29-08-2023, 04:52 PM
Greetings Jacinto and welcome!
I must say, though I have only cursorily skimmed through your paper so far, I am impressed with how you have thought this out, especially how you have taken a somewhat whole document approach to it.
In my own research thus far, I have ruled out an American source for the VM but I am only at the beginning of my research and I expect to be proven wrong in many suppositions I come up with along the way. For one thing, every time I research a VM plant, the most likely possibilities, the best matches, keep coming back to South America and Indonesia as sources. For another, based on suppositions I've seen that the vellum is a lesser quality than would be used for commissioned manuscripts and the quality of the work throughout seems somewhat haphazard, I am leaning towards the VM being the personal notes of whoever created it, meant to be a collection of thoughts recorded for future reference rather than a careful study meant for distribution to others. And finally, I can't escape the feeling the VM was written by someone with an incomplete education, that many aspects of many of the drawings seem somewhat rudimentary. All of these observances could fit your hypothesis.
I think you have a good beginning but, by your own admission, you leave a lot of unanswered questions and it will be interesting to see you explore them and add to your research. Your paper doesn't discuss the balneological, astronomical or cosmological sections of the VM at all. This is why I said you have taken a somewhat whole document approach. It will be really interesting to see if you can incorporate these sections into your research and still come to the same conclusions. I think your hypothesis could potentially benefit from connecting with other researchers, specifically those familiar with the Nahuatl language but also others who are well versed in Mesoamerican archaeology and history, especially the work of the early missionaries. If you haven't already, here are a few links you might want to check out:
Magnus P. Hansen's 2018 blog article: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Nick Pelling's 2014 blog article on his Cipher Mysteries site: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Tucker and Talbert's 2013 paper published on HerbalGram: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
The first two researchers were pretty critical of the third work above but you may still find it useful. If you search this site, you will find Nahuatl has been brought up many times so you might want to connect specifically with some of those members as well as post threads here to collaborate on specific questions you want to address. You will find lots of help here. I hope you continue your research into this hypothesis and I look forward to what else you discover. Just remember nothing is ever wrong until it is proven as such.
I must say, though I have only cursorily skimmed through your paper so far, I am impressed with how you have thought this out, especially how you have taken a somewhat whole document approach to it.
In my own research thus far, I have ruled out an American source for the VM but I am only at the beginning of my research and I expect to be proven wrong in many suppositions I come up with along the way. For one thing, every time I research a VM plant, the most likely possibilities, the best matches, keep coming back to South America and Indonesia as sources. For another, based on suppositions I've seen that the vellum is a lesser quality than would be used for commissioned manuscripts and the quality of the work throughout seems somewhat haphazard, I am leaning towards the VM being the personal notes of whoever created it, meant to be a collection of thoughts recorded for future reference rather than a careful study meant for distribution to others. And finally, I can't escape the feeling the VM was written by someone with an incomplete education, that many aspects of many of the drawings seem somewhat rudimentary. All of these observances could fit your hypothesis.
I think you have a good beginning but, by your own admission, you leave a lot of unanswered questions and it will be interesting to see you explore them and add to your research. Your paper doesn't discuss the balneological, astronomical or cosmological sections of the VM at all. This is why I said you have taken a somewhat whole document approach. It will be really interesting to see if you can incorporate these sections into your research and still come to the same conclusions. I think your hypothesis could potentially benefit from connecting with other researchers, specifically those familiar with the Nahuatl language but also others who are well versed in Mesoamerican archaeology and history, especially the work of the early missionaries. If you haven't already, here are a few links you might want to check out:
Magnus P. Hansen's 2018 blog article: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Nick Pelling's 2014 blog article on his Cipher Mysteries site: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Tucker and Talbert's 2013 paper published on HerbalGram: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
The first two researchers were pretty critical of the third work above but you may still find it useful. If you search this site, you will find Nahuatl has been brought up many times so you might want to connect specifically with some of those members as well as post threads here to collaborate on specific questions you want to address. You will find lots of help here. I hope you continue your research into this hypothesis and I look forward to what else you discover. Just remember nothing is ever wrong until it is proven as such.