Garden, rosebush and fountain

Use in the book

The initial model at 7v, scan 28, places an old rosebush against an oak in a green garden. Clear water flows from the foot, passes among underground streams and plunges into abysses. Many search or even scoop the water with their hands, but one recognizes it by examining its weight. The passage states the diagnostic feature itself rather than leaving the reader to infer a meaning from clear appearance.¹⁶⁸

At 16r the rosebush joins the mountain flower and golden tree. At 30r–30v the dedicated explanation presents the water after the earlier reduction to powder. The oak, roses and flowers explicitly show quicksilver's reduction into water, the first matter to which growth, nourishment, germination and sprouting belong. The reported vegetation around quicksilver mines reinforces the author's interpretation, but remains the evidence he attributes to observers, rather than an independently verified botanical rule.

At 34v–35r, scans 92–93, the argument becomes a criticism of failed recognition. One knows the water by smell or weight; others seek what they already hold. Tantalus supplies the image of water sought among waters and fruit that escapes. Underground channels and return to the earth's center express an elusive subject taking several forms, including the mutable water of Achelous.

At 35v, scan 94, the author asks why streams rise at the oak's foot and produce white and red roses. The answer is the power of growth, multiplication and fruitfulness, together with spirituality, purity and incorruptibility. The oak in water helps make those properties apprehensible. A watchful dragon guards a spring provisionally read Lerne; the following Tagus and its golden sand are clearly named. The uncertain first place-name should not control the identity of the entire garden.¹⁶⁹

At 36r, scan 97, the spring is viscous, sticky and heavy and nourishes the tree correspondingly. It is also Sun and Moon's bath. Venus and Adonis guard access, and Adonis's blood gives red color to white roses. The passage ties benefits to knowledge of the entrance and cavern. It extends the garden's original problem of recognition into a condition of admission and useful possession.

The garden consequently holds together three questions: where the subject appears, how it is known, and what can be done once it is known. The tree entry follows its internal structure of growth; the present entry follows the water's visibility, its concealment and the practical privilege of gathering its products.

Places to read

1. Manuscript 7v · Scan 28The first model contrasts visible water with recognition by weight.
2. Manuscript 16r · Scan 51The rosebush links the mountain flower to the guarded golden tree.
3. Manuscript 30r, 30v, 31r · Scans 83, 84, 8523Water, growth and the metallic tree provide the direct interpretation.
4. Manuscript 34v, 35r · Scans 92, 932Smell, weight and Tantalus explain unsuccessful seeking.
5. Manuscript 35v · Scan 94Streams and roses express fruitfulness and incorruptibility; the first spring-name is provisional.
6. Manuscript 36r · Scan 97Viscous nourishment, bath, guardians and red roses complete the access argument.

Translation

Fontaine is spring where water wells from a source and fountain where the landscape figure is emphasized. Rosebush translates rosier, preserving the plant's relation to the oak; rose remains rose. The distinction makes the image's structure readable without changing its material interpretation.

Scan 94's spring-name remains [Lerne?] in English, with Cerne a possible reading discussed locally. The clear Tagus comparison that follows is retained separately. The edition also preserves the changing pronouns around the garden's keeper at scan 97 without forcing one gender that the source does not maintain.

rosier

Attested: H001-S028; H001-S051; H001-S084. The plant carrying white and red flowers around or against the oak.

jardin

Attested: H001-S028; H001-S083; H001-S084; H001-S093. The pleasant but guarded setting of visible and elusive water.

fontaine

Attested: H001-S084; H001-S094; H001-S097a. The source of nourishing water and its interpreted powers.

poids de l’eau

Attested: H001-S028. The explicit feature by which one observer recognizes the subject.

caverne vitriolique

Attested: H001-S097a. The knowledge required to benefit from the garden’s waters.