Anatomical terms of 77r

The image of the top margin of page 77r has given rise to several proposals for identification:

• the four (five) elements,
• the four (five) humours,
• the images of organs treated by the baths of “Balneis Puteolanis»,
• alchemical technology
• and maybe more .

I am interested in interpretations of images in the hope of finding inspiration for understanding the text. The labels contain the word EVA otol which I read on page 77v as egg, ovule. At the moment I see no reason to drop this possibility for page 77r.

I read the label on the left, next to the woman, olkchs EVA, like anks. This word first brings to mind the Egyptian ankh, which can represent the four elements in alchemy.

Is this why the female nymph has a weird shape, with her arms and head very shifted to the left, to remind us that she is more than a human body?

However in Greek also we can find words resembling anks, such as :

• Αγγος – vessel for liquids, funeral urn, baby-basket, womb
• αγκας – adverb, into the arms
• αγκος – valley
• αγχος – anxiety, anguish, from the verb αγχω, fut. αγξω – to tighten, to strangle.

Let’s not forget the Latin ancus, uncus – curved, which cannot extend its arm. Could this be the explanation for the nymph’s pose?

Of all these terms, αγγος is part of the same set with ova, ovules.

What about the label on the right, beside the man? The label soral has three occurrences in the manuscript, I find this word sufficiently similar to the single word on the next page, 77v sosoral.

The term soral can come from the Greek ζωρος – pure, sheer, speaking of wine, or from ζωρυα – pipe for running water, ζωρυξ = διωρυξ – trench, conduit, canal.

The term sosoral of 77v can be read as « so soral », where σω would be σως – safe and sound, alive and well, safe, whole, preserved, intact. In this case, sosoral would be the equivalent of σως ζωρυξ – the healthy duct, and the image expressly suggests the urinary duct or urinary system.

The term soral (ζωρυξ) of 77r would therefore form a good set of anatomical terms with womb and ovules. The term ζωρος might also be appropriate, if it refers, for example, to pure and not cloudy urine.

Qodykey of 77v

The unique word qodykey on page 77, which I read as do89ne9 may well be a Greek word, coming from the verb διδωμι – I give.

We can read it as:
• δοθηναι – passive aorist infinitive – to be given;
• δωτινη – gift, present.

However I wonder if we should rather read this word as a set of two words: qo89 (17) and ke9 (14). The word ke9 would be neos – young, new, newly plowed, or the Ionian genitive of ναυς – ship, boat.

The word qo89 would always come from διδωμι:
• δοτος – given, granted;
• δοτω – let him give :
• Δωτω, ους – The one that gives – the name of a Nereid, giving a safe trip or a generous catch when fishing.

Of course, one cannot claim with a single word to understand the meaning of the text, is it a ship or a gift granted?

Donain again

I still hope to find a real meaning of the word donain (qokain EVA). If we simply google it, we will easily find donain = dónaing – Irish dawning, dawn. Is it the Morning Star, Stella veneris, Φωσφορος, Εωσφορος, Дьньница, Venus-Aphrodite or Lucifer?

If we stay in Old Slavic, we find an adverb дѣѩньнѣ or дѣаньнѣ, equivalent of the Greek ενεργως – with activity, with energy.
Let’s not forget Greek and Latin. In Greek, the first word we find is δωναι=δουναι – aorist active infinitive of the verb διδωμι – to give.
A slightly different word is δανειον = δανιον – loan, claim, debt.
In Latin do = dono – to give, donum – gift, present, offering to the gods.

So, for the moment, the riddle remains: δεος Ναιος, Dawning-Дьньница, dono – δωναι, donum – δανειον, дѣаньнѣ or a word I haven’t thought of yet?

Scammony of 8r

I had the idea of checking whether all the « shol » in the manuscript could be treated as -sha endings of Old Slavic verbs and, apparently, not. This « word » can also be found at the beginning of a line.

On the 19th line of page 8r, after the plant, there are five « words »: Shol (187) kaiin (65) shol kaiin daikam (1).

8r, line 19

After comparing the « k » of two « kaiin » with that of the next word « daikam », I will read « sholkaiin » rather like « shamaun », perhaps « skamaun ». Is this the name of the Scammonia plant? In Greek the name would be σκαμ(μ)ωνία, ἀσκαμωνία, κάμων, σκαμμώνιον or σκαμώνειον.

Convolvulus Scammonia L.
Source: Wikipedia

The plant Convolvulus Scammonia L. has been known since ancient times.
I found three identifications of the plant of 8r proposed previously:

1. Pisum sativum by Edith Sherwood
2. Cucumber by Ellie Velinska (blog no longer exists)
3. Lactuca by Anonymous ‘Biologist, Finland’

The scammony was identified by Annemiek on the S. Bax blog as a 33r plant.

