Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS

[Jorge_Stolfi]

See for example here (towards the end): You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Thanks Rene, I hadn't seen those slides yet...

One detail: as you noted, there are only a few "color keys" on the VMS, and the one that is most readable seems to say "rot", "red" in German.  And keys like that one are seen in other herbals from Central Europe including a clear "rot" above some red-painted flowers.

It is tempting to conclude that the VMS Scribe and/or Author were German.  But that "rot" key was not followed by the Painter, and the letters look rather awkward.

So here is another theory: when the VMS Scribe was copying plant parts from another herbal, which happened to have been created in a German-speaking area, he saw the "rot" color key on the stem of that plant, and --- not speaking German -- thought that it was a Voynichese label that had to be copied too.  So he did, striving to interpret the German letters as Voynichese letters...

All the best, --jorge