Assumptions baked into the VMS carbon dating

[Jorge_Stolfi]

The fashion of the zodiac figures knows its peak well before 1430. Later examples exist, but those are in the tail end. Even if the VM is in that tail end, it's still within the RC frame.

I agree that early 1400s is still the most likely date and can be assumed as a working hypothesis. 

However, if the Zodiac figures were copied from some other manuscript (like f85r2 quite probably was, for example), the dress styles would only tell the date of the source manuscript.

Both Marco and I, after analysing hundreds of handwriting samples to the point of complete burn-out, felt like the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. handwriting is purely medieval.

You know my explanation for f116v.  Even if that accident and "restoration" took place in 1580 or 1880, the person who tried to restore the lost writing surely would have tried to use letter shapes from the presumed date of the manuscript, not contemporaneous letter shapes.  (But if he was in Germany he would probably have tried to use German letter shapes.  So that analysis is still important to establish the nationality of the restorer, if not the date.)

And while you have found samples from the early 1400s that match many of the letters, you have not found a single sample whose handwriting matches the whole You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. text -- have you?

All the best, --stolfi