[Movie] Is the Voynich Manuscript an Elaborate Medieval Hoax?

[bi3mw]

We don't know if an unreadable manuscript would have had value in medieval times, or if that value would have been worth the investment of materials. Maybe a copy of the bible would have fetched way more. We simply don't know.

I always have to think of the way medieval swords are treated today. You buy them at auctions for a lot of money, catalog them and hang them on your wall or put them in a display case. Nowadays they have a high collector's value. In the Middle Ages, people put swords in a closed box and took them out when they were needed. So they were "commodities" whose value was defined by their practical use. Whether they were books of hours, Bibles, medical tracts or whatever, they all had a specific purpose for which they were used. At most, they were kept in libraries to be retrieved when needed. A manuscript that cannot be read is practically useless and therefore, from the perspective of a potential customer in the Middle Ages, uninteresting. The idea of buying a collectible simply because it is unique is a modern phenomenon. In the Middle Ages there was something similar at most with the purchase and exhibition of relics. In the case of the VMS, we are probably dealing with an anthology that is largely about plants. Manuscripts of this kind existed in large numbers only with the difference that they could be read. Where would a possible customer from the time probably buy ?