A match for the famous Armadillo?

[Bernd]

Barbara of Cilli is becoming a very strong candidate for having at least owned the VMS. Here are some interesting facts:

1. The castle where she was exiled is called the Melnik Castle. The same castle was later inhabited by Jacobus of Tepenecz, whoo we know DID own the VMS because he wrote his signature on it.
   
2. Barbara was known as the "Black Queen" because she allegedly practised alchemy.
   
3. She was known (allegedly) for holding large gatherings (orgies) with a lot of young naked women and performing rituals wit them. Which reminds one of the VMS, again.
   
4. Her husband was the King Sigismund, who once employed Mariano Taccola, the man who wrote a 15th century book about water pipes, that resemble very closely some of the VMS illustrations.
   

There are many more parallels between Barbara and the VMS, and some interesting blog posts on this topic. I think we should investigate this line further.

Ok, I admit this is getting very interesting...
It would explain how on earth the VM author got hold of Taccola's elusive De ingeneis ac edificiis, libri III-IV - the manuscript allegedly presented to emperor Sigismund in 1433. It might also explain a lot of non-standard German spellings which are lost today. Remember these people spoke and were ethnic Germans. Barbara was from Styria (present day Slovenia) which upper class and nobility were German. So were Barbara's parents. Her mother's family (Schaunberg) was from Upper Austria, her father's family (Cili) was old Styrian nobility.

I'm not implying Barbara created the VM, but it's an environment that does make sense.