Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS

[oshfdk]

This makes the book, in combination with its owner, valuable.

I like the "in combination with its owner" part. I like the idea of someone presenting/creating an unreadable book of secrets that only the author could "read" (or maybe actually could read, if this is a cipher), as a way to guarantee one's life or freedom. For some reason the Voynich MS to me gives some vibes of a work produced in captivity. Something that could be created by a person(s) who had a lot of free time, nothing to occupy their mind with and not too picky in resources. Maybe the author(s) were given a bunch of assorted vellum and some inks and paints and left in their cell to "der mus del" it all by themselves.