The Meaning Survey - March 2026

[Jorge_Stolfi]

In De Balneis you will find both arches and columns looking like the pipes from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and people laying under blankets.

I am quite sure that the Balneis was one of several books that the "Artist" was drawing "inspiration" from.  And this theory is at least 20 years old.  And recently people have posted clips from several versions, one of which includes a natural pool and water slide in a cave that may have been the source for part of f75r.

But very recently people have found other books that look very much like the sources for other drawings or details thereof.  There is a drawing of a water siphon in a book by Taccola that looks very much like the "mug handle" on the water slide of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -- except that the Scribe apparently did not understand what it was.

And recently also people have found a book by Oresme with a miniature that looks totally like the "spiral nebula with T-O map" of f68v3 -- except that, again, the "Artist" had no idea of what it was.

Ad someone also found a German book about the four seasons with drawings of "four ages of life" that look very much like the drawings on f85r2 -- except that (need to say?) the "Artist" again misunderstood several details.  (Like replacing a rosary or light chain by three linked rings of balls, and a doctor's urine sample flask by a perfume bottle.)

And someone noted that several details of the herbal section, like a "baby dragon" nibbling at a plant, look like they were copied (badly, of course) from the so-called Alchemists' Herbal.

And the scattered "painting keys" seen on some early Herbal pages were probably unthinkingly copied from painting keys or part labels seen in that or other herbals.  

I am sure that many more such "cribs" will eventually be identified.

All the best, --stolfi