"Inserted daisies” on folio 40 line up? A coincidence?

[pseudio]

I hope it is not too tiresome for me to be posting again in this thread that is about a very small and probably unimportant detail, but I just can't stop thinking about these little "daisies!"  


I kept thinking about Koen's suggestion that, if it wasn't just a sheer coincidence, the "daisy" on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. may have been drawn there because the "daisy" on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. was visibile through the page. 

I am no graphic designer, so my first attempt at lining them up and comparing them was quite sloppy. I started to think that the images being at different angles might have led me to incorrectly see them as less similar to each other than they really are. Perhaps they do look like a lot alike, as though one was drawn over the other.

So I wanted to see whether I could align the images a bit better in order to judge more clearly how much the two “inserted daisies” on 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. really look alike.

This time I downloaded the original size high-quality images of the 2014 scans from the Yale University Library. I removed the background of f40v, leaving only cutouts of the blue and green paint and the daisy-like flower. I again flipped You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. horizontally and aligned the two images as closely as I could using those areas of blue and green paint visible through the page on f40r as guides. This took me a very long time because the pages lay differently depending on which side is facing up, so getting every area of paint to line up was extremely challenging. In the end I prioritised the paint closest to the "daisies" assuming this had a higher chance of positioning the daisies more accurately. I then again compared the two flowers by adjusting the transparency of the upper layer.

The result isn't all that different and it is still far from perfect or reliable, but I have included the video here in case anyone is interested.



This is still only a very rough comparison, and I do not think it proves anything. But my impression now is that the flowers may line up somewhat better than I first thought, and that their shapes may be more similar too. Not exact matches, but more similar than I first thought.

I think this does support Koen’s suggestion, although it is hard to know for sure. I am not sure whether there would be a way to prove (or disprove) this idea. I wonder if someone with the realistic facsimile reproduction version of the VMS would be able to tell? I don't know.

Although it is a small detail and it may be a coincidence which means nothing, I keep thinking of questions about these little "daisies." Like, are there other examples in the Voynich Manuscript of this kind of playful response to what was visible through the page which we just have not noticed before? If so, what would it mean if they occur only on Currier language B pages, or scribal hand 2 pages, or B-style flower drawing pages? Are there examples of this same thing in other medieval manuscripts (it seems quite possible given the propensity medieval scribes and artists had for doing little drawings around defects in the page and other sorts of things)? What might this tell us about the aritst's intent for the drawings on 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. - did they not mind if a little whimsical detail like this introduced a botanically inaccurate element to the image? Why not?

Certainly there is never a shortage of things to wonder about when it comes to the VMS!