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Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot? - Printable Version

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RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot? - Koen G - 12-06-2026

I don't think the manuscripts had to be rich ones though, rather the opposite. The extremely popular Speculum Humanae Salvationis is filled to the brim with useful imagery. Hausbuchs. Some degraded copy of the Balneis? (What does puzzle me in this regard is the large herbal images).

That said, I have never thought that the VM maker(s) were commoners. They had some degree of literacy and interest in making a manuscript. For me, this alone eliminates large sections of the populace.

RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot? - bi3mw - 12-06-2026

(12-06-2026, 11:07 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.That said, I have never thought that the VM maker(s) were commoners. They had some degree of literacy and interest in making a manuscript. For me, this alone eliminates large sections of the populace.

Yes, I see it that way too. I would even say that in a medieval class-based society, the vast majority of the population could not be considered potential authors. The author needed skills, time, and money to even carry out a project like the VMS. That doesn’t leave too many groups of people who could be considered.

RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot? - JustAnotherTheory - 13-06-2026

(12-06-2026, 09:59 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....

Seriously, then what stands against Barbara of Cilli?
  • She was in the court of Sigismund, with access to a huge number of manuscripts, including the Pal. Lat. original Taccola De Ingeneis,
  • Was interested in mining and construction, and personally owned gold mines, hence has probably read Taccola,
  • Voyaged in Northern Italy, Switzerland, Tyrol, South Germany,
  • Went on diplomatic missions throughout the Holy Roman Empire,
  • Was exiled in Melnik Castle, where by chance Tepenecz lived personally a few years later (who we know owned the VMS because he signed it),
  • Was a woman, so probably interested in women's health more than men,
  • Was widely known to practice alchemy and occultism,
  • Had the means and resources and manpower to write, or have someone write, an extensive cipher book,
  • Was fluent in at least 6 lanuguages, including South German, which the VMS marginalia is thought to be written in,
  • Her royal crown matches that in the illustrations of nymph's crowns in the VMS.

What stands against Barbara of Cilli??

If we follow Occam's Razor, she is literally the ideal candidate.

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PS. I edited the VMS timeline from Wikipedia to show what I mean (it's approximate and probably wrong with the dates, I just wanted to make a point):

   

RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot? - Bernd - 13-06-2026

Maybe we can merge the Barbara of Cili discussion into her thread?
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Preferably together with this discussion?
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See especially my post
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I looked into this extensively and got to a dead end - as so often in Voynich research.
A lot of allegations about Barbara, including alchemism, are most likely fiction. There is no indication Sigismund ever received a Taccola copy and it is never mentioned in the Hungarian archives. Returning from Italy, Sigismund only met Babara a year later, and disowned and exiled her for unknown reasons. It is unlikely she received a book from him at that time. After Sigismund's death she lost all possession when fleeing the Hungarian Kingdom to Poland before coming to Melnik. Highly unlikely she kept the VM of all things. Her life was a story of tragedy.
Basically, while ruling, Barbara was extremely busy. After her downfall, she was isolated and poor. I do not see when and from what references she could have created the VM. If a Hungarian connection exists, it's rather someone from her court than Barbara herself.

RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot? - JustAnotherTheory - 13-06-2026

(13-06-2026, 10:03 AM)Bernd Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....

Great idea to merge this into the Barbara of Cilli thread.

I agree with your assessment that proof of such an involvement is non existent. But the fact that such a wealthy occultist woman, who had an acute interest in alchemy, happened to live in Tepenecz's house, is at least evidence that she was implicated in some manner (in my opinion). Or a huge historical coincidence Smile

RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot? - ReneZ - 13-06-2026

(13-06-2026, 09:32 AM)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Seriously, then what stands against Barbara of Cilli?

That there are dozens of people who have similar or better "qualifications", and probably hundreds that do not appear in surviving records.
Note that most of the bullet points carry no evidence at all for her being a candidate.

RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot? - JustAnotherTheory - 13-06-2026

(13-06-2026, 10:32 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.That there are dozens of people who have similar or better "qualifications"

Name five.

RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot? - Rafal - 13-06-2026

Quote:Whoever made the VM had access to a lot of high-profile and also obscure imagery. One idea would be that he drew inspiration from the stock image collection of a workshop instead of a library, but this conflicts with Taccola's Palatino 766, which to our knowledge was never widely copied, and the fact that materials and methods used to create the VM do not point to a professional environment. The alternative is that the author indeed had access to a very good collection.

I agree and it actually makes some problem because we have a man (or a group of men) who have access to a lot of books but at the same time are quite bad at drawing and seem not to understand their sources (like turning a rosary into a chain at f85r2). It seems to exclude any people working in a professional manuscript workshop or monks working in a scriptorium.

In another thread I suggested a link to goliards / clerici vagantes - wandering, "eternal" students who usually preferred a tavern over a library, yet had some academical background and friends in academical circles. Through their friends they could have some access to many manuscripts, both German and Italian. The imagery in VM seems quite illogical mixup of many such sources, a kind of medieval collage. That's why we struggle so much with making any sense of it. Parts of pictures make sense but not whole pictures.

For me Voynich Manuscript is something like this:
[Image: Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg]

RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot? - JustAnotherTheory - 13-06-2026

That's a good point @Rafal. Could it be possible, that someone loaned the Palatino 766 to an itinerant clerigi, or perhaps allowed him/her to view it for a few days or hours?

I wonder how that would even be possible, these books were highly valued and guarded, probably.

RE: Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot? - Bernd - 13-06-2026

(13-06-2026, 10:07 AM)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.occultist woman, who had an acute interest in alchemy
According to my research, this allegation stands on thin ice and is likely an invention of later biographers who sought to sensationalize and scandalize her, turning Barbara into the villainess of their stories. Actual evidence for these claims are scarce.

The problem with Palatino 766 is that we have no idea what happened to it after it left Taccola. There is academic consensus that it did shortly after completion, otherwise Taccola would have continued to doodle in it. But how, when, where it found a new owner, if on purpose or accidentally, remains a mystery. It appears to have stayed in Siena and may have ended up in the Strozzi collection. Maybe. An alleged copy to Sigismund would inevitably have ended up at the council in Basel, as this is where Sigismund went next.