Botanical section plant identification summary (work in progress)

[Gavin Güldenpfennig]

Maybe you know my theory, that the VMS could have its origin in the Basque Country. I´m a little bit further now with my analysis of the VMS text and it´s seems, that it is not written in today´s Basque language, as I thought first, but instead in an medieval relative of the Basque language. But its no my intention to discuss this in these theme.

I will only present you my suggestions and findings about some of the plants:

-----------

I´m quite sure, that the plant on folio 2v is a Nymphaea Alba. 

I have transcripted the whole page and there is spoken about an old myth around the water lily and also about the use of the flour.

------------

On folio 3r, I suggest a picture of a common polypody. 

I think I found words like "rock", "fern" and "finger" on the page.

------------

Following the german author Peter Roitzsch, folio 9v gives us a three- coloured pansy (viola tricolor). 

The first two words could be translated as "sleep" and "donkey" or "violet", which is quite suspect to me, like some other things in the manuscript. But it is not quite clear. 

The connection between "sleep", "donkey" and "pansy" is, as far as I know, first known since Shakespeare´s "Midsummer Nights Dream".

-------------

Furthermore, with the help of some German researchers, I found out, that a kind of plantain could be painted on the folio 25v. The five veins of the leafs are very significant. 

But my first interpretation of this plant was, that it is basil, because of the little dragon on the root of the plant. I interpreted this as a basilisk.

So, I´m not sure about this.

----------------------

For the folio 26r I have indications, that it could be a vervain. 

But the translation attempt of this page is still in progress.

---------------------

The biggest finding could be the plant on folio 23v. I have the suspicion, that it could be borage. 

The initial word of the page is transcripted by me as "boeairroja". The spanish word for borage is "borraja". 

As far as the possibility stands that "oeai" could be a case of a - in German so called - "Rhenish distension", you could read it as "ua". So you could read the word also as "boarroja" or "buarroja".

There are very many examples of vowel accumulations (three or four together), which gives us the possiblity that the author may was a traveller from the Rhineland (like Arnold von Harff) or from other areas with similar dialect features.

------------------

I would like to discuss my ideas. Please share your opinion.