Re: Could f17r be fennel?

[Dana Scott <dfscott@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Nick,

   I will make every effort to identify the plant in f17r; however, even with a
real stretch of the imagination I find it very difficult to identify this plant
as Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). I'll keep my eyes open and see what I can come
up with :)

http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/thome/band3/tafel_048_small.jpg
http://www.sdnhm.org/valentien/images/fennel.jpg
http://www.vitaminevi.com/Herb/Fennel.htm

Regards,
Dana Scott

Nick Pelling wrote:

> Hi Dana,
>
> In Ernst Breisach's book about Caterina Sforza, he mentions that she
> thought fennel ("finocchio") was good for your eyes because it contained
> the word "occhio" (eye).
>
> If f17r (the plant with eyes in its roots, on the front of quire 3) can be
> positively identified as fennel, then I believe this would be a major step
> towards proving that the underlying language of the VMS is Romagnan Italian.
>
> Can I please ask you to look again at f17r and see if you think it could be
> fennel?
>
> Thanks, .....Nick Pelling.....