A name to attach to the origins of the manuscript

[Jorge_Stolfi]

That's also a question I keep asking myself. How much was the money worth?

There has been a lot of estimates of the value of various forms of money through history, by historians and economists.  To get the modern USD equivalents one can use typical skilled or unskilled laborer wages, or the cost of basic food in an urban environment, or the cost of a median residence, etc.  Each will give a different conversion rate, but roughly within the same order of magnitude. 

That is how inflation is measured today, except that the uncertainties are bigger. 

The information exists, just it may be hard to find with google...

All the best, --stolfi