No text, but a visual code

[Koen G]

I do not wish it to remain a mystery either - the desire to learn what this manuscript is all about is what drove me to study it in the first place. But we must remain vigilant that this desire for answers does not cause us to accept solutions too quickly.

On your plant ID proposals, three things:

- I fully agree that there are many aspects of real plants in these drawings. The are either based on real plant observations or drawings thereof, or both. The manuscript was made on Earth and clearly influenced by flora known to 15th century Europe (through observation, trade and tradition).
- But, for every plant you can identify with some certainty, there are three more where everyone disagrees, or where the image is a botanically impossible mess.
- Moreover, even identifiable plants have some really strange things going on. For example, your Viola odorata has three thick, tree-like stems with strange leaf balls in between, almost looking like an architectural feature. Which botanist, seeing this and the three spiky roots, will say "ah yes, clearly Viola odorata"?