Re: Cost of the VMS...?

[Grant C Covell <gcc@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I misremember some trivia encountered while researching the Plan of St.
Gall: I recall someone once figured out that given the number of extant
illuminated manuscripts, the possible number of daylight + candle (lantern,
oil, etc.) working hours, and the number and physical size of known
scriptoria and the presumed number of scribes in them, that there were more
extant illuminated manuscripts than there were the manpower and physical
places to have created them. Sorry I can't be more helpful or precise with
this recollection.

> From: Bruce Grant <bgrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 18:32:49 -0400
> To: voynich@xxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Cost of the VMS...?
> 
> 
> 
> Nick Pelling wrote:
> 
>> Has anyone tried to calculate how much the VMS would have cost to produce?
>> I'm thinking along the lines of the recent TV documentary where a group of
>> engineers worked out (using modern project management tools) how long it
>> would have taken to build a pyramid in Ancient Egyptian times. It's way too
>> easy to unconsciously project our economic models onto those times. :-/
> 
> I think I saw the same program - if so, they took the approach of building a
> small pyramid (using regular size blocks, of course).
> 
> Using the same approach, why not try to duplicate one page of the VMS and see:
> a)    how close you can get in appearance and properties
> b)    how difficult it is to do?
> 
> This reminds me of an apocryphal story I heard when a kid: supposedly,
> anthropologists at one time believed that it was so difficult to make a decent
> flint arrowhead that a paleolithic hunter could only make a few in a lifetime
> and they would be greatly treasured. According to the story, this idea
> persisted
> until some anthropologist actually tried making one and produced  a couple of
> good ones in a single morning.
> 
> Bruce Grant
>