(09-06-2021, 02:39 AM)DONJCH Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Useful. What about herbal B? Is it possible that there is one plant for each day of the year, for instance? (I seem to recall some thing like that has been proposed)
Thank you, DONJCH. Since you twisted my arm, here's Herbal B, which I actually did first:
Q4
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26—^—31
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Q5
33—^—40
34—^—39
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Q6
41—^—48
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43—^—46
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Q7
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50—^—55
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Q8
57—^—66
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Q17
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94—^—95
- 8 Herbal B bifolios. Four plant pages on each bifolio, minus two for the absence of any plant images on 57v and 66r (which sit next to each other on the same side of 57-66), for a total of:
- 30 Herbal B plant pages
- No quires are homogeneously Herbal B
- The consecutive Q4~8 are heterogeneously Herbal B, admixed exclusively with Herbal A
- Q4~8 contain all but one of all the extant Herbal B bifolios.
- The only exception is 94-95 in Q17, which is not an exception to the rule that:
- Herbal B bifolios only occur in quires that are otherwise wholly Herbal A
- All of Herbal B would fit neatly into two quires of four bifolios each
- Turned inside out from its current position, it's tempting to wonder if 57-66 formed the first (f66r) and last (f57v) pages of a chapter or stand-alone volume.
Honestly DONJCH, I question the assumption that Herbal A and Herbal B have anything to do with each other thematically, or were even originally part of the same book. I think these are dangerous assumptions, that the latest binder of the VMs clearly made, as shown by the admixture of Herbal A and Herbal B bifolios in five different quires.
The numbers 100 and 30 (the counts of Herbal A and Herbal B plant images, respectively) are at first blush reassuring, because they're nice and round. But on second thought, their commonality is not reassuring at all; lots of things come in sets of both numbers. Add in the fact that we're not at all sure that today's VMs contains all the original plant bifolios, and this whole discussion of image counts is looking kind of moot.