In his You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view., Prof. Stephen Bax wrote: "With the notable exception of Zandbergen, it is surprising how few scholars have seriously researched herbal manuscripts contemporary with the VM".
Since then, You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. has been published. Touwaide largely confirms Rene Zanbergen's observations. I guess that referring to Rene's and Touwaide's works is the most reliable approach to the subject.
I am not an expert in this area, but these are some manuscripts that I think can help us understand what Touwaide calls "the Voynich herbal". I detail for each ms some of the relevant features:
* Manfredus de Monte Imperiali You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view., Southern Italy, first half of the XIV Century, Latin (the text is an expanded version of the "Tractatus de Herbis" / "Circa Instans"). Sherwood and Zandbergen independently pointed out the similarity of the You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view.. This parallel was also discussed by Alain Touwaide in his 2015 paper "L'Erbario Voynich". The ms is a high quality scientific work. Text is neatly organized in two columns and the illustrations are of great artistic quality.
Relevant features: Touwaide comments on "meaningful similarities" between the illustrations of the BNF ms and those of the VMS; the specific combination of the oak and ivy illustration
* MS 362 Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana Vicenza, Veneto, XV Century. Sergio Toresella compared the VMS with the Italian herbal tradition known asYou are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view.. Rene Zandbergen has pointed out that this particular copy features German colour annotations that in part match annotations in the VMS. Both Toresella's observations and the colour annotations in the Vicenza ms are mentioned by Touwaide. Like most other copies of the Alchemical Herbal, the ms features poor quality, highly schematic illustrations.
Relevant features: poor artistic quality, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic elements, German colour annotations
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Login to view. (Veneto) and You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. (Pistoia), XV Century. Text in Italian. Both manuscripts are believed to be copies of the same lost original. The text derives from various sources, including the Alchemical Herbal and the Tractatus de Herbis and incorporating astrological elements. These manuscripts are of a popular nature, the illustrations are of a poor quality and the layout of the pages is often similar to that of the VMS. Also, a high number of fantastic details appears in the illustrations. The Vermont Herbal features colour annotations (in Italian).
Relevant features: poor artistic quality, page layout, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic elements
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Login to view., (this includes the "Pseudo-Apuleius" collection and many plants from unknown sources), Germany?, second half of the XIV Century, Latin - pointed out by Rene on this forum. Like the two Italian ms mentioned above, this ms appears to be a manual that might have been intended for actual medical use.
Relevant features: original illustrations and plants that cannot be easily traced to known traditions, recurring peculiarities of the illustrations (e.g. flat-top roots, animal-shaped roots), colour annotations
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Login to view., Southern France, XIV Century - originally pointed out by Ellie Velinska, I think. The text is derived from Tractatus de Herbis, translated and much shortened. The ms makes consistent use of additional figurative elements, both incorporated into plants and accompanying them: such elements are much more frequent than in the VMS, they appear in almost all of the illustrations. The ms is a luxury product, with extremely regular lay-out and professional calligraphy and illustrations.
Relevant features: abundance of unique non-botanical details
This short list makes clear that the VMS appears to be somehow related with several of the main medieval herbal traditions. Since these traditions are largely inter-connected, it is not easy to draw a boundary where things stop being relevant. Documenting the Pseudo-Apuleius, the Tractatus de Herbis and the Alchemical Herbal basically means writing a history of Western herbal lore: it will not be easy to present all this in a reasonably simple way...