More about VMs hats

[R. Sale]

Despite a perceived rash of nudity among the VMs nymphs, the clothing of the figures in the VMs zodiac sequence and elsewhere has been variously researched. Examples of men’s hats are found in the VMs Zodiac medallions of Sagittarius, the crossbowman, and in Gemini, the groom. Attempts have been made to match dagged sleeves and various other elements to what is known of the late medieval fashion time line, but elements of imprecision on both sides forestall the identification of any precise match.

Instead of proceeding in this direction, let the investigation go backward in the VMs. The crossbowman’s hat is blue; the grooms hat is green. The illustration before Gemini is the second part of split Taurus (f72v1), which is the darker representation. Here the nymphs freely romp having just stepped out of their tubs. Before that, in the first part of Taurus, the pale version, the nymphs are in tubs. Those it the top half are painted red, as if clothed (or sunburned?) and the ones at 12:00 o’clock, 1:00 o’clock, and 3::00 o’clock in the outer ring, and near 6:00 in the inner ring all appear to have green hats, similar to the example of Gemini.

Going to the preceding page, which is f71r White Aries, there are characters with potential hats of the same general style, but because they are either reddish or unpainted, there is the rise of potential ambiguity as to whether these are hats or hair. Dark Aries has examples of fancy ladies’ headgear in the outer ring at 3:00 and 9:00 o’clock. And prior to that VMs Pisces has five examples of blue hats or scarves on the right side of the outer ring.

So how does this help? What does it tell us? What does tradition have to say? There was a type of hat, derived from the Roman tradition, a broad-brimmed hat worn by travelers. It was adopted early on by the traveling clergy of the Catholic Church and became one of the signs of ecclesiastical heraldry, using different colors to identify different groups. Green was for abbots, red for cardinals, different ranks in the church hierarchy. White indicated a separate order within the church known as the Premonstratensians (originally Norbertines). They were canons, rather than monks or nuns. They lived in an abbey rather than a monastery, and they had greater contact with ordinary people in their ministries.

Founded near Laon in France in 1120 by Norbert of Xanten, the order rapidly expanded to England, Germany and eastward, then just as rapidly faded from historical significance it would seem, although they have been revived. The relevant exception here is that in the Catholic parts of the Low Countries the were not suppressed until after 1790 and the French Revolution.

The green galeros worn by abbots derive from Spanish tradition, and the use of the red galero by cardinals was instituted by Pope Innocent IV, when he was pope residing in Lyon. Among the interesting, but seemingly insignificant facts about this man, Sinibaldo Fieschi, is that he was one of the first, if not the first pope whose family was entitled to bear armorial heraldry. The current heraldic grants to all popes is the result of a much later (than VMs C-14), retroactive decision.

The armorial description or blazon of the Fieschi family insignia is: bendy, argent et azur, which as defined by heraldic tradition is a pattern of alternating silver (white) and blue diagonal lines in pairs. It might be noted that while the description contains only four words, there are more than four ways to represent this pattern; some right and some wrong; more than one of each. And it might also be noted that the VMs White Aries illustration contains two examples where blue stripes have been painted on the tub patterns. That should spark some interest.

Given the circular nature of the VMs Zodiac diagrams and the radial arrangement of the nymphs and their tubs, it is natural to view these two striped patterns according to a radially oriented interpretation. In the radial interpretation, the stripes on the outer tub appear vertical, while those on the inner ring are diagonal from the heraldic sinister side. It can also be seen that the unpainted stripes of the outer pattern contain a series of dots, while those in the inner example have perpendicular cross-hatching.

As the old saying goes, the devil is in the details. And in this case, if the details are pursued, one will find difference, discord and the devil of a time making any sense here. On the other hand, if the investigator is able to step back and see both patterns as they are laid out on the page, it will now be seen that both patterns are now similarly oriented in a direction that is the same as the historical Fieschi insignia.

