Voynich plant 5v
Can you help us to identify this plant and also decode the name?
| Image | Text |
|---|---|
| Click here to see the original page. | Click here to see the original page. |
 |   |
| Possible name (first word): K A ? O A R |
Step 1: Look at the Voynich plant picture above. Look also at the possible name of that plant from the same page.
Step 2: Look at some other expert suggestions, below, for what this plant might be. Some are borrowed from here.
| E Voynich | Peterson | Sherwood | Velinska | Biologist - Finland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geranium | Parietaria (O'Neill) | Mallow (Malva sylvestris) | Mallow (Malva sylvestris) - id by Edith Sherwood | Potentilla argentea, Geranium, Malva or Althaea officinalis |
Step 3: If you have any good suggestions for the plant, please post a comment below. Give the Latin genus and species name if you can.
Step 4: Can you suggest a name in any language which might resemble the Voynich word? If so, post a comment below.
In particular can you suggest a name from any language which might fit the Voynich text?
NOTE: In my view this could be the plant Malva or Althaea officinalis, in line with what the Finnish biologist and also Sherwood determined (see above)
This plant, called in English Marsh Mallow, and the original source for the marshmallow flavouring, is known in India as Gul-Khair (see Indian Medicinal Plants: An Illustrated Dictionary By C.P. Khare) and Gul simply means red. In my view ‘Khair’ probably derives from the Persian – see Steingass’ dictionary:
خیرو ḵẖīrū, Ox-eye; mallow-flower.
(By comparison. the normal Arabic term for this plant is roughly ‘Khitmi’, and Hebrew is ‘Halmi’.)
This would seem to fit well with the Voynich script as I analyse it – the word would then be read: K A ? O A R, the unidentified symbol possibly being a vowel of some sort.
I aim to research this more fully, but any other suggestions or comments in the meantime?
- Posted in: Voynich plants
Just to be up to date.
After the initial and tentative proposal I made a full analysis of the folio and concluded that while other plants are included in it, the base or defining group are elms.
That full discussion, with comparative imagery and its explanation, identification and explanation of the mnemonic devices, plus the usual things – the appropriate historical context, stylistics and so forth is contained in a series of posts at voynichimagery.wordpress.com – the series being entitled ‘Clear Vision’.
Thanks Diane – I will class this as ‘publicity’ 🙂
I find it hard on your site to find things, but is this the start of the Clear Vision blogs?
https://voynichimagery.wordpress.com/2016/09/15/clear-vision/
I think it’s a borage plant, borago officinalis, a widespread plant in Italy, well known for its medicinal properties. The flowers are usually blue, but in my garden some plants have blue and pink flower. It is bristly or hairy all over the stems and leaves and in english it’s also known as a starflower (Wikipedia).
The word in VM could be B o r a o g (latin)
Hello to Voynich Manuscript research.
I am very curious about the elements of herbal compounding, as I interpret
page 89 to represent. Here, I extract multiple root element to vessel,
left. Note the multipurpose vessel descriptor, color wise. left
Vessel base is “large root mixture. the page process, right, species
to pharma vessel. The wheel and star process…..identification of
pharmacological dose…as indicated in term.
I conclude a dose calculation. Species variable. Indications of administration of dose
as star element.
Here, the vessel element as green, dose indications as the page 69 wheel
Blue vessel, dose indications also page 69.
The archer, page 74, indication of conception….in child bearing aged female.
Notice page 77, the attention to detail of female follicle, female blue (uterus).
page 78 apothecary indications via cup procession. Here, a progression of green to
blue colors with accompanying text, clearly in my view a glimpse towards maternal
progress. 81 to 83 ..notes on dose cohort.
84. Note the return to blue.. a clear dose linked exemplar.
85. Tiny outer ring. Moon line at 4 each. Interior blue ink at 4.
8 moons of progress in pregnancy.?
Page 86 dose placement at placenta? Note blue feature, uterine likeness.
My personal view is within a pharm species dose link specific to midwife.
I am very curious to view the species descriptions, as I am interested to
determine if any of the suggested compounds may have been lost to
current therapeutics. Also, if any of the specifics remark towards
antibiotic active chemistries. Thus, the species identification is central
to interpretative end use.
I rather humbly present my view. And I remark this, what a feat to transcribe
the colors and careful ink with few transcript passages not entire in form
as shown for the age of manuscript. thank you for actual species data to
further study.
