Morten St George Theory

[Morten St. George]

I dunno, Morten. I don't see much consoling going on there. The look on her face makes it look like her hair is being pulled.

Here's a similar drawing to consider:



OBSERVATIONS

1. The perfecta on the left could be the author of the VMS as she is wearing unusual braids or headband like the gal on page 116v.

2. This is not the ceremony of consolamentum as the perfecta's right hand is placed behind her back.

3. The perfecta's left arm is misplaced, too far down from the shoulder.

4. The perfecta is not poking at the credente's eye but rather pointing to her brain. Knowledge is being passed from the perfecta to the credente.

What is being taught to the credente?

5. In her right hand, the credente is holding a curved blade with handles on each end. This was the standard tool of medieval parchment makers. They used this implement to scrape away animal fur from the furry side of the hide. Medieval accounts of the Cathars indicate that they were skilled in parchment making and had set up workshops for teaching it.

6. The credente is dreaming about making a belt and short skirt from scraped animal hide.

7. The credente is standing in blue, not green, water. An important step in making parchment was the frequent washing of the hide, requiring clean rain water, not the dirty green water of the swamps.



This gal is holding a bloodied animal hide in her left hand. Note that she is standing in a barrel of blue, not green, water. Presumably, she will wash the hide in that water.

Conclusion: These gals knew how to make parchment.

COW PROTEIN

In an email to me, the bioarchaeology gal told me that the source of the VMS parchment was determined to be bovidae, so my cervidae theory was not too likely.

But this does not necessarily mean that the VMS was produced in the Old World because bovidae can also be found in the New World, and during medieval times, probably not too far from the swamps.

Wikipedia writes: "American bison are known for living in the Great Plains, but formerly had a much larger range including much of the eastern United States and parts of Mexico."

It seems cows and bison are so close that they can easily interbreed: "While all bison species are classified in their own genus, they are sometimes bred with domestic cattle (genus Bos) and produce fertile offspring called beefalo or zubron."

So that could be the answer: the fading deerskin VMS was copied onto buffalo parchment between 1404 and 1438.

PEDRO SARMIENTO DE GAMBOA

My esoteric sources make a pretty strong case that this guy brought the VMS from Peru to London in 1584. This is why I have been arguing so hard for a South American origin for the VMS. But there is another New World possibility.

As I recall the life story of Sarmiento (keep in mind that memory these days is often faulty and possibly exaggerated as well), he grew up in Spain but as a young man he got into trouble with the Inquisition, so he fled to Mexico to save his life. In Mexico, he once again got into trouble with the Inquisition, and to save his life, he fled to Peru. In Peru, again the Inquisition haunted him, and to save his life, he joined an expedition to explore the South Seas. That expedition made a stopover in Mexico on the way back to Peru. Back in Peru, more of the usual: locked up and tortured by the Inquisition, but now he had had enough with the Inquisition, so he fled to England, a place where there was no Inquisition, and taking his prize possession, the VMS, with him. And there in London he found help to decode the VMS.

The point is that Sarmiento could have acquired the VMS in either of his two trips to Mexico and then brought it to Peru. The VMS did not have to originate in South America.

In the very least, I have a coherent theory about the origins and early history of the VMS, which is a lot more than I can say for you guys.