22-08-2026, 12:42 AM
There is an interesting illustration of a mermaid and four fish in Harley 334. This manuscript is already relevant because of the cosmic comparison. Provenance: Paris, 2nd Qtr. 15th C. The text provides no identification. The similarities are based on the "mermaid" AND the four companions.
In Lauber's Book of Nature, a mermaid is found among the 'fish', and another among the 'sea monsters'. Mermaids are not persons; they are generic creatures.
The VMs representation is not a mermaid. She does not come from Christian or classical traditions. She is pagan water deity of sorts and seems best associated with the lesser-known version of the myth on Melusine. Not the Melusine dragon-lady, of Lusignan, married to Raimundo, and cultivated by the Duke of Berry, as much as the mermaid-like Melusine of Luxembourg, married to Siegfried, and presumed ancestress of Bonne of Luxembourg and her Valois descendants.
Like the VMs cosmos, this illustration is composed of two major ideological elements, but rather than being contradictory, they are more complementary. The artist has substituted mythical Melusine in the place of the generic mermaid AND her four companions.
This combination of structural elements is at least a fortuitous event, if not an intentional technique.
Oresme's cosmos AND the 43 undulations.
Nine nymphs wading AND a half-arcaded fountain.
A bendy insignia with blue stripes AND a red galero.
In Lauber's Book of Nature, a mermaid is found among the 'fish', and another among the 'sea monsters'. Mermaids are not persons; they are generic creatures.
The VMs representation is not a mermaid. She does not come from Christian or classical traditions. She is pagan water deity of sorts and seems best associated with the lesser-known version of the myth on Melusine. Not the Melusine dragon-lady, of Lusignan, married to Raimundo, and cultivated by the Duke of Berry, as much as the mermaid-like Melusine of Luxembourg, married to Siegfried, and presumed ancestress of Bonne of Luxembourg and her Valois descendants.
Like the VMs cosmos, this illustration is composed of two major ideological elements, but rather than being contradictory, they are more complementary. The artist has substituted mythical Melusine in the place of the generic mermaid AND her four companions.
This combination of structural elements is at least a fortuitous event, if not an intentional technique.
Oresme's cosmos AND the 43 undulations.
Nine nymphs wading AND a half-arcaded fountain.
A bendy insignia with blue stripes AND a red galero.