R. Sale > 14-07-2022, 06:35 PM
Hermes777 > 14-07-2022, 09:26 PM
Hermes777 > 14-07-2022, 10:09 PM
(14-07-2022, 02:43 PM)cvetkakocj@rogers.com Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.(14-07-2022, 12:04 PM)Hermes777 Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The answer must be that existing scripts were not adequate to the task.Because we are constantly reminded about the weird script, little research is done into the similarity of the script with the medieval Latin. In my research, I found clear similarity for all VM letters, except the four tall glyphs. Looking at the 15th century manuscripts in different languages we can see how different Latin letters were being adopted, and here and there some new letter-forms were created. The Gothic script also underwent changes to make all those minims more readable and to form distinctions between y, i and j. Slovenian people who prior used Glagolitza, had to switch to Latin writing, because their territory was divided after the disolution of the Patriarchate of Aquileia. At the time of the Basel council, it looked the western Church would permit the use of vernacular languages in liturgy, which also triggered the incentives to commit national languages to written form.
However, the promotion of vernacular language started before the appearance of humanism. The question was first raised when the Slavic people of Moravia began using their their language and developed Slavic literacy in Great Moravia, which also included Large part of present day Slovenia. Slovenian (Wendish in German, Schiavone in Italian) became the fourth sacred language, recognized by the Roman pope. In the 10th century, the use of Slavic language in liturgy was suppressed, the land of Great Moravia was divided, but rebellion against that and against the feudal church was growing as different religious sects began appearing under different names (Bogomils, Patereni, Kazars, Catars...) Within those movements, the objective was to promote art and literacy, so that people can read and interpret the biblical books.
All these movements were called 'sectarian'. Members and particularly leaders were persecuted, their literary works burned. The so-called sectarian language was developed, as Gabrielle Rossetti explains in his book Antipapal Sentiment. Dante was the first to use it to express his ideas in the plain eyesight, but in such a way that only select (sectarian) people were able to understand, because he used the symbols that were familiar to them. Rossetti (in the 18th century) even explains how Dante changed 9 to I. In his book, we can find the explanation for the weird pictures in the VM and their double meaning.
The alphabet used in the VM is mostly based on Latin. In some European scripts, the combinations of Latin letters were used for certain sounds. The Latin z was problematic, because it was pronounced as c (while C was pronounced as K or Č (ch) in Italian. For German language, special shapes of K and H were created, but they were cumbersome to write in cursive. In some manuscript, a small T was used that could easily be confused with other letters when it was connected to them. In many German words, double T was used. We can imagine the author of the VM writing his letter T as TT written with one stroke.
The Slovenian language does not have Q letters (KV or CV is used), so one of the first thing I changed in EVA was EVA-q
The most mysterious VM glyphs (EVA-f and p) might be inspired by author's own intention to connect it with the divine and solve the problems created by three different writing convention. With the introduction of the printing press at the end of the 15th century, those two glyphs would have been absolite.
Slovenian speaking people were divided among three different political entities in the 15th century - German, Hungarian, and Italian. As the Basel Council was counting on the use of the national languages in liturgy, it is possible that the Carthusians who united their four charterhouses, were attempting to write down the Slovenian language as it existed in oral form. This can be further substantiated with the fact that Nicholas Kempf, the prior of Jurklošter charterhouse, was one of the greatest proponents of the use of vernacular languages in liturgy and literature. Besides this, there are other possible reasons why he would write a book in Slovenian:
a) he had close ties with the Counts of Celje (the most powerful Slovenian noble family, rivaling with the Habsburg at the time;
b) there must have been an interest at the time Kempf was at Vienna, since Georgius de Sclavonia wrote a book on Glagolitza while he was a student there a few years before Kempf's arrival;
c) as a monk and Carthusian prior, he kept in touch with his students and with the professors at Vienna university where Slovenian, Brikcij Preprost was a rector at Kempf's life-time;
d) he might have co-autored the Latin grammar book (Grammatica nova) with two Slovenians from Celje region - Bernard Perger and Brikcij Preprost. (The third author was Nicholas of Novo mesto (Rudolphswert), but there was no other outstanding learned men at the time in this town, except Kempf, who was a Carthusian prior at nearby Pleterje Charterhouse. Besides philosophy and Latin, Perger had also studied grammar, mathematics, astronomy and classical literature.)
e) for many years, Kempf was a prior at Gaming, one of the most distinguished European monasteries at the time, and for over 20 years, he was a prior at Carthusian charterhouses in Slovenian speaking lands, precisely, in the monasteries supported by the Counts of Celje that could have supported his artistic activity;
f) Kempf also could have known Thomas of Celje, who was private tutor of Emperor Frederic's son Maximillian, and later the Bishop of Constance. It has been documented that Thomas wrote Slovenian grammar book and dictionary, but since the manuscript does not exist, there is no proof for that.
In my opinion, the VM might be a collective work of those learned men and the story about the Slovenian book might have been a reference to the VM, which in some parts look like a dictionary (the labels) and a grammar book (pages with words starting with the same initial, or with the same prefix). But in general, the VM is primarily a religious book in style of humanistic 'sectarian' language, where each picture has a double meaning - one realistic and one symbolic, with just enough clues for the like-minded to understand the hidden messages.
To understand the VM, one needs to learn the symbolism of humanistic writing, the writing conventions used in the region of Northern Italy, Southern Austria, and present day Slovenia, and also a lot of history to find the reason why the language was written down. It took another 100 years, before the first Slovenian books appeared.
These are just a few ideas why I focused on the connection between Slovenian language and the VM.
Hermes777 > 15-07-2022, 02:14 AM
(14-07-2022, 03:55 PM)Helmut Winkler Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I think it is a mistake to classify Beinecke 408 as weird, it only entices you to look for out of the way solutions
ReneZ > 15-07-2022, 07:08 AM
R. Sale > 15-07-2022, 07:15 AM
Helmut Winkler > 15-07-2022, 07:54 AM
Koen G > 15-07-2022, 09:36 AM
ReneZ > 15-07-2022, 10:21 AM
Helmut Winkler > 15-07-2022, 04:20 PM
(15-07-2022, 09:36 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Rene: do you know of any other example of a foldout that unfolds in two dimensions, like the Rosettes?
Helmut: I don't buy that. Look at the foldouts in the small plants section for example. They are designed in such a way that one part fits the VM folio format and the other part can fold out. The same goes for the other foldouts in the MS: they are all designed with the VM's folio size in mind. The most obvious exception is the Rosettes, where they clearly wanted one big sheet to fit one big drawing. But the revers side is again neatly divided along the VM folio format.