VMs: Re: The author's motivation

[Jorge Stolfi <stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This makes sense

    > [Glen:] My hypothesis is fairly well known, that the VMS author
    > was a religiously trained physician but probably remained in the
    > clergy during his lifetime instead of seeking private practice.

The religious training makes sense.  However, I am not sure about 
he having remained "in the clergy".  The naked nymphs, and the 
almost absolute lack of Christian imagery, seem incompatible with 
the values required of a priest or monk.

Rather, he may have been someone like Dee or Jacobus: with religious 
training, often working for and with the clergy, but still a layman.

    > We know from the ragged edges that the vellum leaves are not the
    > cleanly cut and sized vellum leaves that would be purchased by
    > wealthier individuals, but sale-priced end-pieces, some with
    > stitching where the vellum was scored or separated by the
    > tanner's knife. It's unlikely this scoring happened later, so
    > this may be an indication of the "cost" of production.
    > 
    > We do have several examples of mansucripts that were made by
    > scribes for purchase by rich patrons, and none of these that I
    > know of have the same vellum problems. (perhaps someone can
    > point to an example?).
    
This is a good point.  

    > This being the case, we might also assume the author did his own
    > binding.

Or kept it unbound. Note that this would make sense, if the VMS
was not so much a "textbook" as a "notebook".

    > Askham's Sacro-Bosco translation of 1526-27 was meant for a
    > patron, and presumably for printing, and was written on
    > medium-to-poor quality parchment, not vellum.

Hm.. presumably, some patrons had bigger wallets than other, and some
of them were more concerned about the contents than about the looks.


    > There's very little we can know about the ink, which is probably
    > the most telling of the entire manuscript in terms of physical
    > information.  If, as I assume, the author made his own ink
    > compounds and paints from local ingredients, an analysis of the
    > ink would provide us some very detailed information about where
    > the manuscript originated.
    
We may not need a physical analysis; a simple visual inspection (or a
high-resolution image *with calibrated colors*) may be enough.

All the best,

--stolfi