Editing Voynich manuscript (section)

=== Purpose ===
[[File:Voynich Manuscript (167).jpg|thumb|Page 167, ''f93r'', has been interpreted to represent a sunflower<ref>{{Cite journal |last=O'Neill |first=Hugh |date=January 1944 |title=Botanical Observations on the Voynich MS. |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/2856859 |journal=Speculum |publisher=University of Chicago Press |volume=19 |issue=1 |page=126 |doi=10.2307/2856859 |issn=0038-7134}}</ref>]]
The overall impression given by the surviving leaves of the manuscript is that it was meant to serve as a [[pharmacopoeia]] or to address topics in [[Medieval medicine of Western Europe|medieval or early modern medicine]]. However, the puzzling details of the illustrations have fuelled many theories about the book's origin, the contents of its text, and the purpose for which it was intended.<ref name="Schmeh" />

The first section of the book is almost certainly [[herbal]], but attempts have failed to identify the plants, either with actual specimens or with the stylised drawings of contemporaneous herbals.<ref name="KennedyChurchill2011">{{harvnb|Kennedy|Churchill|2011|pp=12–}}</ref> Only a few of the plant drawings can be identified with reasonable certainty, such as a [[Viola tricolor|wild pansy]] and the [[maidenhair fern]]. The herbal pictures that match pharmacological sketches appear to be clean copies of them, except that missing parts were completed with improbable details. In fact, many of the plant drawings in the herbal section seem to be composite: the roots of one species have been fastened to the leaves of another, with flowers from a third.<ref name="KennedyChurchill2011" />

Astrological considerations frequently played a prominent role in herb gathering, [[bloodletting]], and other medical procedures common during the likeliest dates of the manuscript. However, interpretation remains speculative, apart from the obvious [[Zodiac]] symbols and one diagram possibly showing the [[classical planet]]s.<ref name="Schmeh" />