The Voynich Ninja

iiiii

While the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. plant still defies our attempts to identify it as the alleged "eye of God", another candidate for that "role" would be f27v. Here eyes are in the flowers.

As for Inula, at least the shape of flowers does match real Inula. The leaves do not (note the jagged edges), and the root is curious, resembling a puzzle element.

What about other plants known as the "eye of God"? I'm quite lost in their abundance.

Definitely an interesting root. It's almost shaped like a letter, and it too seems to have an "eye".

I haven't had much luck IDing this one. If it's an aster, there are many plants that look like this.

I do think the leaf arrangement is not accidental. Notice how some are asymmetric? Nature usually chooses one design—opposite, alternate, or asymmetric, but there are a small number of species that combine alternate/opposite or which combine asymmetric with opposite or alternate.


The only one I know that somewhat resembles this plant in terms of leaf arrangement which also has small narrow flowers is henna (Lawsonia intermis) which is an eastern plant. But it's not a strong candidate because the leaves are mostly opposite.

I had one other option but I can't find it (I forgot to mark it in my database) but even that one didn't jump out as strongly similar. If I can locate it, I'll post it. Never mind, I just found it. It's one of the other other Inulas (Inula conyzae). The flowers range from orange to yellow.

Vernonia anthelmintica is an Indian plant with purple flowers.

Saussurea sajanensis is Eurasian (Russian?) and also has purple flowers but the leaves might be too slender.

Those are the only ones on my list and I'm not dead sure of any of them.

I also wonder what are those blue elements beneath the two topmost flowers.

Quote:It's almost shaped like a letter, and it too seems to have an "eye"

Letter? That's an interesting trail of thought. (I still can't get rid of that stupid puzzle analogy ). Some alchemical symbol or the like, maybe?

I note that the root looks quite like the greek letter "psi". Not a perfect match, but somewhat close.

The "psi" is an alchemical symbol for ashes. Now, it's a good idea to check if this symbol was used as early as XV c., but a quick look shows that it was in use at least from early XVII c. onwards.

In English and German (don't know how in other languages, but not in Russian), there's a word play between ash as product of combustion and ash as tree. The leaves as depicted are quite reminiscent of ash (Fraxinus excelsior) leaves. I'm dubious about flowers though. The blue elements may be either undeveloped flowers or fruit, although I have no idea why they would be blue.

I have also no idea about the eye, except that legends say that Odin hang on the Yggdrasil ash for nine days, and Odin is a one-eyed god (the other eye he sacrificed to Mimir in exchange for wisdom or something like that). This mnemonic would look to me a bit superfluos.

(02-09-2017, 12:44 AM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....

The blue elements may be either undeveloped flowers or fruit, although I have no idea why they would be blue.

I have also no idea about the eye, except that legends say that Odin hang on the Yggdrasil ash for nine days, and Odin is a one-eyed god (the other eye he sacrificed to Mimir in exchange for wisdom or something like that). This mnemonic would look to me a bit superfluos.

If the blue is emerging fruit, it might fit with other plants in the VMS where the part that resembles seed heads has been painted blue.

I can't respond to your other comments at the moment, gotta run, but you made some interesting observations.

That is an interesting one indeed Anton. 
I personally wouldn't describe the circles in the flowers as eye-like, although it is hard to tell what was intended beyond signaling the color of that part of the flower. If we believe colors are significant at all that is.
Also, going by the shape alone, there is a similar "eye" in the root here: see the small circle with a dot in the middle at the center of the root.
I know the root shape may evoke a piece of a puzzle to us, but I had looked into this some time ago and was under the impression that jigsaw puzzles were only invented much later, in the 18th C, so it can't be meant to reference that.

I was looking at the root, wondering whether it was supposed to be something white-brown striped or a flat-topped thing with brown sides. I can really only see it as a "3D" object, a slab of something with a white top and brown sides.

Given that the VM appears to have a preference for depicting young shoots and/or twigs instead of whole trees, it might be a cut bole from which new growth emerges. In that case we're looking at a very irregular trunk. If the depiction is natural at all, that is.

If you look at the section of a tree trunk, you'll see that they often have an "eye" in the middle:



Might this be the important part?

(02-09-2017, 07:30 AM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I was looking at the root, wondering whether it was supposed to be something white-brown striped or a flat-topped thing with brown sides. I can really only see it as a "3D" object, a slab of something with a white top and brown sides.

I agree that this is an attempt at reproducing a complex 3D shape with brown sides and white inside. The use of cross-sections is common in the alchemical herbal, but it usually doesn't reach this level of sophistication (but the alchemical herbal predates the VMS by several decades and perspective drawing was rapidly evolving at that time). In his paper “Gli erbari degli alchimisti” Sergio Toresella comments an illustration of Herba Angalo with these words:

Le erbe con le radici di forma rotonda, quadrata, rettangolare, a losanga, polilobate, a goccia, sono le più frequenti ed enigmatiche negli erbari degli alchimisti. […] La forma di queste radici allude certamente alla loro sezione e agli anelli colorati che vi si vedono.

My Translation: Roots with round, square, rectangular, diamond, polylobed, drop-like shapes are the most common and enigmatic in the alchemical herbals. […] The shape of these roots certainly alludes to their section and the colored rings one can see in them.

An example of an alchemical polylobed root could be Herba Stellaria from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..


The root in the Voynich illustration presents the “flat-top” trope we have seen so many times in Trinity O.2.48 (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. attached) and the section feature discussed by Toresella.

The root seems to me some kind of rhizome, more or less similar to Ginger.

Quote:I know the root shape may evoke a piece of a puzzle to us, but I had looked into this some time ago and was under the impression that jigsaw puzzles were only invented much later, in the 18th C, so it can't be meant to reference that.

Yes surely, that's why I call this analogy "stupid" above, but actually it's difficult to get rid of it, haha.

About the 3D object. Yes, I agree, that's another opportunity. Either the root represents a sign (a letter, a symbol...) or it represents a 3D object. Given it's deliberate shape, what could that be? If a man-made object, it could be either wood-cut or metal-casting. That circle in the centre suggests a hole for some axis to go through, so the whole element would be rotating. Wrench or capstan? Too asymmetric for that. If not rotating, then I thought of an anchor, but I checked, and anchors of the past do not look like that.

About the flowers, although not a botanist, I have an impression that it belongs to Asteraceae. If we could find something like dandelion or burdock (those schematic and colourless flowers remind me of those), but with leaves like ash, that possibly could bring us forward.