(27-09-2016, 10:01 PM)Koen Gh. wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.With the recent attention for large plants mnemonics, I had a look at some of them again and saw something peculiar on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. .
First of all, in the top of the plant, we see that the flowers (?) or fruits and branches there are strangely symmetrical. This isn't unique in the MS, but there was a certain balanced quality to them that gave me pause.
I recognized immediately in the centre, rather unmistakably, the shape of the lyre. That's the easy part.
Now around this "lyre", are two hardly visible, remarkably thin and empty branches. They reminded me of two laurel branches, perhaps even positioned to evoke the shape of a laurel wreath together.
Finally, the two remaining branches form two horizontal, curved lines. They look like a composite bow (in relaxed position).
The lyre, laurel and bow are the main attributes of Apollo. In the beginning I thought the composite bow was a bit anachronistic, but apparently bows of that shape have even been found in Tutanchamun's tomb, and various forms of them were known all around the world and throughout the ages. So this should be compatible with a wide range of views on the manuscript as well.
Another symbol of Apollo was the raven, though I'm not sure if and how that is present in the plant. The berries that look like eyes? I'll pass on that one.
Apart from that, I have no idea which plant this could be. Might the brownish color of the leaves indicate that they are used in a dried condition? Laurel itself does not have serrated edges like that. All ideas and suggestions are welcome
I've been wondering about this as well. It reminded me of a lyre bird (those extra "branches" could suggest feathers) but I couldn't reconcile that with the plant because lyre birds are from Australia, which was unknown to the west at that time and I'm not aware of any specific connection between lyre birds and plants that might show up in a manuscript.
It also occurred to me that the bare branches might not be mnemonic, that they might be naturalistic. There are a number of plants that retain the bare seed branches into the next year, after the berries/seeds have fallen and even after the next year's fruiting branches have grown.