The New Murrey and Blue blog

Well, after a hard, too-hot day, (This was written last summer!) it’s always refreshing to have a snigger at the Weasel’s expense. It began when I happened upon the following statement:

“….One of the earliest examples is a collection of astrological texts by Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus), John Killingworth, Guido Bonatti, Plato of Tivoli.[1] On its pages, there are images of the signs of the zodiac and all kinds of astrological calculations. The first illustration that attracts attention is the colorful initial, written using cobalt and gilding, which depicts a dragon piercing a tree topped with a crown. This is an apparent reference to the legend according to which Henry VII tore the crown of Richard III from a hawthorn bush….” Um, yes…. The Weasel did his own tearing? Don’t think so.

Anyway, the illustration and description came from The ways of the glorification of power in the visual arts under the reign of Henry VII by Liya Okroshidze, a link to which you’ll find here.

The reproduction of the illustration was a little small, so I searched for it elsewhere and found it here. Far from describing it as something as dramatic as the Weasel seizing Richard’s lost crown from a hawthorn bush (pity he didn’t fall into it while he was at it!) the British Library describes it as “Zoomorphic initial ‘R’(adix), formed from a snake and a crowned tree, England, S. E. (London)”

Ha! That’s more like it. He was a snake, not a dragon!