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Swallowtail merlons... or provenance
- Swallowtail merlons... or provenance
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RE: Swallowtail merlons... or provenance
VViews > 31-10-2017, 05:38 AM
Simena castle ruins, Kalekoy, Turkey:
![[Image: Kalekoy3.jpg]](http://www.tieweng.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Kalekoy3.jpg)
This is a medieval byzantine castle, but I have no idea of the date of construction unfortunately. -
RE: Swallowtail merlons... or provenance
Koen G > 31-10-2017, 06:04 AM
Nice, VViews. The only date I've found is on the German wiki, built by the knights of st john in the early 1500s.
However, this brought me to Bodrum castle, which was built by the same order a century earlier:
Quote:Bodrum Castle, aka the Castle of St. Peter, was built starting in 1402 by the Order of the Knights of Saint John, who were seeking safety from the invading Seljuks
![[Image: bodrum-north-greek-islands.jpg]](https://alaturkayachting.com/photo/gr/bodrum-north-dodocanese-islands-bodrum/62872d14b9fd034f3756c094ea1ac316/bodrum-north-greek-islands.jpg)
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RE: Swallowtail merlons... or provenance
-JKP- > 31-10-2017, 09:04 AM
(31-10-2017, 06:04 AM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Nice, VViews. The only date I've found is on the German wiki, built by the knights of st john in the early 1500s.
However, this brought me to Bodrum castle, which was built by the same order a century earlier:
Quote:Bodrum Castle, aka the Castle of St. Peter, was built starting in 1402 by the Order of the Knights of Saint John, who were seeking safety from the invading Seljuks
Always look carefully at the merlons in these pictures. Is the color and texture of the stone slightly different from the stones below? In this case they look suspiciously finer-textured and just a tiny bit more evenly gray. It may or may not mean anything, maybe the originals were made from different stone from the rest of them, but many castles have rebuilt their towers and merlons over the centuries, so it's always best to be cautious in deciding.
I based my research on merlons on old maps and drawings rather than on photos, to see where they were located in the 15th centuries, but these resources are, of course, quite sparse. -
RE: Swallowtail merlons... or provenance
Paris > 27-09-2018, 10:10 AM
(05-02-2016, 12:01 AM)don of tallahassee Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.May I suggest the three castles in Bellinzona, Switzerland might have had a resemblance to the buildings in the VMS in the early 15th Century (they still do now) and still have swallowtail merlons - always have, I think?
Thank you.
Don of Tallahassee
I think it's a good suggestion, don.
Bellinzona is a medieval city located in south of Switzerland and protected by three castles (Castelgrande, Montebello and Sasso Corbaro).
Once again the castle in VMS (Rosette page).
And now, two pictures of the three castles.
I'm not writing these castles are the same that the one in the VMS but just that the two kind of merlons can still exist in a same castle.
Last thing interesting, but it's probably a coincidence, the coat of arms of this city (Bellinzona) is :
This coat of arms makes me think to the snake in folio 43v.
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RE: Swallowtail merlons... or provenance
-JKP- > 27-09-2018, 11:09 AM
I wouldn't discount the possibility of emblems in the plants... they might be there.
But the root that you displayed may be a mnemonic for the plant. There are many plants with the name snake-something (like snake-root) and also many plants specifically used to treat snake-bite, both of which often have snake roots in herbal manuscripts. -
RE: Swallowtail merlons... or provenance
Anton > 28-09-2018, 12:59 AM
I once took notice of Bellinzona as the possible prototype, but dismissed it, don't remember why exactly, but I believe I considered its merlons somehow out of time, for example Sasso Corbaro was built only in the late 15th century.
The pitfall with castles is that many of them have been repeatedly rebuilt, and their modern view is often not what it was back then, in the time frame of interest.
It's entirely possible, I think, that the building depicted in the VMS is simply long destroyed. -
RE: Swallowtail merlons... or provenance
-JKP- > 16-03-2020, 02:45 AM
Slightly off-topic, but since it includes some historical information on the Ghibellines (who used the swallowtail merlons as one of their political emblems) and the Guelphs, I thought readers might enjoy this...
It's about the connections between Romeo and Juliet and the political history of the area where the Ghibelline merlons were most prevalent:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
A fun read. -
RE: Swallowtail merlons... or provenance
Aga Tentakulus > 16-03-2020, 08:43 AM
I took a quick look at Bodrum Castle upstairs.
It has the same architecture as on Rhodes. (crown battlements).
Seems to be a feature of the eastern Mediterranean.
Apparently the repairs to both castles were carried out from the same cultural background.
Rhodes original and after the explosion. Whereby they really exaggerated with one tower.
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RE: Swallowtail merlons... or provenance
-JKP- > 16-03-2020, 10:50 PM
I spent a lot of time looking at old paintings, maps, and manuscript illuminations, trying to figure out when the swallowtail merlons were added to the Rhodes complex. I would have to doublecheck my notes to be sure (it's almost 10 years since I specifically looked into this), but as far as I can remember, the first ones were probably added in approximately the last quarter of the 15th century and they've been adding them and extending them ever since.