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• [split] Viola manuscript images

• RE: [split] Viola manuscript images

  -JKP- > 27-02-2021, 06:13 AM

  Here are some examples of how Viola odorata was usually drawn (plus a herbarium specimen of the actual plant):
  
  
  
  It was sometimes labeled purpurea.

• RE: [split] Viola manuscript images

  -JKP- > 27-02-2021, 06:34 AM

         
  
  I don't know what the Harley/Trinity plant is meant to be because "viola" was a generic term for a lot of bluish-purple plants, but in terms of general characteristics (narrow leaves at 90 degrees, flowers at the top) it LOOKS like Linum. Some species of Linum have long narrow leaves (especially Linum angustifolium) and Linum comes in numerous colors, particularly blue/violet, yellow, and white. Linum was frequently included in medieval herbals.
  
  Another possibility is Gentiana. Some species have long narrow leaves, blue flowers at the top in little groups. The wild varieties are not as densely leaved as the garden varieties. Several species of gentian were called "viola". It's usually blue or blue-violet, but it also comes in white and occasionally yellow:
  
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  The leaves look like ironweed (Vernonia), but that's a North American plant. Many gentians are circumboreal.

• RE: [split] Viola manuscript images

  VViews > 27-02-2021, 06:34 AM

  If blue painter hadn't shown up to sabotage the flowers (which were originally just pale yellow), the plant would be less confusing.
  As most people here probably know, I believe blue painter either didn't understand the MS, or deliberately obscured things that may have been too clear.
  I don't think the so-called "tricolor" effect is done on purpose here. Clearly blue painter started painting all the yellow petals blue, then ran out of paint for the last two flowers.

• RE: [split] Viola manuscript images

  -JKP- > 27-02-2021, 06:41 AM

  The messy painter definitely wasn't very skilled and wasn't very careful (rushed through it like he or she wanted to be doing something else), but I sometimes wonder if the way things turned out are because he was trying to blend colors but didn't know how to do it properly.
  
  The tidy painter was pretty good at blending the green colors.

• RE: [split] Viola manuscript images

  Koen G > 27-02-2021, 09:04 AM

  Or maybe some batches of the deep blue paint were just impossible to work with? The VM paints look pretty cheap overall, so subpar blue is within the realm of possibilities. 
  
  JKP: I get that viola and the water lily are more naturalistic than contemporary examples. But how do we explain this in relation to almost all other plants, which are morphed to the extent that they are impossible to identify with any certainty?

• RE: [split] Viola manuscript images

  -JKP- > 27-02-2021, 10:42 AM

  I'm not sure.
  
  Sometimes I get the feeling that someone started out doing a book of plants (or a section of a book that included plants) and somewhere along the timeline the illustrator (or mastermind) saw an "alchemical" herbal and was told (or became aware of) how symbols and mnemonics had been used in certain plant books. The person with the proclivity to create a script like Voynichese said, "Oh! That's a cool idea. I can do that too." and ran with it, in a way that had never been done before. Sort of a Mozart of cryptic manuscript design. Not a great artist, not a great scribe (or group of scribes), but imaginative and detail-oriented and somewhat analytical (the VMS script is not haphazard).
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