New Post: "I Do Listen to the Experts. Do YOU?"

[Jorge_Stolfi]

it is understood that the insects do not really eat parchment. The ones in the Voynich are said to originate in some original wood cover, no? That they stopped after the first leaf or two of parchment.

Insects may not eat parchment (or leather).  Because of the tannin used in tanning, I suppose. Tannin gums up any protein it comes in contact with, including digestive enzymes and the "pump" proteins that take up nutrients from the digestive tract. And that is why plants make it.  

But insects may eat the ink, depending on the formulation.  

Iron-gall ink has lots of tannin too, so I expect it to be insect-safe as well.  But a popular binder for other kinds of ink, such as India ink and tempera paint, was gum arabic, which is an edible carbohydrate, between starch and sugar.  

I suppose that hide glue, long used in furniture-making, could be used as a binder too.  It is made by boiling raw (untanned) hide, and is basically half-digested protein, hence edible.

I gather that egg yolk was sometimes used as a binder for tempera paint, but I have no idea whether it was ever used for writing ink.

However, "professionally made" inks and paints with edible binder may have contained other substances (like metal salts) specifically to discourage insects and mold. 

Insects may be attracted also to stains from spilled food, or edible products intentionally spread on the parchment.  On You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and f1v I think I can see many places where insects scraped away the surface of the vellum, erasing some of the writing -- mainly in the area on the bottom and distal margin of the flap, that Voynich is believed to have rubbed with unknown chemicals.  Some of these liquids seeped through the parchment and "offsetted" on f2v, which may also have been impacted by insects.

All the best, --jorge