Re: VMS -- Botany (f86v) Plant Reproduction

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:29 04/02/02 +0000, Gabriel Landini wrote:
> On 4 Feb 2002 at 10:34, Nick Pelling wrote:
> > It's certainly debatable, but the iconography of the page suggests to
> > me that spermatozoa are represented as dots: in which case both the
> > male (bottom left) and female (top left) have their own, which would
> > point to the answer being Galenic.
>
> This should imply that the dating of the ms is completely wrong...
> If we are to believe the signature at the front as proof of the ms passing 
> by Jacobus hands , JdeT received his title in 1608.
> The first compound microscope is attributed to Zacharias Jansen around 
> 1595. Spermatozoa had not been observed until
> van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), so really, I think that there is no reason to 
> believe that the page represents cellular
> elements.

OK, guilty as charged. :-)   For "spermatozoa are...", please read "the 
flow of 'active principle' (within sperm, as first described by Aristotle, 
later to be identified by microscopy as spermatozoa) is...".