Are Eastern and/or Central Europe a relatively blind spot?

[Mark Knowles]

Do we need to look more towards Eastern Europe as a possible context of creation for the VM, or are we best off with the current focus?

I think it is important to be open to alternative scenarios. Personally, given my thinking England, Scotland, Ireland, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia are pretty unlikely. And Africa, Central & East Asia, the Americas, Australasia to name some areas which I really think have to be excluded until some piece of evidence pops up to include them.

I think it is worth noting that there may be documents in East European archives that are Western European in origin.

Having come across a paper about a Francesco Sforza cipher in a Moscow archives I know that documents can find their way to seemingly unlikely places.

I have found it difficult to know where to best look for Italian documents outside of Italy given the numerous European (and American) archives.