No text, but a visual code

[Linda]

It is very possible that what is drawn on the Voynich is a water lily. Possibly there are four o five more plants that can be recognized without a doubt, but they are the exception that proves the rule, the fact that 95% of the herbs drawn in the book are invented.

Something tells me there is a math error in there somewhere. Also, please don't say fact when describing what is simply not yet known, not proven, and has no consensus. It is not the fact;  it is the idea, the hypothesis, the belief.

Why did the author invent them? The only guide we have to give an answer is the other half of the book, which is cosmological in content. And the most likely answer is that it is the stars that have created those rare herbs, because that answer fits well with medieval thought.

Unknown (deemed to be cosmological) content necessitates fantasy herbal drawings because medieval thought is thusly so well presented? 

I do not understand what you imagine medieval thought to consist of. To me, it includes everything that came before their time, does not of course include what had been since forgotten, but does also include various new ideas about information from the past. I cannot think of a single prior example of people drawing invented plants because the stars create them with unknowable codes and glyphs, which are laid out for hundreds of pages, but perhaps i havent done the required reading yet. Can you provide an example of similar medieval thought being outlined?

The script is not a phonetic but a visual language because it cannot be otherwise. There is nothing to say about these unknown herbs, only to put them in connection with the sky through an astronomical code that uses certain rules. It doesn't make sense to us but it does make sense to a medieval man.

Would this be solely for the purposes of the makers of the ms, or could other medieval men look at it and know what it meant, in the situation you describe?

If it is all nonsense, what is there for anyone to recognize?

If i wanted to make a code that showed the movement of the stars, it would probably be along the lines of rise and set times for various heavenly objects. But i believe you have said the only thing such tables have in common with the vms is the use of some glyphs, or did i misunderstand you?