Botanical Organization in the Voynich Manuscript Herbal Section: Cross-Section Anchor Density Analysis and the Three-Tier Folio Model

The herbal section of the Voynich Manuscript (f1r–f66v) has been variously characterized as a pharmaceutical index, a patient-routing directory, and a botanical reference in the medieval herbarium tradition. It has been proposed that the herbal section is organized by patient constitution class rather than by botanical or taxonomic principle, following the 28-mansion constitution typology documented in Johannes Hartlieb's Cgm 7958 (BSB Munich, 1456) DOI 10. 5281/zenodo. 20392112; DOI 10. 5281/zenodo. 20391969. We report a cross-section anchor density extraction across 118 herbal folios (f1r–f66v) using the Zandbergen-Landini IVTFF v2b transcription as source. Five cross-section operators (`otal`, `otedy`, `ytar`, `ary`, `qokaiin`) operator grammar per DOI 10. 5281/zenodo. 20391953 were extracted by exact-match token count across all herbal folios. Results: 73 of 118 folios (62%) carry zero hits across all five operators; the mean total anchor density is 0. 79 per folio; no herbal folio matches or exceeds the f58r preparation bridge baseline of 10. Four prespecified falsification tests all fail for the constitution-organization hypothesis. Botanical organization (Hbot) is confirmed. The constitution-organized herbal hypothesis is FALSIFIED. The one herbal folio with anomalously elevated total anchor density is f58r (total=10), which is 5× the section mean and isolated at the herbal-balneological boundary — confirming its role as a preparation bridge. Interior herbal folios f48v (otedy=4), f43v (otedy=3), and f34r (otedy=3) constitute a set of embedded interface nodes whose `otedy` anchors all resolve to f73v. 23 `otedy` (the labeled nymph at the 9: 30 clock position on the Sagittarius zodiac ring) and f84r label #5 (the balneological output hub). A three-tier model of herbal structure is proposed: (1) main botanical body (62% zero-density folios — standard herbarium) ; (2) interior interface nodes (standard botanical format with embedded zodiac-balneological cross-references) ; (3) boundary bridge (f57v–f58r–f58v — the translation layer between herbal botanical language and balneological preparation language). The falsification of the constitution-organized herbal hypothesis strengthens the court physician workflow model DOI 10. 5281/zenodo. 20391967: the structural necessity of f58r as a bridge follows directly from the herbal and balneological sections operating in distinct organizational registers.