The yellow/blue cube in f102v2

[MarcoP]

They don't have to be recipes. What if the containers were used for storage or transportation of the individual items? Or what if the vessels are mostly ornamental, marking a row of somehow related products like an elaborate bullet point. Or what if they show the kinds of containers these things were found in or near on the marketplace or in shops. Or what if they hint at the type of product one could make from these plants without needing them all together row by row? I see no reason to assume the recipe hypothesis over any other at the moment.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is one of the Vice-Presidents of the International Society for the History of Medicine, last year he was visiting professor in the History of Medicine at UCLA and previously he was a professor at the Universities of Paris, Messina, Philadelphia and several others. He published the facsimile edition of the Tractatus de herbis Sloane 4016 and Tacuinum Sanitatis BNF lat 9333. He wrote numberless papers about ancient medicine in Latin, Greek and Arabic sources.

Here is his opinion about the "pharma" or "small plants" section (from his You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.):

Se paragonate a quelle della prima parte del manoscritto, queste piante sono minute e semplificate e sembrano indicare le specie da utilizzare per preparare i prodotti contenuti nei vasi al lato del testo, piuttosto che istruire il lettore sulle loro caratteristiche. Sono probabilmente icone destinate a collegare questa parte del testo con la prima, così da permettere ai preparatori di poter individuare facilmente nella prima parte del Codice i prodotti da utilizzare per la confezione dei preparati.

My translation (I tried to keep this as literal as possible): 

If compared with those in the first part of the manuscript, these plants are small and simplified and seem to illustrate the species to be used to prepare the products contained in the jars at the side of the text, rather than to instruct the reader about their characteristics. They likely are icons intended to link this part of the text with the first, in order to allow the preparers to easily identify in the first part of the manuscript the products to be used in the making of preparations.

Of course, I agree with him. My personal opinion is that this is an excellent explanation for the repeating structure of this section, the regularities in the relative positions of illustrations of jars and plants, the presence of labels on jars and next to plants, the short text paragraphs.

I think the blue cube most likely is an ingredient in the preparation of porshols soe dy (whatever it is).