Speculative fraud hypothesis

[dexdex]

Here's my take on the fraud situation:

- created in the early 15th century for sale at a profit: quite unlikely
- created around 1600 for sale at a profit: entirely unlikely
- created in modern times for sale at a profit (or indeed any other purpose): entirely unlikely

- created in the early 15th century as a prop for benefits: interesting idea, but has difficulties
  (This was the point of the opening post in this thread)

- created significantly after the early 15th century: entirely unlikely

Agreed, though of course I would find my own idea interesting  

This was also the main premise of Robert Brumbaugh's 1978 theory, explained in a book and an article in Speculum.  A curious gimmick of his theory was that the VMS was supposed to look like an easily decodable cipher,  to make it more attractive to prospective buyers.

While the theory itself isn't all that similar (unless I have the wrong article), it does touch on a very big problem with a traditional 'hoax for sale' hypothesis: why would you buy a book you can't read? Certainly, you would if you thought it contained knowledge to be deciphered, but there is no occult symbolism to suggest this to a prospective buyer. And the manuscript would be entirely unremarkable at the time of its creation, with no appearance of being ancient or interesting - except for the unreadable script, of course.

However, as a prop, what you're selling is not the book, but the assurance that you are the sole person who can read from it. Then, it's not necessary for you to insert any occult imagery - you can just claim you got this knowledge and the manuscript from some far away tribe, but it's not heretical, honest! Perhaps you would want it to stand up to cursory inspection as recognisably a language, and this is why it has the properties we see. The idea still has difficulties, but to me appears the most credible of the hoax hypotheses.

Another interesting variation of the con artist theory: perhaps, someone produced this book as a prop for a herbalist 'job interview' for a royal or another noble. You then need it to pass inspection by his other herbalists, but also be undecipherable so you can claim to be the sole person who can read from it, landing you a long-term, stable, lucrative employment (and therefore, a return on the initial investment). Such a person would have already been a quack healer in the first place to even land the interview. Thus, they would be naturally familiar with herbals of the time (as explained by Toresella) and this explains the relative competency of the herbal section. Then they could add extra sections for some extra esoteric punch. And they look crappy because they weren't very familiar with those genres of manuscript.