The Voynich Ninja

Based on this message

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I noticed that a lot of images of herbals have a distinctive curl.

such as

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and

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and

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[attachment=745]

That reminded me of the image You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

It's not quite the same, because the curl is there inside the stem, but perhaps there are other better examples.

(09-10-2016, 02:53 PM)Davidsch Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Based on this message

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I noticed that a lot of images of herbals have a distinctive curl.

such as

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and

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and

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That reminded me of the image You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

It's not quite the same, because the curl is there inside the stem, but perhaps there are other better examples.

It's not surprising that images of branches (such as those in the examples above) were drawn with a "curl". When you pull a branch off a tree,, especially a young branch, the bark peels off in a strip as the branch is pulled, and then curls when it is nipped from the main branch, so the convention of drawing a branch with a curled end is probably inspired by life and might even be a way of saying, symbolically, "this is a branch, not a full plant".
There are also many curls in the VMS. Many of the roots are curled, one even looks like the curls at the top of classical pillars, and the tendrils, not surprisingly, are curled as well.
In the VMS, the curling of the roots (and sometimes the leaf tips) may be mnemonic. It's also possible that some of them are stylistic (the illustrator may have had a penchant for curled shapes).

Interesting, David. The curl seems to mean something, because some plants are given it and others aren't. I first thought it meant that is was a twig cut from a tree, but the image above shows what looks like a twig with and another without the curl....

(09-10-2016, 07:04 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Interesting, David. The curl seems to mean something, because some plants are given it and others aren't. I first thought it meant that is was a twig cut from a tree, but the image above shows what looks like a twig with and another without the curl....

They both have the "curl". One is just more elaborate than the other. The point on the one on the right is an abbreviated curl, the other is a flourished curl, just like capital letters. As you noticed when we were both composing our messages, it represents a twig rather than a full plant.

In fact, if you look closely, you'll see another difference between them, notice the extra line at the base of the first plant? I happen to know that Physalis has a hollow stem, so it's quite possible that the extra line represents the hollow stem.

JKP - sorry for my repetitive post, I hadn't seen your edit yet when I posted

You may be right about the flourish comparison, they do come in all kinds of styles. Maybe it is meant to convey something about the type of bark or its bevavior? Some barks will break off right away will others will form long curly strips.

(09-10-2016, 07:11 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.JKP - sorry for my repetitive post, I hadn't seen your edit yet when I posted

You may be right about the flourish comparison, they do come in all kinds of styles. Maybe it is meant to convey something about the type of bark or its bevavior? Some barks will break off right away will others will form long curly strips.

That occurred to me too, as I was responding to your post. Maybe it does. Some do break more readily than others.

It's the kind of detail that is often lost or mutated by copyists. If a botanist came up with the idea in the first place (or an artist with a knowledge of plants) and then it were handed to a copyist to reproduce, that person might misinterpret a botanical symbol as a flourish and might add flourishes to everything, and then the original meaning is lost. I've seen many examples of lost meaning in copied medieval manuscripts in a number of subject areas, both in the text and in the drawings.