Science, religion and magic are intimately related in medieval thought, but in the VM we barely see religious signs. What we do see, I think, is a rational attempt to explain the hidden powers of nature.
What does the Rosette folio represent? Getting it right is essential because the VM understanding depends on its interpretation. The VM is not an encyclopedia, it only talks about one thing: the influence of stars on herbs.
What I see in the Rosette folio is an attempt to describe the aristotelian-ptolemaic Universe. Spheres that communicate with each other through pipes through which astral virtues descend to Earth. The containers that we see in the central sphere are censers with the fragrance of herbs.
Is it the fruit of my imagination? Well, look again at this contemporary painting of the VM. You are not allowed to view links.
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What the Queen of Sheba offers to King Solomon is a censer. She controlled the route of incense and myrrh. The similarity of the container with those we see in the VM is extraordinary. The power of the stars is in the fragrance that the censers keep and give to the herbs.
That is why I believe that the city represented is Arin, the center of the Earth. Here, the influence of the stars is greater. In a book also contemporary of the VM, the
Tratado de Astrologia, by Enrique de Villena, it is said that in Arin trees bear fruit twice a year. This sense of the wonders of the world is that I think the author of the VM wanted to convey by drawing a fantasy herbarium