A case for Gibberish

[RenegadeHealer]

and this kind of product is not really one that's prepared for sale.

Everything I know about the medieval book industry I've learned here. I seem to remember someone once writing that when someone wanted a copy of a book, he would take the original to a scriptorium and commission a copy made, and the finished copy was typically received unbound, along with the returned (bound or unbound) original. I assume someone who contracted the copying of a book was responsible for both materials and labor, and bookbindings were neither materials nor labor that most scriptoria worked with. If he wanted it bound, the commissioner would have to take the finished copy to a bookbinder, and contract this job separately.

So if all of the above was typically true, technically books were "sold unbound", when they were commissioned copies of other books made by scriptoria. The sale was from the scriptorium to the commissioner. But what I'm not sure about, was how commonly an unbound book typically changed hands for money in any other instances. Can anyone else weigh in on this?

Maybe it was a draft for an original that was lost or never written. This is ofc not an idea of my own, others have pointed it out before.

It strikes me that this could actually support the gibberish hypothesis. I'm picturing a writing project where a preliminary (and possibly discreet) copy of a planned work was first made with rough sketches of the illustrations and *Lorem ipsum* type greeking. Perhaps the commissioner was cagey or undecided about the contents of the text, but was testing the layout. This might also explain the crudeness of the illustrations and the pages that seem unfinished. This feels anachronistic to me, because materials and labor for creating books were not cheap. Is there any medieval precedent for this kind of preliminary rough copy being made?

Is there a scenario were the VMs ends in Rudolf's possesion with no money transaction involved? I'd like to hear about it 

Paul Weiler, in his book The Incredible Unravelling of the Voynich Manuscript, posits that Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III is the author. He was Rudolf's great-grandfather. Paul posits that the VMs languished in some personal library of the Habsburgs until Rudolf came across it and was intrigued. By that point in time Frederick III was remembered as a bit of a nutter. Rudolf wanted to know what the book said, but he was a bit ashamed of it too, for its provocative and bizarre illustrations and its connection to his infamous ancestor. So before handing it over to his scribes to attempt decipherment, he stripped it of all clear references to the Habsburg family, and made up a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. story about having bought it from someone unidentified. This would explain:

• The lack of a record of having paid 600 ducats, despite Rudolf's court's scrupulous bookkeeping
  
• The presence of the "à Tepencz" signature
  
• The frustrating lack of anything in the illustrations that definitively refer to a particular person or family
  
• The missing folios
  
• The strange trimmings of certain folios. (For example, was there originally another top line of text on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. which would have identified the creator? This would have been typical for a colophon.)
  
• The apparent chemical wiping and obliteration seen on some folios. I'm thinking particularly the upper right corner of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Paul Weiler's basis for positing Frederick III as the author is the striking similarity of EVA [p] to the "sling" Frederick always drew around his famous mysterious "AEIOV" motto, as seen in his You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. It's a fascinating idea, which would explain a number of things about the VMs and its supposed history that don't otherwise make sense. It needs much more evidence to be taken seriously, I'm aware. But I offer it to you as a response to your question, and thought you might appreciate.