You can only write about 10 words per minute with a quill pen (if you go faster, you'll have writer's cramp by page 10) and if it's something unfamiliar (like a cipher) that has to be checked from another source (e.g., a wax tablet), then it will be even slower. Of course, creating the original, if it's a cipher language, is going to be even slower than that.
You have to be very careful when labeling charts and rota, especially on parchment (which doesn't absorb the ink as fast as paper) because if you turn it or touch it before the ink dries, it smears. It takes experience and significant awareness and discipline to draw and label charts with a quill without swiping a hand or sleeve across the ink. In hot countries you had to be careful to keep your skin off the surface to prevent sweat from getting on the parchment and in cold countries (in days when there was no central heating), you had to watch your sleeves.
You also have to regularly resharpen/recut the quill with a knife, and to cut a new one when the previous one wears out. If you have to mix a new batch of ink (or transfer it from a bulk mix to an ink well), that takes time, as well.
Not including the drawings, it's unlikely the Voynich text could be penned in less than two weeks even if the person were using a speed-aid like a Cardan grille, and if it's meaningful text, it would take longer.
How long does it take a novelist to write a 200-page book with a word-processor? I don't know anyone who can do it in 2 days or two weeks (unless they're writing garbage) and typing is five to ten times faster than writing with a quill. The truth is that the average first novel takes two to five years to write, edit and polish. Those who claim to write a whole novel during NaNoWriMo are either writing junk or had a significant amount of it prewritten before joining up for NanoWriMo. I only know a very few who can do it in three or four months and they are usually following formulas for certain kinds of pulp genres.
The VMS text may not be "crafted", it may be copied from a variety of sources, and that's certainly MUCH faster, but since we don't know what it is, it's difficult to establish any time frame. I still would be surprised if the text were designed or compiled or created in less than two months.
Try creating a transcript of the VMS and see how long that takes! I've done three of them and it's a time-consuming CHORE!
You have to be very careful when labeling charts and rota, especially on parchment (which doesn't absorb the ink as fast as paper) because if you turn it or touch it before the ink dries, it smears. It takes experience and significant awareness and discipline to draw and label charts with a quill without swiping a hand or sleeve across the ink. In hot countries you had to be careful to keep your skin off the surface to prevent sweat from getting on the parchment and in cold countries (in days when there was no central heating), you had to watch your sleeves.
You also have to regularly resharpen/recut the quill with a knife, and to cut a new one when the previous one wears out. If you have to mix a new batch of ink (or transfer it from a bulk mix to an ink well), that takes time, as well.
Not including the drawings, it's unlikely the Voynich text could be penned in less than two weeks even if the person were using a speed-aid like a Cardan grille, and if it's meaningful text, it would take longer.
How long does it take a novelist to write a 200-page book with a word-processor? I don't know anyone who can do it in 2 days or two weeks (unless they're writing garbage) and typing is five to ten times faster than writing with a quill. The truth is that the average first novel takes two to five years to write, edit and polish. Those who claim to write a whole novel during NaNoWriMo are either writing junk or had a significant amount of it prewritten before joining up for NanoWriMo. I only know a very few who can do it in three or four months and they are usually following formulas for certain kinds of pulp genres.
The VMS text may not be "crafted", it may be copied from a variety of sources, and that's certainly MUCH faster, but since we don't know what it is, it's difficult to establish any time frame. I still would be surprised if the text were designed or compiled or created in less than two months.
Try creating a transcript of the VMS and see how long that takes! I've done three of them and it's a time-consuming CHORE!