P.S. I found three other identifications of the plant on my blog six years ago: Hedera helix L., Polygonum perfoliatum L. and Tussilago farfara L., as well as my first attempts to understand a few words.

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Heart blood

The word cheor EVA occurs 100 times in the text, spread fairly evenly throughout the different sections. This word can be the Greek word κεαρ= κηρ – the heart? The heart as an organ or the heart as the centre, the middle?

The word chear also exists in the text, with 51 occurrences, including 7 on page 111v. Is this another variant of cheor or another word, like γεαρ, for example? In Hesichius γεαρ = εαρ – spring, but εαρ means also juice or blood.

The words ‘heart’, ‘centre’, ‘middle’ or ‘juice’ and ‘blood’ can, in my opinion, be found in a text that describes plants and treatments for diseases.

Cph ligature

As the words « shor sha sha » in 4r are repeated several times on the page, I suppose other words can be the same. For example the words « cpholdy » in the 8th line and « cphaiin » in the 10th line, both following the equivalents of « shor sha sha », can in turn be the equivalents of « chpady » in the first line.

There are at least four words in the manuscript with the same root « chpa8/chpol8 » and hopefully the same meaning.

If my idea is correct, the ligature « cph » should read « ch+p ».

However, this contradicts my earlier attempts to read « cphol » as « species », which is closer, in my opinion, to our 3rd word « cphaiin ».

It’s therefore possible that a third version is necessary to fully understand the reading of ligatures.

Three words of 4r

The second word from the first line of page 4r is chpady, unique in the manuscript.

4r

This word may well be a Slavic, rather Czech word cpáti – to stuff, to pile, to throw.

A related word, unique in turn, is found on line 9 of 66v: chpadar.

66v

The word « cpatar » of 66v is followed by « sheey », as on page 4r the word « cpat9 » is followed by « sheol ol sheey’.
I read the word « ol » as « a », and it can be an Old Slavic conjunction meaning and, also, but. So « shea a shu9 » would be « shea, also shu9 » and the two words would be synonyms or two variations of the same word.

The meaning of the word shija is the neck, the nape of the neck, and it remains to be seen how it relates to the rest of the sentence.

Sheep disease

The first word on page 4r is kodalchy, which I read as motalk9. It is a unique word, resembling the word on page 41r kedaleey. The closest words I have found are motolica or motylica/motъlica, which are present in several Slavic languages.

The first meaning is disease of sheep, goats and humans, caused by the presence of helminths, manifested by dizziness and loss of balance, and / or cough. Then come the names of the plants, different from one language to another, the butterfly and the bee louse.

It is difficult to draw a conclusion at this stage. Even if I add the word Otchol (28) from the third line – овца (sheep), the word kodalchy/ motalk9 can be the name of the disease, like the name of a plant grazed by sheep.

Rustling again

After examining the three words on page 4v meaning « rustle » in Slavic languages, I continue with another one formed by the « words » in line 12: « Soiin (21) chaiin (45) chaiin (45) ». This word has the same « structure » as the three examined, can it be their equivalent and if so, in which language?

These words can be read « soun chaun chaun » or « som cham cham », as long as « in », « iin » and « iiin » are not determined definitively.

J. W. Redhouse in his « Turkish and English lexicon » mentions two words of Persian origin « chemchem » and « chemcheme » – foot, step and the sound of footsteps.

Redhouse J. W. (1890). A Turkish and English Lexicon: Shewing in English : The Significations of the Turkish Terms : New Edition. Constantinople. New Impression Beirut, 1987

Could these words be found in the description of our 4r plant, a plant that makes a noise (rustle) when stepped on?

Rustle of 4r

Several years ago I offered to read a few words in the botany section, mainly in Slavic languages. My progress was quite slow and without much publicity. I would like to come back to these remarks to see if I managed, by my reading, to make some scratches on the « impenetrable » block of our manuscript and if I can turn some of them into a breach, even if it will take some time. The current results may differ from the first ones as I have since changed my reading of some glyphs.

I begin with page 4r, on which I had proposed to read the three groups of similar words from lines 2, 8 and 10 as shorshou –шершавый – rough. Today I read “ol” as “a” and I think we should put together the three short “words” each time: tshorshasha, shorshasha and shorshjasha, where ‘tsh’ is Cyrillic « щ ». The resulting words undoubtedly have the same meaning, perhaps in three different dialects: щуршаша, шуршаша, шуршяша of the verb shurshat’ (Preobrazhenskij)- to produce the rustle (of dry leaves, for example). So our plant, or one of its parts is dry and rustling to the touch?

The last two words of the first line read together give kor9vo9 for корявая and the first two words of the sixth line give korsh9vei9 for коржявыя. Both terms have the same meaning – dry, hard (Preobrazhenskij, Vasmer),

Admittedly, this doesn’t identify the plant, but it is still a start.