27-07-2026, 12:02 AM
Was violating a valuable manuscript like this common practice? Do we have similar examples of pages removed for study?
Considering Rudolf (allegedly) paid a huge sum for the VM, this appears odd. One might think it would be more prudent to either send copies (as suggested in the letter) or summon a scholar to examine the book, not cut it up.
Which probably means the removal happened after the VM was not in Rudolf's possession anymore, and the new owner considered it curious but not excessively valuable. A more sinister possibility would indeed be that the pages were deliberately destroyed because they did not fit the narrative under which the VM was sold. Either by whoever sold it to Rudolf, or by Wilfried himself. But I find that hard to believe. The removal from different sections looks more like a sampling method to get representative pages from the entire VM and send it to a scholar.
Considering Rudolf (allegedly) paid a huge sum for the VM, this appears odd. One might think it would be more prudent to either send copies (as suggested in the letter) or summon a scholar to examine the book, not cut it up.
Which probably means the removal happened after the VM was not in Rudolf's possession anymore, and the new owner considered it curious but not excessively valuable. A more sinister possibility would indeed be that the pages were deliberately destroyed because they did not fit the narrative under which the VM was sold. Either by whoever sold it to Rudolf, or by Wilfried himself. But I find that hard to believe. The removal from different sections looks more like a sampling method to get representative pages from the entire VM and send it to a scholar.