Certainly these more improbable identifications should be set aside to begin with. Any investigation needs to start with the strongest candidates. That's what has been done on a visual basis. But, what about the comparison of texts. I would think someone might have looked at this, and I really don't know much about it. I've read about these older herbals, but only seen a few of them.
The nature of the VMs illustration shows that the image comes from a better and far more naturalistic source than either Sloane 1975 or Harley 5294. Where does the VMs image come from and where does the VMs *text* come from?
The comparative text investigation also needs to start with the strongest candidates. The primary characteristic is that the VMs demonstrates formatting into (3) short sections. If the VMs cosmos is any guide, the Oresme and de Metz mss., we are looking at a later version of an earlier example. That would imply looking at 14th and 15th century herbals, where any useful, prior information would be far superior to starting from scratch.
I don't recall any herbals being in the KBR library, which made me wonder, why / if a royal library would have a use for such texts. Would herbals more likely be found in monasteries or elsewhere?
The nature of the VMs illustration shows that the image comes from a better and far more naturalistic source than either Sloane 1975 or Harley 5294. Where does the VMs image come from and where does the VMs *text* come from?
The comparative text investigation also needs to start with the strongest candidates. The primary characteristic is that the VMs demonstrates formatting into (3) short sections. If the VMs cosmos is any guide, the Oresme and de Metz mss., we are looking at a later version of an earlier example. That would imply looking at 14th and 15th century herbals, where any useful, prior information would be far superior to starting from scratch.
I don't recall any herbals being in the KBR library, which made me wonder, why / if a royal library would have a use for such texts. Would herbals more likely be found in monasteries or elsewhere?