[Trinity] Parallels between Voynich and Trinity College MS O.2.48

[MarcoP]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what the tree on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is? I've gotten used to the script a bit and I think I can make out;
The name of the tree is "Quibanos". The tree grows in "anglica" 
- - then there's a bunch of abbreviations I don't understand yet - - 
and then, I guess: the tree was brought into the island by sea from Ethiopia (??)

By the way, there is something special about reading an abbreviated text like this. I don't really read the letters but rather at a glance I recognize the "shape" of an abbreviation. Like it doesn't really matter whether they drop one letter more or less. The abbreviations are almost like markers for the plant's name, for where it's from... And the paragraph markers are also really handy for seeing immediately where a section starts about a new plant. I'm starting o get a better feel for certain gallow hypotheses that have been proposed before.

Hi Koen, once again, I cannot help with this tree, but it certainly is a fascinating item! I am glad you are having fun reading this ms!

Now that I have a few spare moments (not as many as I'd like) and access to my notes, here's a thought about this image:



The Trinity Plant (left)

I think there's a fairly good chance that the Trinity plant on the left, labeled "deronica, veronica, deronoga" is Veronica abyssinica.

It mentions Ethiopia in the text and this plant is native to Ethiopia and some of the higher-elevation areas around it.

Veronica abyssinica has deeply toothed leaves, sometimes so deep botanists refer to them as crenelated, and it has medium-small pink or purple flowers growing out from the nodes. It's considered a medicinal plant.


There are many species of Veronica in the various herbals but not all of them have these deeply toothed leaves. The Ethiopian species does. There are a few other Ethiopian Veronicas that might fit, but they are less well known and documented and may not have been known in the middle ages.

Thank you JKP. Veronica abyssinica sounds like an excellent candidate. The reference to "doronogi" would then be an error of the author. I think that with exotic plants errors in the text and/or illustrations are to be expected even more than with ordinary plants.