The Voynich Ninja

Just in case anyone might find it useful, here's a schematic I made a while back of all quires that contain Herbal A folios. Please feel free to correct any mistakes I might have made.

The view is the top edge of the parchments head-on, stacked before folding and [their most recent] binding.
For folios on the left side of the diagram, the recto side is toward the top of the page and the verso side toward the bottom. The reverse is true for the folios on the right.
The dashed lines indicate bifolios currently bound in the same quire that are not Herbal A.
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Q1
1—^—8
2—^—7
3—^—6
4—^—5

Q2
9—^—16
10—^—15
11—^—14
^—13

Q3
17—^—24
18—^—23
19—^—22
20—^—21

Q4
25—^—32
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27—^—30
28—^—29

Q5
-----------
-----------
35—^—38
36—^—37

Q6
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42—^—47
-----------
44—^—45

Q7
49—^—56
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51—^—54
52—^—53

Q8
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58—^—65

Q15
87—^—90i—90ii
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Q17
93—^—96
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A few stats, none new, but all worth noting here:

25 Herbal A bifolios. This includes the now missing first half of 12-13. Also, 87-90 is technically a trifolio with six pages instead of a bifolio's four. Conveniently, these two extra plant images are matched by the absence of any plant images on 58, giving a total count of:
100 Herbal A plant pages
Q1~3 are homogeneously Herbal A
Q4~8 are heterogeneously Herbal A, admixed exclusively with Herbal B

The first 8 consecutive quires all contain Herbal A bifolios
Only two Herbal A bifolios occur outside of the first 8 consecutive quires: the 87-90 trifolio in Q15, and 93-96 in Q17.
With the omission of any single bifolio, all the rest of Herbal A would fit neatly into six quires of four bifolios each

Useful. What about herbal B? Is it possible that there is one plant for each day of the year, for instance? (I seem to recall some thing like that has been proposed)

(09-06-2021, 02:39 AM)DONJCH Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Useful. What about herbal B? Is it possible that there is one plant for each day of the year, for instance? (I seem to recall some thing like that has been proposed)

Thank you, DONJCH. Since you twisted my arm, here's Herbal B, which I actually did first:

Q4
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26—^—31
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------------

Q5
33—^—40
34—^—39
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------------

Q6
41—^—48
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43—^—46
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Q7
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50—^—55
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------------

Q8
57—^—66
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Q17
------------
94—^—95

8 Herbal B bifolios. Four plant pages on each bifolio, minus two for the absence of any plant images on 57v and 66r (which sit next to each other on the same side of 57-66), for a total of:
30 Herbal B plant pages
No quires are homogeneously Herbal B
The consecutive Q4~8 are heterogeneously Herbal B, admixed exclusively with Herbal A
Q4~8 contain all but one of all the extant Herbal B bifolios.
The only exception is 94-95 in Q17, which is not an exception to the rule that:
Herbal B bifolios only occur in quires that are otherwise wholly Herbal A
All of Herbal B would fit neatly into two quires of four bifolios each
Turned inside out from its current position, it's tempting to wonder if 57-66 formed the first (f66r) and last (f57v) pages of a chapter or stand-alone volume.

Honestly DONJCH, I question the assumption that Herbal A and Herbal B have anything to do with each other thematically, or were even originally part of the same book. I think these are dangerous assumptions, that the latest binder of the VMs clearly made, as shown by the admixture of Herbal A and Herbal B bifolios in five different quires.

The numbers 100 and 30 (the counts of Herbal A and Herbal B plant images, respectively) are at first blush reassuring, because they're nice and round. But on second thought, their commonality is not reassuring at all; lots of things come in sets of both numbers. Add in the fact that we're not at all sure that today's VMs contains all the original plant bifolios, and this whole discussion of image counts is looking kind of moot.

Silly me, it was the count of stars in the Recipe section I was thinking of.

RenegadeHealer

DONJCH

RenegadeHealer

DONJCH