-JKP- > 11-01-2017, 06:23 AM
(11-01-2017, 03:48 AM)Diane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Anton,
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Remember, in Baresch's time, German botanists and herbalists were the most eminent in Europe - meaning they had studied the range of older 'Dioscoridan' works as well as the contemporary science - and they couldn't identify any, apparently.
-JKP- > 11-01-2017, 06:28 AM
(11-01-2017, 03:48 AM)Diane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....
Another unthinking assumption is that any pictures of plants must constitute a herbal. For all anyone knows, the pictures may be patterns for ... a craftsman's collection of patterns to be used in metalwork, tapestry, embroidery, silk fabric, mosaic, china-painting or woodwork.
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Anton > 11-01-2017, 08:02 AM
Quote:In fact style of drawing is absolutely critical because it directs attention to the mind-set informing the image, and thus assists correct attribution. Style is how we distinguish whether the picture of (say) a woman and child is meant for the Madonna, and further whether it is a product of Italy, France, Spain, Russia, Egypt or China.
Since many also assume, without pausing to consider whether the assumption is anachronistic, that any divergence in style between Latin art and the imagery in Beinecke MS 408 may be dismissed as due to some imaginary figure called "the artist", we have the compounding of these two notions at work before the person even begins to posit a plant id.
Another unthinking assumption is that any pictures of plants must constitute a herbal. For all anyone knows, the pictures may be patterns for ... a craftsman's collection of patterns to be used in metalwork, tapestry, embroidery, silk fabric, mosaic, china-painting or woodwork.
So what if the 'herbal' idea is another assumption not just unexamined but plain wrong?
Quote:FYI, there was also a Greek physician called Lysimachos.
-JKP- > 11-01-2017, 08:11 AM
(11-01-2017, 08:02 AM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....
In fact, based on the assumptions expressed in this thread, I got a novel idea that can be named "heads and tails" paradigm. With this paradigm:
a) the look of the Voynich plants is explained by that the primary purpose is mnemonics;
b) the roots of the Voynich plants are used as mnemonics for one language/usage (say, Latin/"scientific") and the tops of the plants are used as mnemonics for another language/usage (say, German/"folklore")
For You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. this would be the (provisional) Lysimachia and Schirmkraut, respectively.
With this concept, there may be no plant names mentioned in the botanical folios at all (so my PPN idea would need to be discarded), because they would actually be not needed there anymore.
This may position the botanical section completely out-of-style and make the search for style parallels vain, because the appearance would not be following style, but be the direct consequence of the ingenious approach of the mastermind behind those folios. And, of course, this would make the botanical section not a traditional herbal - because it conceals plant names instead of revealing them.
Of course this assumption is only provisional at the moment and needs to be checked against more botanical folios.
Anton > 11-01-2017, 08:21 AM
Quote:Suppose the text uses "star" by reference to some of the cosmological sections? It doesn't have to actually be the word "star", it could be any combination of glyphs to mean star and thus wouldn't necessarily match glyph-by-glyph to other words on the same page.
-JKP- > 11-01-2017, 08:31 AM
(11-01-2017, 08:21 AM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Quote:Suppose the text uses "star" by reference to some of the cosmological sections? It doesn't have to actually be the word "star", it could be any combination of glyphs to mean star and thus wouldn't necessarily match glyph-by-glyph to other words on the same page.
Well, that would be fine for one folio, but that would not scale for the whole botanical section, I think. There are 100+ Voynich plants there, and there are simply not as many thematical sections in the VMS to be cross-referenced by plant names. If there is some inner principle, then it would be applied as a system.
Koen G > 11-01-2017, 09:07 AM
Quote:Paris polyphylla has been used by local inhabitants of Nepal traditionally since ancient times. They use it primarily for fevers and headaches, burns, wounds, and many livestock disease mainly to neutralize poisons.
-JKP- > 11-01-2017, 09:26 AM
Koen G > 11-01-2017, 09:41 AM
(11-01-2017, 09:26 AM)-JKP- Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Things like cardamom, Indian spikenard, and many of the eastern nuts would be imported, but it seems unnecessary to climb far up into the mountains of Tibet to find the same plant that was available in people's back woods.
-JKP- > 11-01-2017, 10:43 AM
(11-01-2017, 09:41 AM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.(11-01-2017, 09:26 AM)-JKP- Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Things like cardamom, Indian spikenard, and many of the eastern nuts would be imported, but it seems unnecessary to climb far up into the mountains of Tibet to find the same plant that was available in people's back woods.
Yes, that is of course true. One of the ID's in the small plants section I feel most confident about is saffron.
The idea would be though, that this is more of a general guidebook for managing a fleet or a ship. Say you are in this or that exotic place and you need to instantly repair your ship's ropes, what do you get? Or some of the crew are full of sores or insect bites near Nepal, what remedy is available?