No text, but a visual code

[Antonio García Jiménez]

Medieval thought is very allegorical and symbolic and this quality is transmitted to iconography, which on the other hand can be naive, the work of children. We see it, for example, in one of the VM plants with a root that resembles the body of a beast.

In the case of the luxurious containers on the Rosettes page you can see this almost childlike characteristic. The author has drawn some kind of claws at the base of the containers. It is a way of alluding to the fact that they are in the air, in the sky, and their claws serve to hold on. I think it is important to understand this medieval mentality that gives all its meaning to the iconography of the VM.

I am not in favor of making any categorical statement, but I am in favor of stating the degree of probability of each interpretation. In the case of these containers, which we also see in different shapes in the pharmaceutical section together with leaves and roots and other parts of the plants, the most likely interpretation is that they store the beneficial essences of those plants, and that this essence is created with the help of the stars, in accordance with the medieval astrological mentality.