Surayya's End of Times Theory

[Surayya munir isah]

I believe the high number of female figures represents a future era where women significantly outnumber men.

It is a rather extreme sense of "outnumber".  

IIRC, the only definitively male figures in the VMS are

• [A] the North "angel" on f57v, seen from the back;
  
• the left half of the Gemini sign on f72r2;
  
• [C] the "husband" and maybe the two "kids" on that same page, outer band, ~07:30;
  
• [D] the archer of Sagittarius, f73v;
  
• [E] the "boy" pulling on the nymph's hair at the very northeast corner of Bio page f80r;
  
• [F] one or two of the figure in the "Four Seasons of Life" page f85r2.
  

Some naked Zodiac figures have been interpreted as male because of what looked like male genitalia.  But those details were almost certainly added by the infamous Boobs Retracer.

The [A] "angel" has been assumed to be male only because of the short, disheveled, and standing hair.  But some of that hair was obviously retraced, and originally it may have been smooth and drooping along the neck -- like that of many female nymphs.

Cases [B] and [D] had to be male because that was the standard "figurative" code for those Zodiac signs. 

As for [F], we now know, almost for sure, that the diagram was (badly) copied from a "meme" with specific origins in Central Europe, which is attested by at least three manuscripts that have been posted here.

As for [E], a good part of the "boy", including his "male" skirt, was drawn by the Boobs Retracer.  One can see that the original figure was naked and had a salient breast.  So we can strike that out.

That leaves only one confirmed original male figure, namely the "husband" of [C].

Whereas only in the Zodiac section there must have been almost 360 female nymphs...

All the best, --stolfi

---

"Following up on my previous point, I suspect the VMS might be a [b]syncretic representation of the 'signs of the hour' (signs of the end of the world).
Beyond just the male-to-female ratio, the presence of botanical wonders and strange medicinal baths (the Balneological section) could represent the Islamic concept of 'Al-Ard al-Bayda' (the transformed earth) or the gardens mentioned in eschatological texts.
Furthermore, if we consider the author might be a European physician trained in the 'Arabic' tradition (like those from the School of Salerno in Italy), it explains why we see European-style drawings (nymphs/castles) representing Eastern apocalyptic themes. The 1400s was a peak time for Europeans to study Arabic science while simultaneously fearing the 'end of days.' Could the VMS be a secret handbook for surviving this predicted future of female abundance and medical mystery?"