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+--- Thread: The Veronese Riddle, an Alchemical Interpretation (/showthread.php?tid=3476)
The Veronese Riddle, an Alchemical Interpretation - Paul Ferguson - 08-10-2026
"The brain-teasing Veronese riddle might instead make sense to alchemists. Especially if associated with the inexplicably neglected drawing on the verso. In fact, it would have sufficed a normal scientific attitude, that’s to say turning the page, to see a sketch very similar to the long tongues three-headed face of Turba Philosophorum. The two illustrations are much alike, but the Veronese parchment is much more sophisticated than Turba Philosophorum’s. As for the riddle, it was a common medieval conundrum: ” In front of him led oxen, White fields plowed, A white plow held, A black seed sowed”. Even Umberto Eco reported it in his novel “Baudolino”, but in a close to Latin form."
https://labyrinthdesigners.org/alchemy-literature/the-veronese-riddle-an-alchemical-interpretation/