10-06-2026, 08:27 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-06-2026, 08:32 AM by Paul Ferguson.)
Folio 50v of that manuscript is famous for its image of the moonwort. Read on:
'The Billingford Hutch and the moonwort fern – a medieval mystery solved'
"Each of the lock plates (the metal plates containing the locks, hasps and keyholes) is decorated with the outline of a plant punched into the metal...No-one knew the significance of this decorative detail. Purseglove, who is passionate about plants, suspected the distinctive shape was likely to be that of moonwort, a fern much mentioned by 16th- century herbalists. He said: “I rushed home and looked it up. I found that it had been associated with the opening of locks and guarding of silver.”
https://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/articles/bi...y-solved-0
'The Billingford Hutch and the moonwort fern – a medieval mystery solved'
"Each of the lock plates (the metal plates containing the locks, hasps and keyholes) is decorated with the outline of a plant punched into the metal...No-one knew the significance of this decorative detail. Purseglove, who is passionate about plants, suspected the distinctive shape was likely to be that of moonwort, a fern much mentioned by 16th- century herbalists. He said: “I rushed home and looked it up. I found that it had been associated with the opening of locks and guarding of silver.”
https://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/articles/bi...y-solved-0