The Voynich elephant

[Koen G]

JKP - Very interesting examples. What they reveal, I think, is a common theme: people could only draw elephants accurately if they had seen one in the flesh. For example, the Romans helped the northern African species on their way to extinction by making them fight. Later, in the Middle ages, elephants became bizarre beasts of myth. Unless in the rare examples when the artist had been able to observe an elephant being brought to Europe.

Oocephalus: that root could be an elephant, but it's been blended into the plant root to such an extent that it's become hard to tell what it's supposed to represent...