13-03-2026, 12:57 PM
Hello,
a certain question that me and one of my friends just had was: what would be the expected time for a scribe to write a Voynich-like text? Specifically, I'm wondering because while we have some inkling (hah!) about rates of work of professional scribes in the medieval times (it seems to be 4-8 folios a week depending on the source), this would be a faithful copy of a meaningful text!
So, perhaps producing text would take a different amount of time depending on how the Voynich was created. Here are some interesting things that could impact it, broken down by theory:
The reason I'm wondering is we're putting a lot of stock into this being an extreme amount of effort; but maybe, if the manuscript is meaningless either due to being a sloppy copy or an outright gibberish hoax, the production period would be relatively brief. This has some implications for whether it would be worth writing it as a hoax or for sale.
Cheers
a certain question that me and one of my friends just had was: what would be the expected time for a scribe to write a Voynich-like text? Specifically, I'm wondering because while we have some inkling (hah!) about rates of work of professional scribes in the medieval times (it seems to be 4-8 folios a week depending on the source), this would be a faithful copy of a meaningful text!
So, perhaps producing text would take a different amount of time depending on how the Voynich was created. Here are some interesting things that could impact it, broken down by theory:
- A faithful copy of an earlier draft. Presumably, we could take the standard rate of text production as a good rule of thumb, though the Voynich alphabet seems easier to copy than gothic script, for instance.
- A sloppy copy of an earlier draft. This would probably take less time, but presumably one would expect more errors being corrected - though perhaps the scribe(s) didn't care. If that is the case, what could be the rate of production that would satisfy whatever patron asked the scribe for the copy?
- The first draft of a meaningful text: where are the corrections? Composing meaningful text takes time, too, so it could take longer than copying.
- Intuitive gibberish, as in the Gaskell & Bowern paper 'Gibberish after all.' Presumably, since one neither has to copy anything nor worry about exactness, but simply put quill to paper and maybe reference other nearby words while writing, this would be the fastest method. With that stipulation, what's the fastest one could do?
The reason I'm wondering is we're putting a lot of stock into this being an extreme amount of effort; but maybe, if the manuscript is meaningless either due to being a sloppy copy or an outright gibberish hoax, the production period would be relatively brief. This has some implications for whether it would be worth writing it as a hoax or for sale.
Cheers