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[MarcoP]

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.