In 2018 it was reported in this article in the New Yorker You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. how in 2011 the team of P.G. Righetti from the University of Milan did a proteomics study of an ancient Bible (which came from China, and had been attributed by some to Marco Polo). Now, to quote the New Yorker :
Quote:After running the samples through a mass spectrometer, Righetti and his team identified eight biomolecules from the Bible, which had been thought to be made from fetal lambskin. But the proteins belonged to cows, proving that the parchment was vellum—made from vealskin—and indicating, along with evidence from the text, that it was probably made in southern France sometime before 1250.
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Nowadays more researchers are working in this new field of paleoproteomics. Here is a review paper from 2018 You are not allowed to view links.
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So I am wondering : what are the prospects of crowdfunding both a DNA and a proteomics analysis of some (ideally all) folios of the VM ? By which I mean : how much do these analyses costs, and who might be willing to contribute ? Just to see if a handful of individuals could match that, or if more wealthy donors would be required.
It might not be too difficult to convince a team of academics to do the job if they were provided the funds on a plate, and it definitely looks like the results of such a study, and a comparison with other XVth century manuscripts (including the most promising herbals and zodiacs), would clearly pinpoints things to a considerable extent.