Re: VMs: Re: word length counts

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Gordon,

> A further point: the historical approach is something of a double-edged 
> sword in
> this context, because the same evidence can be taken as pointing in two 
> different
> directions - either the VMS as deriving from a tradition, or the VMS as the
> earliest example of a tradition. So, for instance, the earliest example of the
> Tree of Life is apparently from 1515, according to the interesting previous
> discussion on this topic. This means either that the VMS was composed
> substantially after the 1470-1500 date suggested by the other evidence 
> (plausible,
> but raising interesting questions), or that the VMS really is from 
> 1470-1500, and
> is therefore the earliest example of the Tree of Life. Hmmmm.....

Close analysis of medieval families of herbals is one area where causality 
(through the mechanism of cumulative scribal errors etc) has been invoked 
to powerful effect - and the same kind of analysis has helped inform other 
art historical analyses (such as of schools of painting, sculpture, and 
architecture).

The reason I'm just a bit skeptical about the claimed link with the Tree of 
Life is that (a) the 9-rosette picture shows no obvious signs of having had 
any additional pages attached, and (b) 10 seems to be a crucial number to 
Kabbalists, and one that's not really negotiable downwards (think Moses). :-o

FWIW, if I was looking for Kabbala-inspired imagery in the VMS, I'd look 
for things hidden within "non-herbal" herbal images - for example, f57r 
[the start of Quire 8] has ten groups of leaves, f65v has ten "root lumps" 
(call them what you will), f65r has two curiously looped branches, etc: and 
then there are all those shared roots (f43r?, f46r?, f52r, etc. As for the 
roots in f90v1... you make up your own mind. :-o

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....

PS: do the roots in f55v look like an elephant to anyone else? :-9 


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