Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the Doctrine of Signatures
was rather more literalistic than as presented in this article: it's more
about Culpeper's herbal astrology, and that was basically a populist
version of the "London Pharmacopoeia" (first edition 1616, IIRC).
AIUI, the DoS was the idea (revived by Paracelsus about 1530 or so, but had
been dormant for several centuries before that) that plants with a
particular visual affinity with a disease were placed on Earth in order
that the similarity be recognised by man as a sign that that was the plant
to treat an ailment. Basically, if the cap fits, eat it and be cured. :-)
In the case of lungwort, the speckles on the leaves (so the theory goes)
are a sign that it should be taken be those with lung problems. And so on.
The lungwort identification in the VMS is a curious (yet probably highly
demonstrative) one. The spots are stylised, quite unlike any actual
lungwort - as if the plant was being drawn by someone who had only heard
(or read) it described (perhaps a town-dweller?), or was drawing to
emphasise the spot in a very stylised way.
Still, I'm quite comfortable with the idea that the inclusion of lungwort
could be read as a possible indication that the Doctrine Of Signatures is
one of the sources of information the VMS contains. Is this what you're
saying? :-)
I wonder - if Paracelsus is too late for the VMS, does anyone know from
what person or source Paracelsus learnt of the Doctrine Of Signatures?
Perhaps by tracing this backwards in time, we may be able to tie down the
provenance of the VMS from yet another direction. :-)