26-09-2025, 09:35 PM
Great lecture, thanks! The argument that the manuscript is basically a loose collection of papers that somehow ended up in traditional binding seems convincing to me. However, I am not quite sure what to make of the West African analogy and the theory of a teaching environment using this kind of setup.
On one hand, if this had been an established teaching method in Europe, would we not have some evidence of it, such as other manuscripts? Would the materials be used in such an environment? Without clear evidence for a connection to teaching, use of single sheets could also reasonably be explained by a medicinal or alchemical context where one wants to be able to take out the one sheet that is relevant to the task at hand.
On the other hand, a teaching background works well as a possible explanation for some of the manuscript's other features such as the different hands compiling it and maybe even the non-identifiable plants, because the contents may not have mattered too much if the purpose is an exercise or examination in a language/cipher/code.
On one hand, if this had been an established teaching method in Europe, would we not have some evidence of it, such as other manuscripts? Would the materials be used in such an environment? Without clear evidence for a connection to teaching, use of single sheets could also reasonably be explained by a medicinal or alchemical context where one wants to be able to take out the one sheet that is relevant to the task at hand.
On the other hand, a teaching background works well as a possible explanation for some of the manuscript's other features such as the different hands compiling it and maybe even the non-identifiable plants, because the contents may not have mattered too much if the purpose is an exercise or examination in a language/cipher/code.