Is the VMS a work of female authors ?

[Koen G]

Hildegard gave her visions to the scribe, monk Vollmar, to write the manuscript. One can assume that also the illustrations were made by someone else. If the illustrator was also a man (monk), then this could of course have had an influence on the design.

I doubt that it would have made much difference. It's not like she would have populated the Church or Synagogue with female clergymen, or increased the number of female biblical figures in her text just to be able to draw more women.

Don't get me wrong, I would be fascinated and delighted if the VM turned out to be a woman's work, and I still think it is possible. But The depiction of men or women respectively is probably not the best indicator for medieval artists' gender.

Renegade: another factor is the education system itself and how society and gender roles impact men and women differently. For this reason, I am afraid that modern insights regarding handwriting differences may not be easily transferred to a medieval setting, unless there are constants across cultures.