Is the VMS homogeneous or a composite work?

[R. Sale]

If the entire VMs text were just laid out, word after word after word, what would we know? That it varies in certain details. But what of it's over all theme? We know nothing. We might make presumptions according to the illustrations. We can't read the language, but we can try to read the illustrations.

Would a 'book of knowledge', like an personal encyclopedia have an over all theme? Suppose each of the section is paraphrased from a different source. Each section would be heterogeneous while the *all encompassing* purpose of the text would be the homogeneous expansion of knowledge.

It is my view that this is the mask of the VMs. That is what it appears to be, until one examines it more closely, in light of relevant historical events, where the relevance of history and tradition is determined by experience and knowledge of the author. Given the level of subtlety and sophistication, of disguise and deception, and trickery and obfuscation in the illustrations, not to mention the current inability to read a single word, it really isn't possible to make any expansive, thematic evaluation.