The Voynich Ninja

What about Lauber - paper or parchment?

It seems clear that for Lauber, and even the earlier copying workshop in Haguenau, paper was the obvious choice for proto-mass-production of manuscripts.

(27-01-2026, 01:11 PM)LisaFaginDavis Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Paper may have been available, but yes, in the early fifteenth century it was not yet in common use and would have been more expensive than parchment. 

If someone lived very close to a paper mill, yet far away from concentrations of livestock for vellum, is there a point where paper would be cheaper? On the other hand, would even low quality parchment be considered better or worse quality than paper? Perhaps similar to vinyls and CDs, were there people that preferred even low quality vellum than the "new-fangled" paper? 

(27-01-2026, 01:11 PM)LisaFaginDavis Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.As for the cost of the parchment, we can say for certain that - as in all markets - higher-quality goods cost more than lower-quality. 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.

All things being equal, this is obviously true. But even in today's world, this is not always true. I experience this with english tea while living in the netherlands. Buying authentic british tea (higher quality product of course) costs significantly more here than in the UK (2-3x the price). In the UK, it's the opposite and the authentic english tea is far cheaper than the smaller boxes of "english breakfast tea" from the continent. The reverse could be said about something like stroopwafels (NL) vs bourbon creams (UK). 

So in 600 years, if someone asks "Were stroopwafels more or less expensive than bourbon creams in the 21st century?", you don't have anywhere near enough information. On the other hand, if that person then says "Bourbon creams were more expensive than stroopwafels in the 21st century" that will only be correct in situations assuming the buyer lives in the Netherlands. 

This is the issue, as the cost of the material is not only relevant to the century, but to the exact location and the exact wishes and exact behaviour of the exact person who chose to use the material as well as the exact places they may have travelled and the exact people they knew. For all we know, paper may have been far cheaper for the VM author but they decided to use Parchment instead for other reasons. Perhaps they had copious amounts of high quality vellum, but decided to pay extra for low quality vellum so that the manuscript appeared more archaic, occultist or foreign. We just don't know. 

My point is that i'm not sure whether we can attribute a genuine cost for this parchment, or even say whether it would be more or less expensive than other types unless we know the exact situation. 

Ask a thirsty diamond miner whether they think a cup of water or a diamond is more valuable, and they will say water each time.

(29-01-2026, 10:54 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.It seems clear that for Lauber, and even the earlier copying workshop in Haguenau, paper was the obvious choice for proto-mass-production of manuscripts.

But the Lauber workshop was also in a good location. Between Basel and Strasbourg, on the Rhine. Heidelberg University wasn't far away either.
I think it was a good place for paper.

According to ETH, Basel was even the European leader with 12 paper mills before 1500.
I wouldn't have thought so either.

The first paper mills (mills) were established in the Geneva area (before 1400, on French territory) and Fribourg (before 1432) as well as in Basel (1433), followed by Worblaufen (before 1466), Zurich (1470-1472), Serrières (1477) and Baar (probably before 1500). In Basel, 12 paper mills were recorded before 1500, which were soon supplemented by mills owned by Basel outside the city. This led to the emergence of a production centre of European significance in Basel.

Die ersten Papiermühlen (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) entstanden in der Umgebung Genfs (vor 1400, auf französischem Gebiet) und Freiburgs (vor 1432) sowie in Basel (1433), gefolgt von Worblaufen (vor 1466), Zürich (1470-1472), Serrières (1477) und Baar (wohl vor 1500). In Basel sind vor 1500 12 Papiermühlen zu verzeichnen, die bald durch ausserhalb der Stadt gelegene Betriebe in Basler Besitz ergänzt wurden. So entstand in Basel ein Produktionszentrum von europäischer Bedeutung.

This page says that the earlier Alsatian workshop (contemporaneous with the creation of the VM) used paper from a single stock, while Lauber, who came later, had various suppliers.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.