Has anyone put forward the hypothesis that quire 13 ( balneological ) is intended to portray witchcraft? It seems to me that this might give a plausible explanation for the pipes and the communal bathing and other strange things in this quire.
In many places witches are shown with their hands inside something that looks like a pipe. In particular in f82r. The centre image shows a witch with a hand inside a cross pipe with something blowing from the end at a bright star which leads by a thread towards a dark star that hovers over a dead person. The interpretation is that the witch has cast a spell over the person who now lies dead. The bright star represents life. The dark star, death. In You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. at the top two witches have their hands inside a pipe with stuff falling out between. What seems to be falling is lightning, rain, thunder, snow. The interpretation is that the witches have the power to alter the weather and bring down a deluge. In the bottom image on You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. you see once again snow, rain, a downpour, with witches working their magic. In the centre image on f77r, once again a pipe. Also in f77v, f83r, f83v.
So what are the pipes? The hypothesis is that the pipes are intended to represent the conduits by which spells travel through the ether. Belief in witchcraft was very strong to people in the 15th century. If you got ill or your farm animals died or the land flooded or extreme weather ruined your crops then it was the work of a witch. Moreover they had the powers to project a spell over some distance.
There are also other images of death. In You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. at the bottom farm animals are floating in the pond, dead. The figure on the left is being swallowed by a whale. A witch is shown with a hand in the conduit flowing into the pond. The interpretation is that the pond has been deliberately hexed with a poisonous spell and is now possessed.
Other strange things: in You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. the figure top left is holding a herb. The figure underneath is holding a dead chicken. This hints at a black ritual.
A hypothesis for the communal bathing can also be suggested. Just as in the christian tradition it is necessary for the faithful to commune with regular congregation in order to fortify their faith so a similar need exists in witchcraft, for witches to renew their powers and also as an initiation into their circle. Because christian blessings came down to good people from on high from the direction of heaven the powers of sorcery came up from the underworld. Bathing in a pool is how the witches submit themselves to the underworld in order to receive its ‘blessings’. Traditional folklore frequently quotes the ritual of witches going out at midnight on a full moon to bathe in fresh spring water.
Of course we know today that this is all bunkum. But people in the 15th century took it seriously. So might it be that someone of more progressive thought decided to take advantage of these beliefs, created a deliberate deception, and wrote not fact but a fabricated lie, to make people believe that there was some distant land where they used a strange alphabet and where they had the secret of witchcraft? Such a claim would have been of immense curiosity.