The ice cube on f102v

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Can you please explain to me, a layman, why the folios were CLEARLY bound in the wrong order?

The best evidence is the illustrations of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and f81r. 

There are two narrow water channels that exit spouts at the bottom of the big tub of f78v, cross the binding fold, and continue on f81r, where they merge with the channel connecting the top and bottom tubs.  That is, the two illustrations are a single illustration showing three big connected tubs.  

But then we must conclude that,when the book was created, those two pages were facing each other, either at the center of a quire or as an isolated bifolio.  But now there is anothe bifolio f79+f80 between those two pages, at the center of the quire. And the folios are numbered according to this "mistake".

Note also that the illustrations on page f78v, f81r, and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. are quite distinct from other illustrations, because they show large collective tubs with vertical walls; whereas the other pager have only individual tubs or pools dug into the floor.

I would say that the binder's mistake is understandable, since the channels connecting f78v and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. are easily overlooked.  

The prevailing theory seems to be that, for some time after its creation, the book was kept as a stack of unbound bifolios -- maybe nested into quires, maybe not.  There is no trace of page numbers before those we see today, that were written when the book was bound.

Another weak evidence of pages being bound in the wrong order is those spurious herbal pages in the Pharma section (f87r, f87v, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. through f96v).  

Another bit of evidence is the jar styles in the Pharma section. One can see a gradual evolution of their shapes from simple cylinders to ciborium-like vessels -- but only if one rearranges the bifolios in a different order.

All the best, --stolfi