Voynich Manuscript as a charlatan's prop

[MarcoP]

Personally, I find the subject interesting but I think Toresella’s arguments are rather thin.

By “charlatans” I understand we mean people who deliberately lie e.g. by claiming they have knowledge that they lack. Something that we know that actually happened was that fake medical ingredients were sold, e.g. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.:

It is interesting to note that in the Liber Augustalis of Frederick II, compiled at Melfi in 1231, legislation not only limited the number of pharmacists allowed to practise but stipulated that the making of medicines had to be by two pharmacists controlled by masters of medicine. Doctors were not permitted to sell medicines, and all doctors had to swear to denounce ill-practices among the pharmacists. The text of the “Tractatus de herbis” pays special attention to substitutes and counterfeit products and how to recognise them.

So medical frauds were a thing.
Other aspects are less clear.

The herbal of Master Ghino (Florence Redi 165) is not available online. I think a facsimile has been published, but I haven’t seen it. The manuscript appears to be a legitimate herbal, like many others, maybe with above average artistic quality. Years ago I transcribed You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. that I found reproduced in a book.
I don’t know what elements we have to support the idea that the manuscript was made for Ghino. Does the name appear in the professionally written text or in the clumsy addition discussed by Toresella? The drawing and text that were added at the beginning of the manuscript certainly are of very poor quality, but I am not sure that this is enough to conclude that Ghino was a charlatan.

What is currently known as the “Alchemical Herbal” is a well defined text made of 98 plants with consistent illustrations and descriptions. The plants are often unrecognizable and the text contains many magical elements. Copies of the Alchemical Herbal are typically bound together with plants from the solidly scientific (for medieval standards) “Tractatus de Herbis” tradition. It’s difficult for us to understand how the “Alchemical Herbal” was used, but I am not sure that a proper physician from a medieval university would have entirely rejected any form of magic. So, again, I am far from sure that these manuscripts are connected with charlatans (meaning deliberate frauds).