VMs: Botany -- (f100r) Mandrake

["DANA SCOTT" <dscott520@xxxxxxx>]

Nick,

 

    A while back you asked whether or not there was any evidence of mandrake in the VMS. In my initial scan of the drawings I did not see evidence of this plant; however, recently I was reading 'Botany And The Voynich "Roger Bacon" Manuscript Once More' by Robert S.  Brumbaugh (Speculum 49, p.548) in which he stated that a colleague of his, Professor Louis Martz, identified one of the smaller plants in f100 (row 2, 6 across on the right) as being a drawing of the mandrake plant. I agree that it does appear to be an accurate match.

 

Photo:

http://www.fpc-wilmette.org/sanders/naturepage/january/mandrake.html

 

Description:

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/mandra10.html

http://web.odu.edu/webroot/instr/sci/plant.nsf/pages/mandrake

http://www.nisbett.com/herbs/m/mandra10.html

http://www.c-potenz.de/arznei.htm

http://www.chamomiletimes.com/articles/badboys.htm

http://www.princetonparkbaptist.org/easton/east2401.htm

http://www.chatlink.com/~herbseed/MandrakeOfficial.htm

http://www.nisbett.com/herbs/m/mandra10.html

http://www.alchemy-works.com/mandragora_autumnalis.html

http://www.health-angel.com/mandrake.htm

http://www.wetterhex.com/kraut-src.html

http://www.hexenwelt.de/pflanzen/alraune.htm

http://www.sistersinstregheria.com/mandrake.html

 

Illustration:

Remember this website with the faces in the roots:

(page down to about page 7 to see an illustration of mandrake or womandrake)

http://www.dipbot.unict.it/erbario_es/erbari_fi.html

 

Same illustration, different website:

http://www.myristica.it/foto/mandrag.html

 

http://www.siena.edu/boswell/Drug%20Projects/Margaret/Mandragora.htm

 

Botany and the Voynich "Roger Bacon" Manuscript Once More, by Robert S. Brumbaugh,

Yale University, Speculum 49 (1974), pp.546-548.

 

Regards,

Dana Scott