Was the VMS artist a fan of Michael Scot?

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Parchment production is labor intensive.

And it also requires special equipment (stretching frame, cords, buckets, flesh and hair scraping knives, etc), special materials (lime, tannin, pumice, etc), and special skills.  Nothing too fancy, but still not things that everyone would have in their kitchen cabinet.

And it also would require some space, and distance from other people who could have complained about the smell.  

And time.  The VMS has, what, 60 bifolios? That must have been at least 20 animals.  One skin at a time, it would take six months or more...

Thus I think it is extremely unlikely that the Author(s) made the vellum themselves.  Even if they were poor and isolated in the middle of nowhere, buying it would make more sense.

[quote]So answering which business (if any) commercially made parchment of such low quality and for what purpose seems crucial.[quote]

I am guessing that the supply of skins was always larger than the demand for vellum/parchment, so vellum makers could always choose good skins.  But some defects would not be visible until the process was well underway.  

And anyway the finished skins had irregular shapes and sizes, so when they were cut into rectangular sheets for sale there would be pieces that included poor areas near the edges of the skin, or that fell short of the "standard" size and shape.  The makers presumably would sell those bad and irregular cuts at a lower price, rather than throw them away.

All the best, --stolfi