F17r plant: Alkanna Tinctoria?

[eggyk]

In European medieval manuscripts, the plant is usually called Buglossa. These three examples are related with the Tractatus De Herbis tradition (from the left: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., Manfredus You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). The first link also shows a couple of Eastern herbals. You can compare these illustrations with Auslasser's drawing linked by Koen

Thank you for those. I'm having a few difficulties here. Are there a range of plants that were all referred to as buglossa or alkannet? In my (admittedly amateur) opinion, the plants that you linked do not resemble the images I linked in my OP. Beyond the flower itself, perhaps. 

They do look very similar to the one scarecrow posted, but that's a relative. If you google buglossa, you also see many examples of plants that look the same. But if you search alkanna tinctoria, theres very clearly a big difference there. 

I don't mean to dismiss at all. I just mean that if i was handed one of those manuscript examples and told me to pick one in real life, i would be very doubtful picking the Alkanna Tinctoria (especially the bushy ones) and would likely pick the buglossa without much doubt. On the other hand, if you showed me the voynich plant and told me to do the same, i would likely never pick the buglossa but would likely recognise and pick Alkanna Tinctoria. 

I suppose my broader point is that giving a yes/no/maybe plant ID may have to be done on a (sub)species to (sub)species basis. In this case, Alkanet/buglossa as a whole may not be a narrow enough definition for an ID.