"Cha togar m' fhearg gun dìoladh"
If indeed we are looking at a triplet of thistles, we might consider whether a specific variety was intended. Their French name,
cardoon, and its’ link to Chardonnay (within the former Kingdom of Burgundy) may explain the grapes on San Sigismondo’s cloister Door.
Carduus benedictus, or Holy Thistle, is a candidate, if for no other reason than the Abbey of San Sigismondo had, so far as I’ve been able to discern, once been a Benedictine temple. Yet, the Scotch thistle, being a favored food of caterpillars & lepadoptera, would lend a certain metamorphic connotation to the image. But a better case could probably be made for
silybum marianus, sometimes referred to as
carduus marianus, or Saint Mary’s Thistle.
http://www.herballegacy.com/McCorrie_History.html
I’m not sure how far back or widespread the belief, but the plant’s name is said to come from its milky fluid being attributed to drops of the Virgin’s milk falling upon a thistle whilst she nursed the baby Jesus.
It has also been known as an effective remedy for
amanita mushroom poisoning. There has been some speculation as to whether an entheogenic tradition involving the
muscaria variety of this mushroom persisted through medieval and renaissance Europe.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4556273749797755425#
Which may account for the mythic potency behind Mariam’s thistle. It has also been theorized on the basis of etymological and mycological research that Christianity may have had its’ origins as a mushroom cult
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtiMw0-akAM The various northern European barbarian tribes probably made ceremonial use of the
amanita muscaria mushroom themselves and would have thus been more amenable to ‘conversion’ if Dr. Allegro’s hypothesis proves correct.
In any case, it may be worth perusing a few medieval pharmacopoeia for details on what was said about this plant in the 15th century.
Of course it is also feasible the thistle device may have been employed simply to signify the eventual joining of houses Viscounti, Sforza & Luxemborg - their offspring, like its’ multitude of seeds taking flight to propagate across the world ...mit zeit.
James II, a descendant of all 3 bloodlines, claimed to be reviving a more ancient Order of Thistle when he issued letters patent "reviving and restoring the Order of the Thistle to its full glory, lustre and magnificency". This may account for the similarity between their motto- Nemo me impune lacessit -and that of Sforza’s sighthound...
Roseanne said:
Anyway his dog under the tree or a greyhound (veltro) in repose or sitting
motto is quietum nemo impune lacessit and no dates that I can find.
Also of interest with respect to these Sforza devices- the geometric properties of Borromean Rings correspond to the walknot, or ‘knot of the slain’, associated with the Norse god Odin, from whom the Emperor Sigismund could claim bloodline descent.
http://www.liv.ac.uk/~spmr02/rings/vikings.html
You may find it an interesting exercise to explore where the branches of that family tree extend today.