Thread for all discussion about "genuine/meaningless/fake" etc

[RenegadeHealer]

The idea that it is meaningless text raises a fundamental question: would anyone go to such lengths only to end up writing nothing meaningful ? I think this is rather unlikely.

I think Sergio Torsella's idea, that the VMs was designed for use as a tool (prop, actually) by a traveling quack doctor or similar wandering con artist, has merit, and has historical precedent. It would add legitimacy to a medieval quack's act, to have a handbook or professional reference book he could "consult" in front of his marks. Since this quack wasn't actually learnèd, using a copy of a real, comprehensible medical reference had the potential to give away his act, especially in the presence of anyone truly literate or familiar with real medicine. So a book full of symbols that look like language, but aren't actually readable to anyone, would have provided an effective cover. The majority of his marks would have been illiterate, and therefore in no position to call out such fakery. But the marks with real money had a real chance of being literate. If one of them scrutinized his handbook and raised an eyebrow, all he needed to do was claim it was from far away, and written in an obscure language that the mark was not familiar with. He could also claim it was written in an idiosyncratic shorthand of his own invention, in order to protect the valuable (and in the wrong hands, dangerous!) secrets of his trade.

For this purpose, an entire book of nonsense text and ambiguous illustrations would provide a much more convincing cover than a much shorter or incomplete nonsense document. I could see such a prop being passed down from father to son, or from senior to junior gang member. I could also see such a prop being lost or stolen, and mistaken for an exotic and valuable artifact by the discoverer.

The problem is, how could such a quack doctor's prop be reliably distinguished from a real traveling doctor's real handbook, purposely encrypted to protect the doctor's trade secrets? Unfortunately, as was discussed in David Jackson's thread "I mean really, why would it be encrypted?", I'm not aware of any documented historical precedent for this.