Missing folios

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Did the MS arrive in Prague with the pages already removed?

Apparently, yes.

Why do you think so?  

The missing pages (that we know about) were removed after the folio numbers were written.  According to experts, the style of the numbers says they were written in the 1600s.  IF the VMS was acquired by Rudolf from Widemann, that happened in 1599.  So, in order for the pages to have been removed before that sale, the timeline would have to be stretched a bit.  

(By the way, that date would imply also that the book did not have folio numbers when it was sold to Rudolf, and was either a stack of loose quires, or was already bound but with no folio numbers. To ponder...)

(By the way, IIUC, in 1599 Rapahel Mnishowsky was still a young college student with no role in Rudoph's court.  Thus he cannot have witnessed the purchase; he must have learned about it many years later.  Which would explain how "600 florins for a pile of books" became "600 ducats for one Bacon book".)

Before Baresch and Wiedemann, it had other unattested owners, including an alleged heir who knew about Voynichese and the author of the names of the months in the Zodiac.

I don't see any evidence of a later owner who could read Voynichese.  Maybe there was a heir who could do it, but he does not seem to have left any trace.   The iconic sign figures at the center of the Zodiac diagrams must be original, and the month names would have been deduced from them.

All the best, --stolfi