(12-09-2019, 04:16 PM)Mark Knowles wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I do not know there was just one author I intend to refer to one author, where it is not important to the argument, for simplicity rather than writing "author(s)". Similarly I often find myself writing "he" instead of "he/she" for simplicity and brevity. Though it is true I think there was essentially one author, who may have had some assistance from those working for him, and that the author was Male, but that is a completely argument and subject.
I personally like to say "makers" and "they". There is agreement about two different hands. Additionally, someone left color annotations. In normal manuscripts, we know that this is done by person a for person b, and most likely this is the same in the VM. So it is safe to say that at least two people were involved (or three if the painter is a different person than the scribes), and we don't know the exact division of labor between them.
Anyway, back to methodology. I personally welcome a multitude of approaches. At the end of the day we want to see this thing solved, so if someone wants to do his research in a way you personally think is not the best, why not let them?
I often see people conducting "research" that I think won't lead to anything, but I don't mind, they might just uncover something useful along the way.
(It's a different scenario when a ridiculous theory gets disproportional exposure, as we've seen earlier this year...)