f18v...Dioscorides...something about those leaves

[Koen G]

It's interesting that some of the VM things that look absurd could actually be explained by reliance on tradition. The challenge would be to make these correspondences more concrete, i.e. to do more with them than just point out similarities. Finding out how to do that - establish a more systematic correspondence to certain sources -  would mean a lot for the "sources vs. nature" debate. It is certainly not easy, otherwise it would have been done already.

One thing I've been talking about with Cary is that it would be interesting to go through a number of other herbals and see to what extent they have any of the salient features we singled out for the alpha vs beta distinction. Paying attention to "different leaf shapes on the same plant" is what led me to notice these things here. Whatever is done would have to be a systematic approach rather than the haphazard piling up of resemblances I'm doing now.

For example, how often does the MS depict the terrain around the plant? How about "grass"? When flowers are drawn from the side, is it one layer of petals or two?

There are also interesting features that were not in our A/B distinction, like "stalk stubs". Do all traditions depict these regularly? Or only more naturalistic ones like the Dioscorides? You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.