Elephant in the Room Solution Considerations

[Jorge_Stolfi]

For some reason, from the very beginning, I treated the “weirdo” S3 (in your chart) as standing apart from all others (it is the tallest and widest of them all and its height exceeds the outline of the outer line of that circle of letters). I have not treated it as part of the series, but a marker separating the 16 figures.

I think that trying to draw any such conclusions is a waste of time at this point.  I don't see how such speculations would help us understand the manuscript. 

But I believe the 4x17 sequence starts at ~10:30 with the o, because of the extra-wide gap there.  

Also the first period, from that o to the next one, spans ~100 degrees, while the last period, from the third "updown lambda" to the final one, is compressed into ~80 degrees; and one can see in several other diagrams that the Scribe could not plan his circular diagrams, not even to the basic level of dividing a circle with 4 sets of things into 4 equal parts.  He just started writing or drawing without plan, and then when he got near the end of the circle he usually had to cram things to get them to fit.  Or even move the last few things to an "overflow" area, as he did on f73r or f73v.

There is also a double line across the text ring at that wide gap.  But I don't trust it much, since it may well be a late addition.  Maybe even by the NSA guys who had the VMS punched into cards, around 1950.

has something to do with the left column of letters on two pages of the plants: one on page 66r (which incidentally is the one with the ill lady on the bottom) and one on page 49v.

Well, the only similarity I see is that all three are sequences of signs that include some common glyphs and some weirdos that occur nowhere else.  But the weirdos are not the same, and only some of the common signs are the same.

And while the 4 x 17 sequence of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is surely original (albeit somewhat altered by Retracers), I suspect that those two other sequences may be late additions.  Like the three-column table on f1r.  Thus I would rather not spend much time on them... 

These are the only two plant pages where those numbers are so prominently columned on the left

I would not consider You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. a Herbal page, even if though it is in the same quire as herbal pages.  I consider it a member of the "Unknown" subset. 

And even You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. are rather unusual for Herbal, since they have a lot more than the average amount of text. 

All the best, --stolfi