08-11-2024, 11:02 AM
Hi!
This is my first post, I am not a color expert, I am not a statistician, but I do have some interesting data that someone more qualified could expand upon.
In some of the recent YouTube videos by Koen, it was argued (I thought very persuasively) that the scribes also painted the paintings. This made me wonder: can we see a difference in what colors are used on the flowers? Can this be used to determine if the color is original or if it was added later?
My contention is the following:
(a) if the color was added later, there would be no difference in coloring between Herbal A and Herbal B, since a later painter would not know the difference.
thus,
(b) if there is any noticable difference in how color is used between Herbal A and Herbal B, it must mean that the color is original.
I conducted a very simple test. I separated all paintings of flowers into Herbal A or Herbal B on voynichese.com
I then asked a simple question: "what colors are found on the page?" and did a simple "yes/no" for each color I found.
I grouped it the following way:
It is very simple, and not very precise, but having gone through every image of flowers in Herbal A and Herbal B, I did find some striking results:
Herbal A colors:
Herbal B colors:
As you can see, there is a stark difference between the usage of the color red.
The only pages where Herbal B uses red are: f40v, f46v, f55r, and f95r1.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. might actually be brown and not even red. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. only uses a miniscule amount of red, if not a very reddish brown. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. uses a reddish brown again.
f95r1 is the only Herbal B where I feel that red is definitely used, and it is only small dots.
Compare that to the use of red (or very reddish brown) which is used extensively, on basically half of all pages, in Herbal A.
This indicates at the very least that the scribe of Herbal B didn't like red. Or perhaps that Herbal B wasn't completely finished, since there is white on almost every single Herbal B page, and maybe red was only used as a finishing color(?).
In any way, speculation aside, there is a clear, stark difference in the usage of the color red between Herbal A and Herbal B. This could not have been the case if the color was added later by someone who didn't know the difference between Herbal A and Herbal B.
My humble conclusion, therefore, is that the color was added by the scribes. I am sure that someone better equipped to do these kinds of experiments could find even more robust research. I am not very good at these things.
Thank you for reading.
This is my first post, I am not a color expert, I am not a statistician, but I do have some interesting data that someone more qualified could expand upon.
In some of the recent YouTube videos by Koen, it was argued (I thought very persuasively) that the scribes also painted the paintings. This made me wonder: can we see a difference in what colors are used on the flowers? Can this be used to determine if the color is original or if it was added later?
My contention is the following:
(a) if the color was added later, there would be no difference in coloring between Herbal A and Herbal B, since a later painter would not know the difference.
thus,
(b) if there is any noticable difference in how color is used between Herbal A and Herbal B, it must mean that the color is original.
I conducted a very simple test. I separated all paintings of flowers into Herbal A or Herbal B on voynichese.com
I then asked a simple question: "what colors are found on the page?" and did a simple "yes/no" for each color I found.
I grouped it the following way:
It is very simple, and not very precise, but having gone through every image of flowers in Herbal A and Herbal B, I did find some striking results:
Herbal A colors:
Herbal B colors:
As you can see, there is a stark difference between the usage of the color red.
The only pages where Herbal B uses red are: f40v, f46v, f55r, and f95r1.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. might actually be brown and not even red. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. only uses a miniscule amount of red, if not a very reddish brown. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. uses a reddish brown again.
f95r1 is the only Herbal B where I feel that red is definitely used, and it is only small dots.
Compare that to the use of red (or very reddish brown) which is used extensively, on basically half of all pages, in Herbal A.
This indicates at the very least that the scribe of Herbal B didn't like red. Or perhaps that Herbal B wasn't completely finished, since there is white on almost every single Herbal B page, and maybe red was only used as a finishing color(?).
In any way, speculation aside, there is a clear, stark difference in the usage of the color red between Herbal A and Herbal B. This could not have been the case if the color was added later by someone who didn't know the difference between Herbal A and Herbal B.
My humble conclusion, therefore, is that the color was added by the scribes. I am sure that someone better equipped to do these kinds of experiments could find even more robust research. I am not very good at these things.
Thank you for reading.
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