Core conundrums?

[Hermes777]

On first impressions we have a medieval herbal with an astrological section and, it seems, recipes for herbal preparations. Nothing unusual in any of that (until we look closer.)

One can describe the VMS at a first view actually with this simple content specification. That is why it is all the more astonishing that someone has developed an encoding or a writing system for such a relatively banal content. Unless the text has little or no relation to the illustrations and contains an explosive content that should not be readable by everyone. On the other hand, the text may be just an intellectual gimmick and the VMS is indeed what it seems to be, namely a late medieval composite manuscript with the named sections (despite all the idiosyncrasies of the illustrations ).

That's right. There are ways in which the text and the illustrations don't match. On my own reading of the illustrations, I think we have a depiction of the Ladin northern Italian alpine herb gathering tradition, and in part the illustrations are suitably rustic. I would describe some of the illustrations as folkish. Some astrological charts are a bit more sophisticated and are better done, but there is a folksiness that would match the herbal tradition in question (as I see it). 

But the text was not written by a rustic herb gatherer from remote alpine valleys. It is a very sophisticated creation. It is the creation of a very considerable, highly literate mind. (Just the script, to say nothing of the language.) 

This need not mean the text and pictures don't belong together; it just means the text and pictures are different contributions. The simplest explanation is that the text (by a considerable, highly literate mind) is a commentary upon the illustrations supplied by the folkish illustrator. The pictures were done first. A commentary was added. But why in this script?