My two centavos:
Maybe the Author put color keys on some parts of the plants in his sketches. But it seems that they were ignored when the figures were finally painted.
On f29r, I see the "r" sign but I would not try to guess what it is.
By the way, have you noticed the graphical inconsistency in the roots of f29r? The Scribe apparently drew 6 roots on the left, 5 roots on the right, and then got quite confused when he/she tried to join them in the middle. some of the gaps on the left become roots on the right, and vice-versa. The result is like that famous You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.. (But I don't think there is any deep meaning in this detail. To me, it only shows again the limited artistic ability of the Scribe, or maybe his haste or lack of care.)
I think that there were at least two distinct Painters (agents who applied color to the figures), acting in well-separated epochs.
- There was a Light Painter who applied a light golden yellow transparent paint to most pages, including the hair of many Zodiac nymphs. This person did not fill the figures up to the outlines, but generally seems to have respected them. He/she used the light yellow paint to provide two stars on Zodiac diagrams that the Scribe had failed to draw outlines for. Thus it would seem that he/she had some understanding of the contents of the manuscript, e.g. that there should be 30 stars per diagram, not 29. He/she used a brush to paint a roundish splot inside many stars, but apparently used a broad-nibbed pen in other places, like on the roots of f29r. But he did not color the details that I attribute to the Retracer, such as the crowns and "scalloped showercaps" that the latter would have drawn on some Zodiac nymphs.
- Then there was a Dark Painter, who applied opaque tempera-like paint of various bright colors. In the Herbal section, he/she usually filled the outlines right to the edge, but sometimes overflowed and obscured the outlines. His/her choice of colors appears to have been totally whimsical, sometimes using unrealistic alternation of colors. On one page he rendered the leaves red and the flower green. On the Zodiac he/she was quite a bit clumsier and less careful.
Thus I believe that we should maybe pay some attention to the work of the Light Painter, but completely ignore the work of the Dark Painter.