Question. What language is the duck-billed reader's book in? The reader is a chimera of human and fish and duck (when Bosch was painting neither ducked-billed platypuses nor duck-billed dinosaurs were yet known to Europeans). Does the book codeswitch between bird-tongue and fish-talk and human language? Or... is it written in the fabled tongue of Adamic? This was - according to various musings over the centuries - either the language God used to speak to Adam and Eve and/or what Adam used to name the animals. Some supposed Adamic was just Hebrew (on the notion that a child growing up with no language input would naturally speak Hebrew by default). Or else a tongue now forbidden to us (learning a new language = sweat of the brow). Maybe this animal - unlike others - had such a good grasp of language that it already had its own name and didn't need a new one from Adam. I like the idea that the Almighty even picked the little reader to be Adam and Eve's tutor. Maybe the reader acted as translator between the serpent and Eve. Who was speaking Adamic, of course.
Hard to say! The Garden is a tryptich that, when closed, shows a view of the creation on the 3d day. God is hovering over the earth, HOLDING A BOOK! Perhaps they are the same book, who knows?
Question. What language is the duck-billed reader's book in? The reader is a chimera of human and fish and duck (when Bosch was painting neither ducked-billed platypuses nor duck-billed dinosaurs were yet known to Europeans). Does the book codeswitch between bird-tongue and fish-talk and human language? Or... is it written in the fabled tongue of Adamic? This was - according to various musings over the centuries - either the language God used to speak to Adam and Eve and/or what Adam used to name the animals. Some supposed Adamic was just Hebrew (on the notion that a child growing up with no language input would naturally speak Hebrew by default). Or else a tongue now forbidden to us (learning a new language = sweat of the brow). Maybe this animal - unlike others - had such a good grasp of language that it already had its own name and didn't need a new one from Adam. I like the idea that the Almighty even picked the little reader to be Adam and Eve's tutor. Maybe the reader acted as translator between the serpent and Eve. Who was speaking Adamic, of course.
Hard to say! The Garden is a tryptich that, when closed, shows a view of the creation on the 3d day. God is hovering over the earth, HOLDING A BOOK! Perhaps they are the same book, who knows?