I did notice the care and precision in the text, struck at once with the view,
here is the hand of a careful and detail efficient author. Excellent precision
Page 102-103, I view the apothecary vessel left, complex dose right,
prep notes in dark blue, above …light blue below.
103 . star interior, filled, unfilled, as critical data referenced by chart, previous.
To research members, I have simply shared my personal opinions and views.
I am interested to calculate species as dose if possible …in origin. I believe this to
be end use of demonstrated data.
My personal regards,
McGary
I transcribe this simply as KACHUR which is white turmeric, zedoary or curcuma zedoaria.
I have never published a post on this folio, because usually I consider the internal evidence by cross-reference with external evidence, and in this case the latter is meagre.
However, in addition to the plant’s habit which is not drawn as a soft-spined sort of plant but as a springy-looking shrub or tree, we have to account for there having been included here at least one, and possibly two forms which are mnemonics.
The less certain is the beetle-like shape given the root. More certain is the anthropomorphic form seen balancing on the upper section of the drawing.
So any explanation of the drawing must also explain reasonably well why the ‘dancing’ figure is here. Resorting to ideas about whimsy or pure ornament don’t explain, but merely explain away the presence of so many similar (and I think mnemonic) elements in the botanical section’s drawings.
Looking more closely at that human looking figure, you see that its ‘hands’ are drawn as if they were twiddling or twirling short sticks (perhaps as some people twiddle their pens?).
Given a similar red star-like form at the head, I’m inclined to describe this figure as a fire-dancer of some sort, and their number in medieval Latin Europe was not great – fewer still when you consider how few regions of the older world had fire-dancers who carried fire also on their heads. But there are some.
So.. to omit the long dissection…
I think the group on folio 5v include Ochna obtusata and possibly that known as ).lucida etc. which was used for making sticks and so forth.
Ochna obtusata.. native of the East Indies. This tree is called Bokacrae in Ceylon and Yerrajuvre by the Telingas.
O.lucida; leaves obovate or oblong-ovate, acute serrated. Native of the East Indies.
Online references – see (for example)
George Don, A General System of Gardening and Botany……., Volume 1, London: Rivington, 1831. p.815
I have not referred in detail to O.lucida (Lam), because the taxonomy is unsettled.
Uses for Ochna spp. woods:
see e.g.
Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Louppe, D. & Oteng-Amoako, A.A., Timbers 2 p.496
PS – I do hope nobody will argue this a marsh-gas man, but as you must..
from http://www.gbpuat-cbsh.ac.in/departments/bi/database/phytodiabcare/phytodiab%20db/012.html
Genus: Althaea Species: officinalis (L.)
Vernacular name: English – Marsh Mallow
Hindi – Gulkhaira, Khaira, Kajhor <— !
Family: Malvaceae Origin of Species: Europe Habitat: In salt marsh.
See also:
CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants: Common Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology By Umberto Quattrocchi
you'll get a link to the relevent page in google books if you google khatmi etmology
in English: marsh mallow, mortification root, sweetweed, white mallow
in Arabic: khitmi, khobaiza
in India: al-ghasool, bazarul khatme, cimaittutti, cimait-
tutticceti, gul-i-khere, gul-i-khitmi, gul-khairo, gul kheru,
guli kheri, gulkhair, gulkhaira, gulkhairo, jukhame khatme,
khaira, khaira-ka-jhor, khairakajhor, khatami, khatimi,
khatme, khatmi, khero, khitmi, khitmi-ka-jhar, khitmigajhar,
khitmikajhar, resha-e-khitmi, resha-i-khitmi, resha khatami,
resha-khatami, resha khatmi, shemaitute, simaitutti, tukhm-
e-khitmi, tukhm-i-khatmi, tukm-i-khitmi, tukhm-i-khiyaria,
tukm khaimi, tukhm khat ni, tukhm khatmi, tukhm khitmi,
tukhm khubbazi
after days of fruitless/interesting but enjoyable/frustrating googling i'm finally
able so add something useful i hope.
Just going by appearance and my Syriac theory, that “unknown” spot would be an “h”. I didn’t know about this word when I came up with that, but now I see here that the sound fits.
alkanna tinctoria (alkanet)
or stachys officinalis (Betony or woundwort)
both were used by the ancients
Geranium in Georgian is: ქათმისკუჭა [k#’at#misk,uca]
This drawing remind me of this illustration of geranium