10% of Medieval Manuscripts survive to this day - Is that an overestimate?

[kckluge]

As Lisa says in that post, VMS is a heroic and surprising survivor, as it defies the logic of social-, artistic- and scientific value, at least.
Was the survival of our hero planned and intentional - choosing parchment, building a network of sponsors, owners and supporters through the history, or just a coincidence.

Our whole discussion presupposes the existence of the Voynich manuscript and therefore it must have survived or we wouldn't be talking about it. So, its survival may be a complete fluke. Who knows what other interesting historical artifacts have been lost without a trace.

Consider the Antikythera mechanism. It's highly unlikely it was the first or only device of its kind -- it's just the only one that survived (albeit in highly corroded pieces, and ironically thanks to it being on a ship that sank).