[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
VMs: Faces at the roots
Wayne writes:
In example, f33r is a plant with human faces at the roots, which
strange characteristic appears also on the label page f101v2. The
human head and face just jumps out, while the plant itself otherwise
does not appear related.
This erbario from the late XV Century (c.1460), Florentine School, fits
the general
idea of the VMS: all the plants have roots, and there is even a sample
with the proverbial split root with two faces.
There is also a certain similitude in the drawing style. Seeing this,
one can well understand why the VMS origin has been identified so far
as of "Northern Italy":
http://www.istitutodatini.it/biblio/images/en/riccard/2174/htm/
elenco.htm
I'm glad the Biblioteca Riccardiana decided to make it digitally
available to the public.
However, note that "faces at the roots" were not an exclusive feature
of the herbals of the Scuola Fiorentina - see this picture from another
Erbario (Scuola Bolognese - XV Century):
http://www.dipbot.unict.it/Erbario/erb_maXV.jpg
On the issue of roots: drawings of plants with roots is a trend that
dates back to Dioscorides, and perhaps before him, since most of what
he did came from others. But it would be interesting to see what sort
of plants these "faces at roots" hint of.
I'm interested to see what comes out of JH's plant identification
efforts and if there are any comments out there for Elmar's 'graphic
decomposing' approach.
Also, I've followed up on suggestions made by Petr regarding Carrichter
and Thurneisser, and
have wondered if Dodoens, a Belgian physician to Rudolph II with a
penchant for botany books with an astrological-medical tone (he wrote
some himself), ever got to see the VMS. Tsk, a futile speculation,
since it is more than likely that we'll never find out.
Luis
______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body saying:
unsubscribe vms-list