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Showing some plant detailing obscured under green paint
- Showing some plant detailing obscured under green paint
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Showing some plant detailing obscured under green paint
eggyk > 16-03-2026, 02:31 PM
Hello all,
In a similar spirit to oshdfk's processed images, I have processed a few of the plant images in an attempt to see any hidden detailing, or to highlight what is visible to get a better idea of how it looked before the painting process. This focuses on green paint, so the leaves of the plants.
My hunch is that due to such an awful painting job, much of the original detail was lost. This has negatively influenced our opinion on the quality of the drawings, of course. Were they really as bad as they seem now?
f46v:
f87v:
f100r:
f100v-f101r 1-2:
f40v:
f8r:
A common theme between many of these are clearer leaf outlines and clearer leaf stems. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. benefits a lot from this and looks far more inricate than at first glance. Look at the stem that has carefully been drawn behind the spikes of the leaf in front! These look to me to be quite inricate, deliberate details (similar in quality to many of the later pages, the containers etc). It's possible that the darker green paint, or heavier applied green paint has completely removed the previously visible detailing.
Unfortunately, I don't know if further MSI would help in any way, as in every available MSI image, these details aren't really any better than seen here. For example, the MSI image for You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. lacks these details completely. Perhaps a different wavelength would have different results?
On the other hand, the pages chosen for MSI analysis don't appear to be pages with any visible detail anyway, so maybe scans of other pages would actually be quite useful (sometime in the future). -
RE: Showing some plant detailing obscured under green paint
Bernd > 16-03-2026, 08:39 PM
Can you share your workflow to achieve this result? It certainly makes the ink stand out better, especially in leaf venation. -
RE: Showing some plant detailing obscured under green paint
oeesordy > 16-03-2026, 09:02 PM
Does what's in the yellow circle look like possible cursive writing? Or am I confused by the scanning technology that you used?
I just had to edit this, because of this find:
Maybe I have Pareidolia, but could it be the signature in the yellow, Jan Eyck of Liege?
Quote:Jan van Eyck (c. 1390–1441) is a major artist associated with the region near Liège during the early 15th century. Born in Maaseik, near Liège, he was a pioneering Northern Renaissance painter and master of oil painting who served the Burgundian court, influencing Flemish art profoundly during the 1420s and 1430s.
J.K. Peterson quotes a possible link to the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. from Burgundy in the voynich. -
RE: Showing some plant detailing obscured under green paint
eggyk > 16-03-2026, 09:21 PM
(16-03-2026, 08:39 PM)Bernd Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Can you share your workflow to achieve this result? It certainly makes the ink stand out better, especially in leaf venation.
Yes, of course. For this I used a fantastic online steganography tool that I used to use for image analysis: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
For these specific images, the exact settings are the following:
Upload the file (as non compressed as possible, i used the full size jpgs from the yale online library)
Principal Component Analysis
Input -> Color
Component -> 2
Linearize -> Yes
Invert -> Whatever you prefer
Enhancement -> Equalize Histogram (but any option is fine)
I then pasted the images into an image program and slightly adjusted the brightness and contrast to make the details clearer depending on each image (not entirely necessary).
I simply happened across some details by chance when looking at another page for a different reason while playing around with the tool. Once I noticed something, I decided to check with other pages too. -
RE: Showing some plant detailing obscured under green paint
eggyk > 16-03-2026, 09:25 PM
(16-03-2026, 09:02 PM)oeesordy Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Maybe I have Pareidolia, but could it be the signature in the yellow, Jan Eyck of Liege?
It's pareidolia, trust me. It happens a lot with this type of tool. When something is really there, it's really quite obvious. You will see such things all over the page, and its often deformations in the parchment, general unevenness, or simply a part where the contrast blurs into apparent patterns which aren't there. -
RE: Showing some plant detailing obscured under green paint
oeesordy > 16-03-2026, 09:35 PM
(16-03-2026, 09:25 PM)eggyk Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
(16-03-2026, 09:02 PM)oeesordy Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Maybe I have Pareidolia, but could it be the signature in the yellow, Jan Eyck of Liege?
It's pareidolia, trust me. It happens a lot with this type of tool. When something is really there, it's really quite obvious. You will see such things all over the page, and its often deformations in the parchment, general unevenness, or simply a part where the contrast blurs into apparent patterns which aren't there.
Ok Wow I just went down the rabbit hole lol. -
RE: Showing some plant detailing obscured under green paint
eggyk > 16-03-2026, 09:45 PM
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RE: Showing some plant detailing obscured under green paint
oeesordy > 16-03-2026, 09:51 PM
(16-03-2026, 09:25 PM)eggyk Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
(16-03-2026, 09:02 PM)oeesordy Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Maybe I have Pareidolia, but could it be the signature in the yellow, Jan Eyck of Liege?
It's pareidolia, trust me. It happens a lot with this type of tool. When something is really there, it's really quite obvious. You will see such things all over the page, and its often deformations in the parchment, general unevenness, or simply a part where the contrast blurs into apparent patterns which aren't there.
Do you have a reference point from another image that might have what looks like cursive writing or writing so I can compare it to this? If you say it happens a lot can I see some other image with this pareidolia type delusion creator. At least I could be satisfied, I cannot believe what connection I made from that was so much pareidolia, I mean what are the odds? -
RE: Showing some plant detailing obscured under green paint
oeesordy > 16-03-2026, 09:54 PM
(16-03-2026, 09:45 PM)eggyk Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
(16-03-2026, 09:35 PM)oeesordy Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Ok Wow I just went down the rabbit hole lol.
Don't worry, i'll meet you down there.
By the way, what you were seeing was the outline of the ink blobs, here is the section you circled closer up:
It does not look like the what was could have been cursive writing. And if those were ink blobs it could have been a cover up? -
RE: Showing some plant detailing obscured under green paint
eggyk > 16-03-2026, 10:25 PM
(16-03-2026, 09:54 PM)oeesordy Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.It does not look like the what was could have been cursive writing. And if those were ink blobs it could have been a cover up?
Seriously, trust me. You can take any page of the VMS even without further processing, and by simply increasing the contrast and lowering the brightness you will get all sorts of these things. Once the contrast is high enough, and the brightness low enough, the areas of low brightness merge. Take this example here: