Figures from McCrone Pigment Analysis?

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Some supposed 'gold specks' were on my list of things to look at during the Folger 2014 workshop. These had been highlighted in one of the older Voynich fora by a contributor called David Suter. Most are on f46v, the page with the so-called "eagle root". I include a figure he had prepared for this:

Thanks for the image.  On the BL 2014 scan of f46v, the "gold specks" (those highlighted stains except 4, 5, and 9) look more rusty orange than yellow, and no different than many other stains all over the book.  And they look quite different in color, shape, and texture from the yellow "egg yolk drop" of f70v1 that we were discussing.

As for spots 4, 5, and 9, on that image and on the BL 2014 scan of f46v, they look like lumps of white opaque putty, with a light tan halo around them.  I have no reason to doubt their identification as glue splattered from the binding.  However they don't look at all like gum arabic, which is transparent and (in that thickness) practically colorless.  If that glue contains gum arabic, it must contain also something else that makes it white and opaque.

And those three drops don't look like the yellow "egg yolk drop" at the end of the object on the nymph of  f70v1.  But that same white stuff may be the white part of that object (which is where McCrone seems to have taken sample 18 from). 

All the best, --jorge