Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

[Bernd]

The variety of sources is extensive to the point where it becomes difficult to explain, starting with the VMs cosmos.

I agree.
Whoever made the VM had access to a lot of high-profile and also obscure imagery. One idea would be that he drew inspiration from the stock image collection of a workshop instead of a library, but this conflicts with Taccola's Palatino 766, which to our knowledge was never widely copied, and the fact that materials and methods used to create the VM do not point to a professional environment. The alternative is that the author indeed had access to a very good collection. My best idea would be an early Strozzi collection which presumably also held Palatino 766. Or, we may very well be looking at an imperial library - assuming Sigismund indeed received a copy from Taccola's notebook. In any case, this is not your village doctor's collection. Nobility or wealthy merchant?