(26-09-2025, 10:07 PM)R. Sale wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.As they say, it's complicated. It's a combination of factors. The artist is clearly making an effort to disguise things. At the same time, there is a great loss of cultural contact. We don't know what information the VMs artist(s) may have known about the relevant culture prevalent 1400-1450. When it comes to heraldry, the artist may have been using a means of communication of which the "reader" is not aware. Heraldic elements like the nebuly line and papelonny fur or techniques like heraldic canting [rebus reading].
Then there was Colette of Corbie, totally contemporary with the VMs parchment dates. Plus, the connection of Pope Innocent IV to the original Poor Clares. Can anyone provide a better illustration of Colette's dreams than the VMs artist? <Not me.> Considering that this was a time of contention, and being caught on the 'wrong side' might be bad for the old career.
That’s what I originally thought, that there was something heretical about it. Now I’m playing with the idea that if the author is following alchemy tradition of using Christ as a metaphor for the Philosopher’s Stone (aqua vitae) hen tthe covertness is to hide the Stone! Steganographia!Wheres Waldo? I can also never get past the idea that the whole manuscript is actually some grandmasterly test.
