The hidden structure of the VMS

[Jorge_Stolfi]

The thing that I thought was most interesting is how square of a border the gaps make in herbal A, below the first paragraph.

Apparently the Scribe's routine was: 

First, draw the plant without thinking about the text. Place the base of the stem 20-40 mm from the bottom edge of the vellum, either centered left-right on the page, if the drawing is expected to be broad, or somewhat off-center towards the right, if the drawing is expected to be narrow -- so that the plant would be expected to end up flush against the right edge of the page.   Exceptionally, the base of the stem may be offset to the left, as in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (presumably because of the large root extending to the right).  Anyway, draw the plant up from the base of the stem, going as far in all directions as it seems right for that plant. That may be all the way up to the top edge of the  vellum, as in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. or f15r, or may end still in the bottom half of the page, as in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and f21r. It may extend all the way to the left edge, as in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and f13r, or may use less than the right half of the page, as in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. f18v.  Then draw the root, which usually ends up squashed against the bottom edge of the vellum.  (On You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and f21r,exceptionally, the leaves too extend below the base of the stem, down to the bottom edge of the vellum.)

Then write the text.  The first parag always starts 20-40 mm from the top edge of the vellum; unless the plant takes up too much space there, as in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. or f11v.  If there is a second parag, place it anywhere it seems most convenient.   That may be just below the first parag, as in f16v; but often it is well below it, where the plant is narrower, as in f22r, f27r, f32v, or f34r.  In this second case, that place is usually where the plant is just a vertical stem.  Hence the usually straight margin of the gap in the second parag, unlike the first parag.

A professional scribe would presumably have planned the drawing of the plant so as to leave at least 20-30 mm of blank margin all around.  But did I mention before that the VMS Scribe had not the slightest idea of what the word "planning" meant?  

Anyway, to me it is clear that the placement of the text was determined by the plant drawing, and this in turn varied wildly from plant to plant. 

It is expected that the Scribe's plant drawing style evolved with time, but I can hardly see signs of that.  The plant on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. indeed seems to be rather "tense" and carefully drawn, as if the Scribe was still unsure at his new job. His style becomes a bit "looser" on the next few pages, but then stays more or less constant for the rest of Herbal.

In fact, to my eyes the style of the plant drawings -- including all the defects of placement -- is so uniform that I am 99.9% certain that both Herbal sections were scribed by a single Scribe.  

And the artistic style of the other sections also seems to be the same.

All the best, --stolfi