I love your image collections, thank you so much. You inspire me to explore other paintings of the era.
And as an aside, in 1484 there was a Saturn Jupiter conjunction in Scorpio, the first in the series of water signs. (These two planets conjunct every 20years, however they take around 200 years to travel through an ‘element’). These two outer planets were visible to stargazers and they applied significance and prophetic meaning to them coming into alignment. Interestingly, Martin Luther was born in 1484, and with him the seed of the Reformation.
I was trying to zoom into the Astro orb in the Durer image; i think in the Scorpio section there are four star-like glyphs, which could represent Saturn, Jupiter, the sun, and also Venus would have been passing through Scorpio at the time of the conjunction. And then I noticed a star in the Aries section which could represent Mars, which I imagine at some point would have aspected them all. Interesting, but my skill level in this field is novice!
Hi Andrea, I'm so happy to see you are doing for Wolf Hall 2024 what you did for W&P 2023. I only stumbled across your W&P threads late in the day. I'm going to keep my eyes open for your Wolf Hall ones each week
Yes, there was- a lot thought it came from the New World (but in the mean time they have found syphilis on the remains of persons in Europe who died before 1492.)
Aside from the big men's-wig trend, syphilis was also the impetus for the beginnings of plastic surgery: it not only damaged the sufferer's noses, but also caused their children to be born with deformed noses.
I love your image collections, thank you so much. You inspire me to explore other paintings of the era.
And as an aside, in 1484 there was a Saturn Jupiter conjunction in Scorpio, the first in the series of water signs. (These two planets conjunct every 20years, however they take around 200 years to travel through an ‘element’). These two outer planets were visible to stargazers and they applied significance and prophetic meaning to them coming into alignment. Interestingly, Martin Luther was born in 1484, and with him the seed of the Reformation.
Yes I was thinking syphilis would be Scorpionic- Scorpio ruling the genitals
I was trying to zoom into the Astro orb in the Durer image; i think in the Scorpio section there are four star-like glyphs, which could represent Saturn, Jupiter, the sun, and also Venus would have been passing through Scorpio at the time of the conjunction. And then I noticed a star in the Aries section which could represent Mars, which I imagine at some point would have aspected them all. Interesting, but my skill level in this field is novice!
Oh, that is very interesting, thank you!
Andrea your sumptuous images and accompanying notes are a wonderful side-dish to Mantel's work.
Thank you so much! I feel like I've feasted!
Thank you Juliet, that is very kind of you!
Hi Andrea, I'm so happy to see you are doing for Wolf Hall 2024 what you did for W&P 2023. I only stumbled across your W&P threads late in the day. I'm going to keep my eyes open for your Wolf Hall ones each week
So happy to hear from you!! There are a few of the old W&P Gang in the Wolfcrawl Readalong, which is great
I love that detail about the saffron!
Yes, I am in absolute awe of Hilary Mantel- she must have done so much research before writing
Really enjoyed seeing these images to consider alongside the reading!
Thanks for this! Was there a theory that syphilis came from the New World, or did I make that up? I need to look into the sweating sickness this week.
Yes, there was- a lot thought it came from the New World (but in the mean time they have found syphilis on the remains of persons in Europe who died before 1492.)
Yes, that's called the Columbian hypothesis. I touched on it briefly here: https://rosiewhinray.substack.com/p/penny-universities-pepys-perriwigg
Aside from the big men's-wig trend, syphilis was also the impetus for the beginnings of plastic surgery: it not only damaged the sufferer's noses, but also caused their children to be born with deformed noses.