Several factors from tradition now need to be applied. Heraldry has several methods of tincture (color) designation. The use of pigment and hatching lines are never combined. The Vms examples of combined presentations violate the rules of heraldry, where violations are not allowed and the attempts to examine in detail only discover irrelevant information. A better potential interpretation might be based on one version or the other. The interpretation based on painted blue stripes gives a pair of insignia similar to the Fieschi pattern.

The inner figure with the blue-striped pattern is also a nymph with a red galero. Considering the relative significance of heraldry in the period of the C-14 dates, armorial and ecclesiastical heraldry were primary indicators of a persons rank and identity. Although the appear to be others, there is only one common referenced, instance where a pair of blue and white heraldic, bendy patterns are associated with a red galero. That is the historical occasions in 1251 when Pope Innocent IV made his nephew, Ottobuono Fieschi a cardinal, who was later elected as Pope Adrian V. If this interpretation is valid, then the patterns have been disguised by intentional obfuscation and hidden by an attempted optical illusion, a radial cloaking device.

Is this a valid interpretation of the White Aries illustration? Consider the placement of the figures in the illustration. If these two figures are pope and cardinal, then (1) they are in the proper hierarchical relationship. The pope is in a higher celestial sphere than the cardinal. (2) Both pope and cardinal have been placed in the most favored, heraldic, upper, dexter quadrant. (3) This religious representation has been placed in combination with the White Aries medallion. The use of a white animal for celestial sacrifice was a tradition for the ancient Greeks.

Furthermore, the two preceding pages (Pisces and Dark Aries) each have an example of a scale like tub pattern, an obscure fur, that matches in both sphere and quadrant with one of the blue-striped patterns found on White Aries. The traditional name of this pattern is ‘papelonny’ and it corresponds in placement with the outer figure, Pope Innocent IV and the inner figure, his nephew, later Pope Adrian V. This further guarantees the historical identification based on the traditional use of heraldic canting to make the pun between the French word ‘pape’ for pope, and the heraldic fur called ‘papelonny’.

This is where the pursuit and recovery of tradition and the use of traditional terminology will lead the investigation of VMs hats. Tradition is clearly contained in the illustrations, but it has been modified, presumably intentionally altered, rather than being presented in a simpler, more forthcoming manner. It may seem that the presumption of intentional alteration, the use of disguise, obfuscation by illusion, intentional violation of traditional rules, and a construction for heraldic canting are all a bit much. The confirmation is provided in a second example that combines tradition and trickery, which is the Cosmic Comparison (VMs f68v3 vs. BNF Fr. 565 fol. 23 et al.) It is this second example which verifies the methods shown in the first, and at the same time informs a deeper reality in the VMs. One that establishes internal truth based on the laws of Deuteronomy, one that requires that truth is established by two or more witnesses, and does so in the pairings of the initial VMs Zodiac sequence medallions (for example) and twice in biblical passages (Deut. 17:6; Deut. 19:15).

[Bunny]

Have to say I agree with the presence of papal imagery, heraldic and hats. The Capello Romano is also known as the Saturno and one example of suggested layered imagery in the manuscript is on f71v1 where a figure in a wide brimed hat may be representing the rings of Saturn astronomically. It is also just as representative of the Saturno hat.

Bunny

[R. Sale]

Apparently there's a wrinkle in the chronology. The cappello romano generally replaced the galero from c. 17th century
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappello_romano

Likewise, referring to the rings of Saturn is probably anachronistic prior to Galileo's discovery of 1610.

The VMs appears to make the specific reference connection between the cardinal's red galero and the Fieschi armorial insignia, which is historically valid, since it was Pope Innocent IV (Sinibaldo Fieschi) who instituted this tradition c. 1245.

Based on the Carbon-14 test, and the interpretation of the VMs Critter of f80v as a combined image of an Agnus Dei from Burgundian sources*, I see VMs creation sometime around 1430 or later.

* 1) The Order of the Golden Fleece was instituted by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy in 1430.
2) The Agnus Dei from the 1313 manuscript, 'The Apocalypse of S Jean', which serves as a structural inspiration for the VMs Critter representation, was in the library of Philip the Good.