The assumption that the VMS could be a work by women for women is perhaps supported by the assumption that it could be written about women. This, of course, requires a "literal" reading of the imagery. Nicholas Gibbs, for example, claimed in 2017 that the VMS is a largely "plagiarized" guide to women's health. Templates, according to Gibbs, are said to have been the Trotula and De Balneis Puteolanis. Indeed, similarities in the depictions cannot be dismissed. This is especially true for De Balneis Puteolanis (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ).
I consider the leap from subject to authorship rather daring but not impossible. With the same conclusion, however, one would have to impute a female author to the aforementioned originals. In the case of De Balneis Puteolanis this is definitely not true, the author was Petrus de Ebulo. There it does not matter whether men or women have made the illustrations.
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edit: I don't want to get into Gibbs' text analysis here. His "abbreviated Latin - theory" has already been sufficiently refuted.
I consider the leap from subject to authorship rather daring but not impossible. With the same conclusion, however, one would have to impute a female author to the aforementioned originals. In the case of De Balneis Puteolanis this is definitely not true, the author was Petrus de Ebulo. There it does not matter whether men or women have made the illustrations.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
edit: I don't want to get into Gibbs' text analysis here. His "abbreviated Latin - theory" has already been sufficiently refuted.