22-01-2026, 08:17 PM
(22-01-2026, 07:26 PM)R. Sale wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.It has been suggested that the VMs plants section is the botanical equivalent of a medieval bestiary - fantastical representations of real animals and hypothetical images of imaginary animals.
You've mentioned the "eagle root" several times (presumedly f46v). That designation is problematic in that it stems from an attempt to connect this artistic element with the double-headed eagle of the Holy Roman Empire. However, as you can see, the image doesn't have one head, let alone two. Furthermore. the representation has no feet or tail. At best, it is a pair of connected wings, a heraldic vol. But whose wings are they?
The flowers have been identified (by some) as costmary, the herb of the Virgin, from the medieval tradition of the so-called Mary's Garden. If the wings are attributed to the Archangel Michael, in his capacity as psychopomp, then the illustration is a sort of botanical representation of the Assumption of the Virgin.
It is interesting to speculate whether the VMs artist was making this sort of subtle analogy.
Actually, I mentioned the eagle before in relation to the medicinal value of plant for eyesight (as quoted from the dissertation I was linking), you may want to go back to that post to see it as the passage was interesting; somehow the eagle's superior eyesight was used to suggest the medicinal value of this plant, perhaps, if this was the same plant.
So there could be that, or yet, could be reference to some royal emblem, and really a symbolic representation does not have to be exactly like you may find in this or that royal court, like whether there are heads or not, or one or two heads, etc. I was just speculating about possible, non-medical, significance of the images. That's all, for now. Perhaps later we can find other connections, like the religious ones you suggested also.
I agree that it is interesting to make such speculations, and I have a feeling that amid a wider context of dots connected, it may find new meanings.