(27-01-2026, 01:20 PM)Rafal Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Quote:Ergo the Voynich Manuscript's parchment, which is inarguably low-quality, would have been less expensive than the finer parchment used in higher-quality manuscripts.
I would have a very beginner question.
And yes, I am not ashamed to admit that physical aspects of manuscripts aren't my forte. 
Lisa, do you use "vellum" and "parchment" terms interchangeably?
Was Voynich Manuscript written on vellum or parchment?
Is vellum a kind of parchment? Or parchment a kind of vellum? Or are they separate things?
Great question! Technically, "vellum" is a kind of parchment, specifically the extremely thin, fine parchment made from the skin of newborn calves. The terms are often used interchangeably, but they really shouldn't be. The Voynich is NOT vellum. It's calfskin, but not newborn. It is too thick and rugged for that.
Aside from the parchment, the other materials used to create the manuscript - the inks , binders, and pigments, that is - were definitely NOT expensive and could easily have been made by just about anyone from earth, plants, and minerals that were easily acquired. Parchment of this low quality would not be beyond the reach of people in just about any strata of medieval society.
There is often an assumption that medieval people, if they weren't nobiity, were impoverished. This simply isn't true. Of course there were many, many people who lived in poverty, with no resources or purchasing power. But there were also people who lived in mutual-care communities, like the Beguines in Bruges, or monks and nuns, or communities of widows, who lived apart from the world and made what they needed or accepted charity. There is no reason to assume that such a community couldn't have 1) purchased the parchment, 2) traded or bargained for the parchment, 3) been given the parchment as a donation, or 4) have a resident parchmenter.
Asking "how much" anything cost 600 years ago in today's currency strikes me as not the right question, as it is truly unanswerable. If a sheet of parchment cost (I'm making this up) 20 guilders in 1450 Antwerp, or 150 florins in 1350 Florence, how does that help determine how much it cost in an unidentified location in the early 1400s? Was the parchment purchased with coin? Or traded for? Or given? Or homemade? What was a 1450-guilder worth fifty years earlier? What was a 1350-florin worth fifty years later? And how much are those worth in today's currency? It is really not knowable in a concrete way.
All we can really do is speak in relative terms. The VMS parchment is absolutely very low quality when compared to the fine vellum of, say, a thirteenth-century Paris Bible or the early fifteenth-century Très Riches Heures. That observation is completely in line with the quality of the artwork and of the inks and pigments, which are of the homemade variety without the high-cost minerals like lapis or malachite found in a high-end luxury production. In fact, I would have been stunned if the McCrone report had reported finding lapis or malachite in the blue or green, as that would have been at odds with quality of the parchment and artwork. As it stands, all of the forensic results are consistent with a manuscript produced for relatively low "cost" or made with homemade materials.
I believe low quality of VM is an objective thing and I trust you in that matter.