05-05-2020, 02:58 PM
I'm thinking about the implications of both multi-pass writing and LAAFU being strongly evident. What kind of written document (other than a hoax) would likely feature both patterns? A ledger, or similar sort of tabular data set, is the one that comes to mind most readily for me. I've often tabulated data in a notebook by filling in the headings or indices in a column on the lefthand side, and then completing each line as I find the relevant information for each one. When I've done this, I've tried to keep each line one functional unit, to avoid confusion and increase readability. The cost is that the ends of lines can get kind of cramped and abbreviated.
I'm working on a theory that the VMs was essentially a notebook, used by a small and secretive group such as a trade guild, to keep track of important but closely guarded information. If this is indeed what the VMs is, I wouldn't be surprised if the illustrations and the text have nothing to do with each other. The folios could have been illustrated and originally intended for use in a normal, readable manuscript about plants and stars, but then for some reason the project was abandoned (the commissioner couldn't pay for it, perhaps?), and the scriptorium was left with an unfinished manuscript. Not knowing what else to do with it, but not wanting to waste it, a group of scribes decides to use these abandoned, textless folios to tabulate some kind of information they're keeping track of, but don't want to be made public. The unrelated illustrations provide a convenient cover.
For all I know, this post is rife with anachronisms, so I'm definitely open to critical feedback on it. It just accords with my experience with notebooks and informally tabulating data, and is the simplest non-hoax explanation that accounts for both multi-pass writing and LAAFU.
I'm working on a theory that the VMs was essentially a notebook, used by a small and secretive group such as a trade guild, to keep track of important but closely guarded information. If this is indeed what the VMs is, I wouldn't be surprised if the illustrations and the text have nothing to do with each other. The folios could have been illustrated and originally intended for use in a normal, readable manuscript about plants and stars, but then for some reason the project was abandoned (the commissioner couldn't pay for it, perhaps?), and the scriptorium was left with an unfinished manuscript. Not knowing what else to do with it, but not wanting to waste it, a group of scribes decides to use these abandoned, textless folios to tabulate some kind of information they're keeping track of, but don't want to be made public. The unrelated illustrations provide a convenient cover.
For all I know, this post is rife with anachronisms, so I'm definitely open to critical feedback on it. It just accords with my experience with notebooks and informally tabulating data, and is the simplest non-hoax explanation that accounts for both multi-pass writing and LAAFU.