f82v: those rainbows

[-JKP-]

All I've got for now is that Isidore, in De Rerum Natura, describes rainbows as having four colors, in accordance with the four elements.

That's an interesting bit of information, might explain the somewhat limited palette we see in both manuscripts.

If you look really closely, you see that in the VM the band between green and blue is some faded yellowish color. Also in the other MS, the green seems to flow towards yellow. Though in both cases we must be cautious since the colors we see now may have shifted or faded.

I've collected quite a few rainbows from alchemical texts, where they have symbolic meaning related to the color sequence of chemical transformations.

They also show up in some of the old Mediterranean legends and were considered by northern cultures to be a bridge to other realms.


But... I have also seen some "blowing fabric" on ancient vases and mosaics that look like rainbows and it's not clear whether they are meant to represent fabric, rainbows, or both and... sometimes when I look at the VMS "rainbows" I am reminded of the talit, as well as the scarves worn in Christian services (I don't know what they are called).