26-05-2024, 06:49 PM
The crosses make Maria plausible. They indicate that we are in the realm of religion and magical thinking.
The things about which there is consensus that they could be ingredients (pox leber and goat milk) are not on the same line.
Many people forget that we are looking at the last page of the manuscript, which was often used like scrap paper, for testing pens and ink. It is typical to find disjunct phrases on them, which appears to be exactly what we are looking at here. To me, any reading that tries to understand the text on the page as a unified whole is actually less likely than one that tries to understand its various phrases separately.
The things about which there is consensus that they could be ingredients (pox leber and goat milk) are not on the same line.
Many people forget that we are looking at the last page of the manuscript, which was often used like scrap paper, for testing pens and ink. It is typical to find disjunct phrases on them, which appears to be exactly what we are looking at here. To me, any reading that tries to understand the text on the page as a unified whole is actually less likely than one that tries to understand its various phrases separately.