26-08-2025, 05:31 PM
Very interesting! So it is indeed an aberration.
I have a completely uneducated guess on why the makers of the chronicle chose to depict Mainz with swallowtail merlons. If I understand the text above the image correctly, it goes to great lengths to paint Mainz as a Roman city, preferring the origin of its name in Roman times rather than from the Main river. (This is actually true!). It also appears to say that some of the architecture in the city still betrays its Roman origin.
They clearly knew swallowtails came from Italy (see the Venice image for example). So what if they thought these fitted with the city's origin? After all, swallowtail merlons had existed for many centuries by the time this woodcut was made.
In other words: the text emphasizes that Mainz has Roman origins and still shows the signs of that. So why not put some "Roman" flair on the walls?
I have a completely uneducated guess on why the makers of the chronicle chose to depict Mainz with swallowtail merlons. If I understand the text above the image correctly, it goes to great lengths to paint Mainz as a Roman city, preferring the origin of its name in Roman times rather than from the Main river. (This is actually true!). It also appears to say that some of the architecture in the city still betrays its Roman origin.
They clearly knew swallowtails came from Italy (see the Venice image for example). So what if they thought these fitted with the city's origin? After all, swallowtail merlons had existed for many centuries by the time this woodcut was made.
In other words: the text emphasizes that Mainz has Roman origins and still shows the signs of that. So why not put some "Roman" flair on the walls?
![[+]](https://www.voynich.ninja/images/collapse_collapsed.png)