Do Herbal A and Herbal B correspond to differences in imagery?

[Koen G]

For the dividing line in the stem, it's just a stylistic difference. The A scribe (or the artist who worked together with the A scribe) had the habit of separating stems with a line. He was also in habit of colour annotations, while the B scribe was not.

This would mean that A-images were drawn entirely by a different artist than B-images. It is possible, but then why is the difference only noticeable in this small detail. Notably, a detail that is very easy to add once the drawing is in place. Just a swoop of the pen. We know that the text was added after the images, so it is possible that scribe 1, while penning his text, decided to "fix" the drawing here and there. This would mean that the original artist always drew with open stems, and scribe 1 - whether or not this was the same person - decided to close some of those stems while he had the pen in his hand for writing the text.

In some examples, it really looks like this is what happened, with the dividing line looking different from the rest of the drawing. Sometimes it blends in well though, which is why I find it difficult to assess what happened.

   

For the red paint, it is even trickier, as Michelle explains