24-09-2026, 12:50 PM
OK so recently there have been a few discoveries concerning authors of "Fastnachtspiele", a kind of south German pre-Lent carnival play/song tradition in the late 15th, early 16th centuries:
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These discoveries, as it turns out, might be relevant to the history of the VMS, so I thought this deserves its own thread. Several authors of Fastnachtspiele use "pox"-related swearwords. There is a list already here, thanks to @You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. :
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The main authors are, in chronological order of writing pox-swearwords:
These 3 "Hans"s are responsible for the majority of pox-swearing in written literature. They were all based in Nürnberg. This is relevant because on the VMS folio f116v, the first word seems to be "poxleber".
I recently made the observation that Hans Sachs (one of the Hans' above) wrote some text containing "Geis mich":
[attachment=17838]
Note that since the last words on the VMS folio You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. appear to be "geis mich", this once again is relevant to the VMS. More information here:
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In fact, there are a lot of instances of "geis mich" like this, perhaps we should make a sticky thread about it, like with "poxleber".
Anyway, going further, I found an interesting manuscript of Hans Folz, the second Hans above. Take a look:
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[attachment=17839]
Oh, and what is this?
[attachment=17840]
Hans Folz loved to swear with "pox"-words too. In fact, I've counted (manually) about 30 pox-swearwords in this MS alone. Examples are:
All of which are used in the context of swearing, not literal body parts.
It turns out, this second Hans was a polymath, not just a satyric trickster-playwright. He wrote a book on bathing: Dises puchlein saget vns von allen paden. Here is a woodcut from that:
[attachment=17841]
He was also an astrologer, and astronomer. Look at a woodcut from his Practica teutsch meister:
[attachment=17842]
The stars seem to be a matching shape for the VMS stars. Folz also wrote several books on medicine, here is a full list:
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His Fastnachtspiele were also, unusually, bound together in a book with occultism:
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Of note is that Folz also wrote a book on engineering:
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Digital scans here:
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[attachment=17843]
Look like it is heavily inspired by Konrad Kyeser and Taccola!
I think it's worth looking into these people, even though they lived and published about 50 years later than the carbon dating of the VMS.
I will say one last thing, about the curious handwriting that ressembles EVA "ain" previously. It seems that this is not the handwriting of Hans Folz himself, but a curious individual with unknown origins. A recent study, that you can find here:
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has looked at the authors of the manuscript, and found 5 different hands. 4 of these could be identified, except for the fifth, the one who wrote our EVA-ish text. The researchers identify this person as "Scribe Gb":
So they cannot identify even the dialect of Scribe Gb.
Meaning that the researchers assume, that he was probably close to Folz himself. This is explained because Scribe Gb had intimate knowledge of Hans Folz plays, and copied only Hans Folz plays by hand, and also appeared to have had access to Folz's personal source material because he copied the spelling mistakes from them, too.
Was Scribe Gb somehow involved in the VMS? Could the VMS have been influenced by, or been masterminded by, Hans Folz? Here are some arguments:
_______________________________________
A final bit of curiosa:
The pope Pius II apparently visited Nürnberg, where Folz lived, around that time. This is an interesting coincidence because Pius II studied under Sozzini in Siena, who we know on a 1438 night met with Taccola himself, who showed him his De Ingeneis I-II books in person...
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
These discoveries, as it turns out, might be relevant to the history of the VMS, so I thought this deserves its own thread. Several authors of Fastnachtspiele use "pox"-related swearwords. There is a list already here, thanks to @You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. :
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
The main authors are, in chronological order of writing pox-swearwords:
- Hans Rosenplüt (1400-1460),
- Hans Folz (1435-1513),
- Hans Sachs (1494-1576).
These 3 "Hans"s are responsible for the majority of pox-swearing in written literature. They were all based in Nürnberg. This is relevant because on the VMS folio f116v, the first word seems to be "poxleber".
I recently made the observation that Hans Sachs (one of the Hans' above) wrote some text containing "Geis mich":
[attachment=17838]
Note that since the last words on the VMS folio You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. appear to be "geis mich", this once again is relevant to the VMS. More information here:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
In fact, there are a lot of instances of "geis mich" like this, perhaps we should make a sticky thread about it, like with "poxleber".
Anyway, going further, I found an interesting manuscript of Hans Folz, the second Hans above. Take a look:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
[attachment=17839]
Oh, and what is this?
[attachment=17840]
Hans Folz loved to swear with "pox"-words too. In fact, I've counted (manually) about 30 pox-swearwords in this MS alone. Examples are:
- pox leichnam
- pox haut
- pox trost
- pox lung
- pox grint
All of which are used in the context of swearing, not literal body parts.
It turns out, this second Hans was a polymath, not just a satyric trickster-playwright. He wrote a book on bathing: Dises puchlein saget vns von allen paden. Here is a woodcut from that:
[attachment=17841]
He was also an astrologer, and astronomer. Look at a woodcut from his Practica teutsch meister:
[attachment=17842]
The stars seem to be a matching shape for the VMS stars. Folz also wrote several books on medicine, here is a full list:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
His Fastnachtspiele were also, unusually, bound together in a book with occultism:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Of note is that Folz also wrote a book on engineering:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Digital scans here:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
[attachment=17843]
Look like it is heavily inspired by Konrad Kyeser and Taccola!
I think it's worth looking into these people, even though they lived and published about 50 years later than the carbon dating of the VMS.
I will say one last thing, about the curious handwriting that ressembles EVA "ain" previously. It seems that this is not the handwriting of Hans Folz himself, but a curious individual with unknown origins. A recent study, that you can find here:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
has looked at the authors of the manuscript, and found 5 different hands. 4 of these could be identified, except for the fifth, the one who wrote our EVA-ish text. The researchers identify this person as "Scribe Gb":
Quote:Gb fällt durch Vorlagentreue auf, ein eigenständiger Dialekt kann nicht isoliert werden.
So they cannot identify even the dialect of Scribe Gb.
Quote:Simon vermutet aufgrund der Textauswahl, dass Gb Folz nahestand.
Meaning that the researchers assume, that he was probably close to Folz himself. This is explained because Scribe Gb had intimate knowledge of Hans Folz plays, and copied only Hans Folz plays by hand, and also appeared to have had access to Folz's personal source material because he copied the spelling mistakes from them, too.
Was Scribe Gb somehow involved in the VMS? Could the VMS have been influenced by, or been masterminded by, Hans Folz? Here are some arguments:
- Pox-swearwords appear abundantly in Hans Folz works.
- Folz published about bathing, astronomy, astrology, and appeared in at least one occultism manuscript.
- He published an illustrated engineering book.
- One of his close friends/relatives seems to write in a curious EVA-like way.
- Folz often had access to, and used cheap parchment, for sketching out his Fastnachtspiele plays and songs.
- Folz loved to write funny and satyric material, making fun of nobles and the clergy. Quite the trickster, one might come to think.
_______________________________________
A final bit of curiosa:
The pope Pius II apparently visited Nürnberg, where Folz lived, around that time. This is an interesting coincidence because Pius II studied under Sozzini in Siena, who we know on a 1438 night met with Taccola himself, who showed him his De Ingeneis I-II books in person...
