08-07-2026, 11:21 AM
Much appreciated!
Would it even be possible to scrape ink off medieval paper? It would have soaked deep. I don't think such annotations were a concern in low quality reproduction like those Gart der Natur copies. But again - what was the point at all? What the illustrations share with the VM is the curious fact that they are large but ugly drawings with unclear function. Drawings in herbals were - as we know - mostly ornamental. The Cgm 728 and Strasbourg 2152 illustrations aren't too bad (at least better than most VM plants), but in Cgm728 most plants were skipped, and in the Strasbourg manuscript the paintjob utterly ruined them to the point of being an eyesore. You can't discern much either anymore.
So why? This was a lot of work, but for what purpose? What do you do with such a manuscript? It looks more like an exercise from an unwilling student than a practical work. And certainly not aesthetically pleasing like the original print. There must have been some rationale behind it, and chances are not bad that a similar rationale was behind the VM.
Would it even be possible to scrape ink off medieval paper? It would have soaked deep. I don't think such annotations were a concern in low quality reproduction like those Gart der Natur copies. But again - what was the point at all? What the illustrations share with the VM is the curious fact that they are large but ugly drawings with unclear function. Drawings in herbals were - as we know - mostly ornamental. The Cgm 728 and Strasbourg 2152 illustrations aren't too bad (at least better than most VM plants), but in Cgm728 most plants were skipped, and in the Strasbourg manuscript the paintjob utterly ruined them to the point of being an eyesore. You can't discern much either anymore.
So why? This was a lot of work, but for what purpose? What do you do with such a manuscript? It looks more like an exercise from an unwilling student than a practical work. And certainly not aesthetically pleasing like the original print. There must have been some rationale behind it, and chances are not bad that a similar rationale was behind the VM.