09-06-2026, 01:13 PM
This thread again is asking a just fairly correct question, but coming from a wrong guideline:
there is not the slightest hint that the „balnear“ and „zodiac“ nudes are somehow „nymphs“ at all.
The right questions would be:
- where (in Europe) was an extensive bathing / water culture part of the living at beginning of 15Ct and before? (there are some)
- where (in Europe) was it normal, accepted or for scholar/educational uses just tolerated to show such nudity at ~95% of the whole book?
This is reducing the chance of being a western-european manuscript by numbers:
„bathing scenes“ in western cultures were mostly related to bathing houses aka brothels, and you can find a lot of examples involving men where this bathing led immediately to bed scenes.
Apart from the zodiacs, I don‘t see many male figures within the original VMS.
On the other hand, religious imagery shows a lot of nude human beings in hell or other inconvenient situations; they are also no nymphs, but their nudity is for that purpose accepted.
Beyond that, we found several bathing scenes in west-european manuscriptsat special occasions, but they never reach a majority.
there is not the slightest hint that the „balnear“ and „zodiac“ nudes are somehow „nymphs“ at all.
The right questions would be:
- where (in Europe) was an extensive bathing / water culture part of the living at beginning of 15Ct and before? (there are some)
- where (in Europe) was it normal, accepted or for scholar/educational uses just tolerated to show such nudity at ~95% of the whole book?
This is reducing the chance of being a western-european manuscript by numbers:
„bathing scenes“ in western cultures were mostly related to bathing houses aka brothels, and you can find a lot of examples involving men where this bathing led immediately to bed scenes.
Apart from the zodiacs, I don‘t see many male figures within the original VMS.
On the other hand, religious imagery shows a lot of nude human beings in hell or other inconvenient situations; they are also no nymphs, but their nudity is for that purpose accepted.
Beyond that, we found several bathing scenes in west-european manuscriptsat special occasions, but they never reach a majority.