Single Leg Gallows

[oshfdk]

Proof? You want proof? I have bad news for you. There is no proof. It is clear there never will be proof. If you are waiting for proof you will still be waiting in a hundred years time. Can you wait that long?

I do want proof and I'm ok that it might take a while or forever.

To understand the purpose of this manuscript we need instead to look at what is logical, possible, probable, plausible. It is my belief that people are thinking too hard about the manuscript. A simple solution is probably more likely. Something more in keeping with other 'secret' manuscripts of the period. A new alphabet for an existing language - not possible.

I'd say "unlikely", but I agree, yes.

An alphabet for an unknown language - improbable.

Agree.

Random gibberish - improbable, illogical.

Agree.

Encyphered text and to necessarily have to do it for all the ~36000 words - possible, not simple, not plausible.

Not simple, but I'm not sure why it's implausible. As I said before, there are several possible explanations that would require encoding the whole thing: 
- necessity to protect the author's anonymity, especially if the author was somewhat famous: so, the invented script that is not possible to match against the known handwriting of the author, and this could also explain the weird drawing style, if the author tried to draw in an unusual manner
- necessity to prevent the identification of the underlying language: maybe the context of creating the manuscript in a certain language would make it suspicious by itself, in some medieval contexts would probably work for Arabic, Hebrew, Greek
- necessity to hide the actual topic of the manuscript: suppose it's a highly satirical pamphlet against the royalty, or a copy of a known banned book, any part of the plaintext would reveal what it is. The images in this case could be metaphorical.

An artificial construction fraudulently created to sell on the market for a fortune in florins - plausible and simple.

I think we already had this discussion in another thread - my main argument against this is the lack of embellishments and the small format of the manuscript. The manuscript looks curious, but not necessarily highly valuable. I would expect something made for sale to be much more presentable.