly inventive. Just look at currently known plants like the very large rafflesia, the gigantic titan arum, and the carnivorous Venus fly trap and somehow the VM plants no longer seem as unlikely.

Naturally, all this makes it highly unlikely we will be able to identify many, if any, of the VM plants with any degree of certainty as matching any extinct or extant plant. But not being able to do so is insufficient cause and even less proof that they are only imaginary.

It must be some sort of fantasy produced by someone aware of these discourses but working outside of them. We are left with the other class of explanations including outsider art, fraud or even parody.

While the VM is certainly mysterious and unique, that mystery may only be resolvable by the impossible dream of tracing the transient fantasies of one isolated and abnormal creative individual 600 years ago.

If you haven't already you might look at this thread on the VM and visionary art, where we also delved into the concept of medieval worldbuilding: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

If we consider the VM to be simply a fantasy, especially if we believe it was created by an isolated individual, we have to consider the time, the effort and the money it took to create it. You might want to check out this thread I started: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. It is estimated it took 14-15 entire calfskins to create the VM. Even if it was average quality, that much vellum would have been costly, probably too costly for creating merely a fantasy, a fraud/hoax, or a parody. Is it realistic to presume the author would have made this much effort to create such a work for such a reason when very few, if any, others would ever be able to read and understand it? And if it is a fantasy, why not create a more obvious novelization or play or poem instead of something that looks more like a botanical treatise?

All that said, I am in no way discounting your theory, though I may not entirely agree with it. But I would like to see you flesh it out more, go into more detail, consider how your theory could be disproven and if you can't disprove it, include what you referenced in the attempt and how you countered it. I think you have made some excellent points and it is a good beginning.