Structural patterns in the VMS & Evaluating the Tironian shorthand hypothesis

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Every herbal folio has a unique first word that acts as that plant's code.

f2v.1       kooiin
f29v.1     kooiin

f19r.1      pchor
f21r.1      pchor
f52v.1      pchor

f54r.1      podaiin
f55r.1      podaiin

This is precisely the pattern that one expects if each parag of the Herbal section is about a different plant, and starts with the plant's name.  Many names will be just one word long, and generally will not be mentioned anywhere else in that herbal.  Or in an treatise of anatomy.  or in astrological charts.

Some plant names will be two words or more, and then two such names may begin with the same word.

From Culpeper's herbal:

  ...
  FOXGLOVE
  FUMITORY
  GARDEN RUE
  GARDEN TANSIE
  GARDEN VALERIAN
  GARLICK
  GERMANDER
  GOLDEN MAIDENHAIR
  GOLDEN ROD
  GROMEL
  GROUNDSEL
  HAWKWEED
  ...

All the best, --stolfi