On folio You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view. one can see a curious object placed between several plants:
[
attachment=14400]
It seems out of place. I will call it "the ice cube". What could it be? Are there any occurrences of similar ice cubes in medieval herbalia?
I've searched for the label written above it (EVA okeos), and there are several matches in the zodiac section:
[
attachment=14401]
What could it be?
Well, you would like to have a crib and learn the first word in Voynich Manuscript.
But Voynich doesn't have working cribs and we know exactly zero words of it.
I think it is more likely that the illustration to the left of the blue ice cube on f102v2 is a beet or turnip but we don't know that the labels are the name of the thing in the illustration. They could be the names of the illnesses or conditions that the items are to be used to treat or the name of the body part that they are good for.
Personally I think it is likely wax or resin, maybe as part of a list of ingredients for a concoction of some sort.
There is a post about it here - You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
The comparison I posted on that thread was - You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
[
attachment=14409]
(27-02-2026, 02:51 PM)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.On folio You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. one can see a curious object placed between several plants:
It seems out of place. I will call it "the ice cube". What could it be? Are there any occurrences of similar ice cubes in medieval herbalia?
I've searched for the label written above it (EVA okeos), and there are several matches in the zodiac section:
What could it be?
Possibly a bound book with fixtures.
that is salt...
Salt was traded in forms such as discs, blocks, cones or chunks. The shape depended on the vessels in which the salt crystallised during the boiling process.
(27-02-2026, 02:51 PM)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.It seems out of place. I will call it "the ice cube". What could it be? Are there any occurrences of similar ice cubes in medieval herbalia?
The entries in Pharma look like products that one would buy at a market or from an apothecary, rather than plants as they are found in nature (which is the idea of herbals, including the VMS Herbal section)
Thus that cube could be a mineral, or wax, or some other product that is bought in that form.
All the best, --stolfi