RE: VMs: Real Monks prefer (fake) blondes?

["GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxx>]

Very funny Nick!  But correct as always.  No one thing in this
manuscript seems to point in any direction, and no matter what we
come up with, each individual bit of information can be easily
refuted.  D'Imperio points to Italy in clothing identification,
but I easily dismiss that based on what I know about trade and
commerce in this period.  What's hip in Italy today is hip two
years later in London circa 1500.  (England appears to have had
some resistance to French influence at this time, however).  Also
in England, a student would have viewed manuscripts that were
largely copies from Italian sources, handed down and modernized
over the centuries. Far too many variables to be certain about
anything, it seems.

Askham was familiar with the treatments you talk about, I"m sure.
He has recipes for clearing up what we now call acne, as well as
several medications for fair complexion, and just about everybody
at this time knew that arsenic would give a woman rosy cheeks
while paling the general complexion.  I haven't ran across
anything so far in the way of changing hair color, although he
does have several treatments for the growing or restoring of hair.
And if you needed to get rid of an evil spirit, he was the man to
see! :-0

While we're on this particular subject of lotions and potions, I'd
like to harken back to your comment that the labels in the
pharmaceutical/antidotary section are probably apothecary's
weights and measures.   In Texican I'd have to say "That don't
make no sense no how". I've gone through so many books between
1450 and 1550 on the subjects of surgery, medicine, blood letting,
urine testing, herbal growth, harvesting, etc., and in no single
instance are weights used.  As to measures, they are used
occasionally, but only in the broadest sense.  A "spoonful" here,
a "small quantitie" there, a "large quantitie" when things get
tough.  Virtually no weights, no measures, and no efforts at exact
duplication of effort or effect.  All the high math went not into
calculating the dosage, but into accurately calculating the
"astronomical" influences that gave these drugs their potency.
These guys tell you without blinking an eye that an herb that
works under Saturnian influences will NOT work when Saturn's
influence is not present.  The focus  on the effect of the drug,
or on its weights and measures is simply not there.  The focus on
medication itself did not come until major literary attacks were
carried out against the 'science' of astrology in the late 16th
century and early 17th century helped to change the view of how
medication was administered, and how the results were interpreted.

Here's my interpretation of the anidotary section - It's almost
entirely comprised of roots, each with a leaf or two for
identification, a leaf structure that meant something to the
author.  If you look at herbal descriptions in books from this
time period, you'll see that many things with a similar leaf were
christened with the same properties, so it's the general structure
of the leaf that's important for identification, not an exact
drawing of any given plant.  This observation leads me to suspect
that the labels may be something more loose than actual plant
names, perhaps properties or influences, although I'd still hope
they are real plant names.

Roots were known to harbor some of the strongest of the
'astronomical' influences, (their take on roots having more bite
for a buck's worth of bark), so a section on root 'lotions and
potions' would be very important knowledge to a physicion.

FYI, and information for the few interested, I've delayed opening
the pages on the Askham section until I finish transcribing his
four primary books.  I had originally only intended to transcribe
the herbal so I could run the text 'through the cipher mill' as it
were, to gain comparative statistics, etc.  But after reading each
of these books carefully and taking him at his word that his
purpose was to give an understanding of medicine, not to the
physicion or scholar, but to the common man, I began to see that
what he set out in these books is the clearest picture I've yet
been able to obtain about the exact methodology employed by a
15th/16th century physicion.  Through these books you'll be able
to see with great clarity the serious role astrology played in the
mind of the medieval doctor, and how these beliefs were so deeply
imbedded that the only hope for modern medicine was to devestate
and destroy every block of this building and begin anew with fresh
material.  I'd often wondered why so much of the old was
discarded, but now I have no doubt as to why, and no doubt as to
whether such radical change was necessary.

It saddens me to say this - it really does, but our Voynich author
was no 'cutting edge' scientific genius.  Even if Askham was not
the author, an understanding of the educational format he lays out
will demonstrate most conclusively that the Voynich was written by
a 15th/16th century physicion accustomed to the same teachings and
methodologies.  Stone Age medicine and a never-ending love affair
with the moon.

GC










> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:owner-vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx]On
> Behalf Of Nick Pelling
> Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 4:15 AM
> To: vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: VMs: Real Monks prefer (fake) blondes?
>
>
> Hi GC,
>
> >But was this so 500 years ago?
>
> Don't forget that a number of contemporary lotions and
> potions in Northern
> Italy circa 1480 - most notably those compiled into
> Caterina Sforza's
> Experimenti, but there were supposedly many others -
> were for altering hair
> colour, skin colour, or for whitening teeth, softening skin etc.
>
> So, the blondes depicted may have been satisfied
> customers of our
> manuscript maker! :-)
>
> Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....
>
>
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