I haven't studied medieval herbals to the extent that many others here have, but here are some observations:
- The plants in the VMS always have a root, and the root is generally as distinctive and detailed as the rest of the plant. So, the root itself is important as is the fact that we have an entire plant, and not just the above-ground portion of it.
- The plant illustrations in the VMS, or at least some of them, seem to emphasize how the parts of the plants are connected - how the leaf connects to the branch, how the shoot system and root system connect, etc. We can see that it is important because the illustrator does it differently on each plant, and the interconnections often look unnatural or mechanical. Connectivity seems to be a theme in the illustrations in the other sections as well.
- VMS plants often have entire parts that look mechanical or schematic, such as the cross-sectional root on 23r, or the "socket and gasket" root on 3v (using a motif that also shows up in the Bio section).
- You have red lines in parts of the plants (mostly in Herbal A), and also dotted and dashed lines in some places. If these features show up in other herbals I would like to see them. It seems to me that these features are intended to convey something other than an accurate visual depiction of a real plant.
In general, I would say that while the VMS plant illustrations display artistic conventions similar to those in known European herbals, there seems to be a sort of "botanical theory", or at least a way of thinking about plants in general, implicit in the VMS illustrations that is different from what we see in these other manuscripts.
- The plants in the VMS always have a root, and the root is generally as distinctive and detailed as the rest of the plant. So, the root itself is important as is the fact that we have an entire plant, and not just the above-ground portion of it.
- The plant illustrations in the VMS, or at least some of them, seem to emphasize how the parts of the plants are connected - how the leaf connects to the branch, how the shoot system and root system connect, etc. We can see that it is important because the illustrator does it differently on each plant, and the interconnections often look unnatural or mechanical. Connectivity seems to be a theme in the illustrations in the other sections as well.
- VMS plants often have entire parts that look mechanical or schematic, such as the cross-sectional root on 23r, or the "socket and gasket" root on 3v (using a motif that also shows up in the Bio section).
- You have red lines in parts of the plants (mostly in Herbal A), and also dotted and dashed lines in some places. If these features show up in other herbals I would like to see them. It seems to me that these features are intended to convey something other than an accurate visual depiction of a real plant.
In general, I would say that while the VMS plant illustrations display artistic conventions similar to those in known European herbals, there seems to be a sort of "botanical theory", or at least a way of thinking about plants in general, implicit in the VMS illustrations that is different from what we see in these other manuscripts.
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