RE: Codicology - Vermont 'Tuscany Herbal'
-JKP- > 28-05-2016, 07:16 PM
Diane wrote: "North Italy is a perfectly ordinary way of describing the region from which a manuscript has come. Look at any catalogue.
Northern Italy is the northern part of Italy.
It excludes Germany, Switzerland, France, Southern Italy etc."
Whatever works for you, Diane, if you want to be perfectly ordinary, but in the 14th and 15th centuries, northern Italy as we know it was part of the southern Holy Roman Empire and Lombardy stretched from Austria to the borders of France and Spain. They still speak Lombardic in the now-smaller Lombardy region, by the way—it's only in the last few decades that the Italian language has become dominant. The VMS was written in those times, not now. Migration, communication, and the provenance of the VMS WILL be influenced by those cultural and political ties.
Diane wrote: "(4) Salerno, Germanic?!! You really have to be joking."
No, I am not joking. The Principality of Salerno was under Lombard (southern Scandinavian) rule from the 9th century and many of the colonists remained there for a significant period of time after the Lombard kingdom passed on. The Lombards were able to sweep southward through the Italic city states because there had been a decimation in the Italic populations at the time (they colonized parts of the Greek islands and north Africa, as well). That's why most of northern Italy was Germanic at the time.
This cultural mixing in Salerno turned out to be a good thing in terms of intellectual development in the area. The legend accompanying Salerno is that it was founded by a Greek, a Jew, a Latin and an Arab. Whether or not that's true, it indicates that they had a certain pride in the multicultural makeup of their unique history and Salerno (and the herbal tradition) particularly flourished after this period.
But what is particularly important vis-a-vis the Voynich mansucript is that the ties between Salerno and the southern Holy Roman Empire influenced the dissemination of the herbal manuscript copies that were spreading from this hot spot to other regions and, from there, also to England through the strong ties between London, Bury St. Edmunds, Ireland, and St. Gall (this was an extremely significant information conduit, maybe even stronger than the one between Paris and England in terms of manuscript "sharing").
"Diane wrote: You assume that the Voynich botanical folios are related to the Latin European herbal genre. Perfectly understandable..."
That's nonsense.
I have NEVER said the botanical folios are related to the Latin European herbal genre. I have never said it. I have never thought it.
I have said that one botanical image bears a striking resemblance to one very specific herbal illustration (and it does). That is not a theory; that is not a hypothesis. It's a statement of fact about one tiny fraction of the herbal compendium, and not sufficient data for any kind of theory. I have no interest in developing theories until I have enough data.
Diane wrote: "As you know, I do not consider the primary purpose of those roundels to relate to astrology;..."
As you know, if you've been reading this forum, I also do not consider the primary purpose of those roundels to necessarily relate to astrology. I see them as anchors for conveying the larger body of information contained in the wheels surrounding them. There are astrological references in various parts of the manuscript, as was common to anything in the middle ages that related to medicine, kabbala, magic, or similar topics, but I'm not convinced they are the central focus of these pages.
Diane wrote: "I think it self evident that the central emblems, read as a series, do not constitute the zodiac series as it was depicted in Latin works between the 9thC AD and AD 1438. It is not a zodiac in my opinion. The month-names allow us to describe it as some form of calendar."
The month names are written in another hand and probably another ink. It is my opinion that they were probably added later by someone trying to decode the manuscript and have nothing to do with the original author's intentions.
Diane wrote: "For a great many reasons, including the fact that it includes only ten months, now, I consider the calendar related to the sailing season. (which of course, was also the pilgrimage season and trading season)."
It's also possible that the sequence starts with Pisces (rather than the traditional Aries or Aquarius) because it is only secondarily associated with astrology or seasons and is there for its association with the best times to do things (possibly as illustrated by the figures in the surrounding wheels). There are many medieval manuscripts with lists of the best days of the months (and unlucky days of the months), along with the best months for doing certain things, not just labors of the month (like the best times to plant), but also the best months to marry, best months to conceive a child, etc. Sometimes these are written as lists or drawn as textual calenders. It's possible the VMS illustrator took a textual reference of this pervasive idea and re-envisaged it as series of drawings.
It's also possible this is a visually coded journal. Let's say, for example, the person who created the manuscript was at the Council of Constance or some other major activity like a spying mission to Constantinople, and used these as an anchor for noting a series of events of what happened while participating.
I've never assumed the zodiac imagery represented zodiacs, but the imagery is most certainly influenced by zodiac signs. No one accidentally comes up with pictures that resemble Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius, in that order.
Diane wrote: "It would be considered appropriate courtesy for other members of this list to hold off duplicating my current topic of research work until it has been published, and then if they wish to add comments, or suggest modifications either by email to me, or by comments to the blog. "
Diane, since it's unpublished, we have no idea what you have written about, especially those of us who have not read any (or very many) of the old blog entries about the VMS. Except for a few rare exceptions, I didn't start reading blogs until the Blogosphere reader was created and even now, with long working hours, I don't have time to read them all. What you're proposing is like Hayden asking Beethoven not to write any more symphonies until he's finished the ones he's working on.