What does this symbol in the title page illustration of the "Margarita Philosophica" mean?

Upvote:1

The letter present on the dress is in fact the "TAU - greek letter", but it's the lowercase version. The letter on the first step of the staircase (counting from above) is the "PI - greek letter" but it's a different lowercase version called the "POMEGA". SIDE NOTE: If you search on the 13 page of 617 on the link below, you will find the hebrew and greek alphabet (and you will notice that both pi and tau are there - you dont need to know latin to reed it). https://archive.org/details/gri_c00033125008256329/page/n13

Upvote:6

It is a cursive form of π (the Greek letter 'pi'), as it is in the manuscript of Thucydides you also posted.

The three-headed and winged figure is Philosophy (as it says in the round border above her: 'PH(ILOSOPH)IA TRICEPS . NATVRALIS . RATIONALIS . MORALIS . HVMANAR(VM) RERVM', i.e. 'Philosophy (of matters human) is three-headed [and her heads are] natural, rational, and moral [philosophy]'. The seven figures below her are the seven liberal arts (the trivium and quadrivium), also named in the round border.

The image of Philosophy's dress here is probably derived from the passage of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy in which Philosophy first appears to the author (book I, prose 1):

'Her garments were of an imperishable fabric, wrought with the finest threads and of the most delicate workmanship; and these, as her own lips afterwards assured me, she had herself woven with her own hands. The beauty of this vesture had been somewhat tarnished by age and neglect, and wore that dingy look which marble contracts from exposure. On the lower-most edge was inwoven the Greek letter Π [Greek: P], on the topmost the letter θ [Greek: Th], and between the two were to be seen steps, like a staircase, from the lower to the upper letter. This robe, moreover, had been torn by the hands of violent persons, who had each snatched away what he could clutch.' - (trans. H.R. James (1897) [a translation freely available on Project Gutenberg])

James' footnote explanation, however, that the letters represent respectively political and theoretical life, is probably incorrect. More likely they represent practical and theoretical (philosophy).

The ladder/steps are clear on the image you posted; the θ below her neckline less so (to me at least). In fact it looks more like τ (the Greek letter 'tau').

One final note: this is not a manuscript but rather a printed book.

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