One of the earliest thoughts I've had about the herbal illustrations in the Voynich MS, or perhaps rather a question was:
"could the drawings be the result of someone painting herbs on the basis of a non-illustrated herbal text?".
This idea has, in a way, stood the test of time, in the sense that this is still a possible explanation for many of the features.
Some elements very strongly suggests that they have been drawn from nature or from a live example of a herb. They are 'better', or more realistic than in most contemporary herbals.
This includes the flowers of the viola / daisy (f9v), the root of the supposed water-lily (f2v) and the entire drawing on f21r, which looks more like a modern photo of knotgrass than any of the many old herbal illustrations of poligonum ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ).
At the same time, many herbs look like composites.
Finally, numerous drawings look like fantasy herbs.
It is as if the 'artist' in some cases knew exactly what to draw, while in other cases was putting elements known to him and unknown elements together.
The supposed waterlily on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is particularly intriguing, since it combines the root and leaf of a waterlily with the flower of a lily (which was also pointed out by Alain Touwaide in November 2014). An example of a similar lily flower was already shown You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , but there are many others, and Alain compared it with the lilies in Sloane MS 4016.
Of course we don't know for sure if this is what happened in the Voynich MS.
However, I find it of great interest that the Cambridge herbal is showing evidence, as pointed out by Marco You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , of exactly this thing happening. The herb 'gelosia' is drawn based on a textual description of the herb.
For this part of the Cambridge herbal, the illustrations do not show any resemblance to known tradtions so far, but the list of herbs that it includes does.
In the Voynich MS we don't have this handle of course.
"could the drawings be the result of someone painting herbs on the basis of a non-illustrated herbal text?".
This idea has, in a way, stood the test of time, in the sense that this is still a possible explanation for many of the features.
Some elements very strongly suggests that they have been drawn from nature or from a live example of a herb. They are 'better', or more realistic than in most contemporary herbals.
This includes the flowers of the viola / daisy (f9v), the root of the supposed water-lily (f2v) and the entire drawing on f21r, which looks more like a modern photo of knotgrass than any of the many old herbal illustrations of poligonum ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ).
At the same time, many herbs look like composites.
Finally, numerous drawings look like fantasy herbs.
It is as if the 'artist' in some cases knew exactly what to draw, while in other cases was putting elements known to him and unknown elements together.
The supposed waterlily on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is particularly intriguing, since it combines the root and leaf of a waterlily with the flower of a lily (which was also pointed out by Alain Touwaide in November 2014). An example of a similar lily flower was already shown You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , but there are many others, and Alain compared it with the lilies in Sloane MS 4016.
Of course we don't know for sure if this is what happened in the Voynich MS.
However, I find it of great interest that the Cambridge herbal is showing evidence, as pointed out by Marco You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , of exactly this thing happening. The herb 'gelosia' is drawn based on a textual description of the herb.
For this part of the Cambridge herbal, the illustrations do not show any resemblance to known tradtions so far, but the list of herbs that it includes does.
In the Voynich MS we don't have this handle of course.
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