Evidence for 2 rules linking words in Herbal A->B

[Jorge_Stolfi]

For the last few days, I have been attempting to discover one of these 'transformation rules' that would repair the severed word distributions between the two different Herbals, and I think I have found a few that have compelling evidence.

That would be a very valuable result!  Meanwhile, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is what could be a first step in that direction: a set of "projection rules" that seem to map both A and B to the same language (but with massive loss of information). 

It is my belief that the VMS is a compilation of 4-5 separate books, originally written by different people in different epochs and places, which were transcribed/translated by the Author into the same language and script that he devised.  Specifically, I believe that each of the sections Astro/Cosmo, Zodiac, Bio/Balneo, Pharma, and Starred Parags was a separate "ur-book"; and Herbal was two separate books.  Although Pharma may have been just a brief summary of one or both of the Herbal books.

If this hunch is true, then the differences between Herbal A and B may be due to a "spelling reform" that the Author did between transcribing the two books; or to differences between the dialect or pronunciation of the two ur-books; or to differences in the style and format of the entries.  Like, consider the following way to write the same herbal info:

• If it is boiled and taken with honey, it will cure baldness
  
• To cure baldness, boil it and take it with honey
  
• Boiling it and taking it with honey cures baldness 
  

etc.  Maybe Herbal A is written in one of these styles, while Herbal B is written in another.

All the best, --stolfi