Morten St George Theory

[Morten St. George]

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I've heard that the Italian protozoa animal on folio 2v is actually an American tropical plant called Nymphoides aquatica. It grows on the surface of swamp water and no doubt this is what gives the green color to the water in the biology section.

There seems to be little doubt that the real nymphs are plants and not Italian nuns: the nymph plant has a stem like the one depicted in the VMS and, above all, it sprouts out a white flower exactly as depicted in the VMS. It's an open and shut case on ID. This plant currently lives on the north side of the Caribbean. Whether or not it also lived on the south side of the Caribbean during medieval times remains to be determined.

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Well didn't I say Menyanthes/Villarsia upthread? Nymphoides aquatica is Menyanthaceae, the New World version. Villarsia is the Old World version.

The Asian species (especially from west India) is almost identical to the New World version that grows in the Gulf (the one I previously mentioned), and there is no way to tell from a picture whether it is the New World version or the Old World version. They look the same, even in very good botanical drawings, which the VMS is not.


So it is clearly not an open-and-shut case when almost identical plants (which they used to think were the same species) grow in both the New World Gulf and Old World Asia.

Sorry about the delay in responding. I got absorbed reading some fascinating stuff about the VMS and couldn't pull away. That thing is truly a fascinating mystery. With so many scholars studying it, with the enormous knowledge that we have today, with computers and all the rest, we can't determine with certainty where it was written, by whom it was written, nor even if it says something sensible or is pure gibberish. Whatever else it might be, it is probably the most brilliant work of deception and encryption ever created.

Citing sources, Wikipedia declares: "None of the plants depicted are unambiguously identifiable." This is not surprising. With tens of thousands of plant species, with plant spores able to fly in the wind or float on water, there is bound to be another plant somewhere that resembles any particular plant.

Nonetheless, I think Nymphus Americus comes closer to the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. plant than Nymphus Asiaticus because most of the Asians have yellow rather than white flowers, and the white flower of Indicus looks more frayed. Of course, other factors can be taken into account to decide the winner.

One way to determine location is to make lots of assumptions. For example, let's assume, for the biology gals, that they are in the native habitat of the Nymphus Americus. We can also assume that this habitat is also the native habitat of the alligator gar, a fish depicted on F70r. Let's also assume that I'm right about the critter on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. being a hybrid of the spotted jaguar and alligator, so real alligators and jaguars also live there. Let's now assume that the animal on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is some type of deer, so deer live there too. We can also assume that this place has tall trees as suggested on the left side of F79v. And it has to be a place that is steamy hot for at least part or the year because the gals are stark naked. Finally, this place has to have water that is solid green in color, as depicted throughout the biology pages.

Now, after assuming all those things as true and correct, where are our gals living? That's easy. They have to be living here: