Re: VMs: RE: Writing in plant illustrations

["Jeff" <jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If we consider that there may have been two authors then one may have
determined the colours for the plants. Both may have been involved in
drawing or colouring. The designer had the overall plan. The VMS was only
partly completed when the designer died. This would account for the colour
information being rarer as the VMS progressed. This left the other author to
finish the VMS as best he could. He may not have had the information
necessary to make a good job of it.

It depends upon whether there were enough clear notes available to make
accurate drawings and colour guesses. This may be why the plants look
strange. Also this could account for the missing pages. They were meant to
be there but no notes had been compiled to complete them. So the second
author simply omitted them.

If the second author was an admirer of the first, he being a pupil of the
first, then he would feel obliged to finish as a tribute to his teacher.

Jeff


----- Original Message -----
From: "Walter Ogburn" <ogburn@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 17 June 2004 07:09
Subject: Re: VMs: RE: Writing in plant illustrations


> That explanation does make a lot of sense, especially after reading about
this
> kind of notation in Mark Hippenstiel's medieval manuscript link.
>
> Would it be normal for the painting to hide or smear out most of these
notes?
> There are lots of places that look like they could have had a few letters
> mostly hidden or washed out, but it's too easy to imagine such things so
I've
> disregarded them.  That would explain why the visible notes are so rare.
It
> would also have to be true that the painter didn't always follow the
> directions, since the f4r "rot" for instance is not painted over.  Of
course,
> if some were missed they would be the ones that are easiest to see now.
>
> Perhaps the character like a backwards "y" in f9v and elsewhere is an
> open-topped "p" (I've seen these in some scripts at least).  Could it be
for
> "purpur"?  I could believe that the first item in f9v is "pur," and the
one
> on f32r does look like "pu."  These are both associated with blue-painted
> flowers, not really purple.  The same character in f20r is a mystery -
it's
> not painted over at all, and there's no purple or blue nearby.  The "p" in
> "portas" on f116v also has an open top.
>
> Interesting stuff!
>
> - Walter
>


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