13-10-2016, 01:16 PM
(06-10-2016, 07:24 PM)davidjackson Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.soap comes in a bottle for me
This made me think...
I found the following quote in Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, by Robert E. Krebs:
P. 229
"By the 12th century the use of Castile soap, cut into small blocks, was widespread while much of the earlier soaps, rather than being hard, ended up more like modern liquid soap."
Officially liquid soap is a much more recent invention (19th century I believe), but this quote does make me wonder if, depending on the age of the actual content of the Voynich Manuscript, some of the containers could be soap bottles, or containers for mixing up/storing special/scented soaps. Perhaps incorporating a basic hard soap with extra plants for added benefits?
ETA: Soap is also an ingredient in DIY plant pesticides. One book I'm going to have to check for more details at the library is "Crop Protection in Medieval Agriculture: Studies in pre-modern organic agriculture" by Jan C Zadoks