Ugly Duckling

[dashstofsk]

There is an kind of laziness to some of the illustrations

I think that the astrological pages of the manuscript are actually done quite well. It is in the botanical pages and in quire 13 where the illustrations are bad.

I can envisage a scenario that might explain the differences.

It is that the manuscript was written as separate pieces of work, section by section. The author initially had no intention of creating a work of ~225 pages. Initially the author's intention was modest, to write something that would generate interest, and then to wait and see how it was received before committing himself to doing any more. The author probably felt that in order to create a success with the initial offering he would have to take care and make it look professional. So some of the astrological pages of the manuscript, perhaps even the 3x2 sheet, being the most professional looking, probably came first. Thereafter the author, now being pleased with his success and being full of confidence that success with additional writing would be certain, felt that he could relax his effort. So he started to get careless and subsequent illustrations became 'lazy'.