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Was the VMS mastermind a university graduate?

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• Was the VMS mastermind a university graduate?

• Was the VMS mastermind a university graduate?

  Anton > 30-08-2020, 02:15 PM

  What do you think, are there any hints or indications in the VMS pointing towards or against the VMS author (let's assume an abstract "author") being a university graduate?

• RE: Was the VMS mastermind a university graduate?

  RobGea > 30-08-2020, 02:57 PM

  I believe so but have no evidence except maybe the visual content mainly the Cosmological section.
  
  Whoever the author(s) were they had been exposed to some books/manuscripts because of the similarities of other medieval mss to the vms.

• RE: Was the VMS mastermind a university graduate?

  Anton > 30-08-2020, 03:00 PM

  Yes the author was definitely educated enough, but my question is strictly about whether he studied in a university.

• RE: Was the VMS mastermind a university graduate?

  Helmut Winkler > 30-08-2020, 03:35 PM

  I have no evidence in the strictest sense, if ever, we will not have it before we are able to read the ms., but the visible content, astronomical and medical, point to an university education, at least an M.A.  on the way to a doctorate,  I find it difficult  to see another possibility.
  
  Another point are some peculiarities of the writing sytem which point in my opinion  directly to the university system, especially the abbr. system, that the man could write fluently is annother point

• RE: Was the VMS mastermind a university graduate?

  -JKP- > 30-08-2020, 04:39 PM

  I don't know if he was a university graduate. It certainly appears to be someone with a university education.
  
  I sometimes wonder if the VMS itself was a university project. Thesis projects were quite varied in the Middle Ages. I saw one that involved development of a game (something like chess? it's a while since I've seen it so I can't remember exactly what the game was).

• RE: Was the VMS mastermind a university graduate?

  RobGea > 30-08-2020, 05:03 PM

  As Helmut Winkler says ( possibly excepting if  the vms is solved ) there is no way, ever to prove a university education.
  
  Quiz : Which of these people never went to University :
  Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek ,Thomas H.Huxley, Mary Somerville.
  
  

  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

  All of them

• RE: Was the VMS mastermind a university graduate?

  Koen G > 30-08-2020, 05:11 PM

  I think so, "university project" is my primary working hypothesis. But it cannot be proved.
  
  What would be objective indications? A complicating factor is that even advanced material can be copied and altered without fully understanding it.
  
  It is true that many famous historical intellectuals did not attend university. But let us stay in the first half of the 15th century (or maybe even the end of the 14th if the VM was made by older persons!). Who typically attended university and who typically didn't? This would be an interesting starting point.

• RE: Was the VMS mastermind a university graduate?

  Anton > 30-08-2020, 05:15 PM

  The idea is that a university graduate would have left his trace in immatriculation or graduation lists, of which some are preserved. Which opens some, albeit narrow, opportunities for brute force attacks on provenance.
  
  For example, graduation lists of the Padua university are preserved. I just read yesterday that there were more foreigners from beyond the Alps (ultramontane) than Italians (intramontane) there.
  
  An optimistic case would be if something in the VMS style could suggest the "imprint" of a particular university, or at least a particular country where the person was educated.

• RE: Was the VMS mastermind a university graduate?

  Helmut Winkler > 30-08-2020, 05:16 PM

  (30-08-2020, 05:03 PM)RobGea Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.As Helmut Winkler says ( possibly excepting if  the vms is solved ) there is no way, ever to prove a university education.
  
  Quiz : Which of these people never went to University :
  Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek ,Thomas H.Huxley, Mary Somerville.
  
  

  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

  All of them

  
  I dont think that  is true for Huxley

• RE: Was the VMS mastermind a university graduate?

  RobGea > 30-08-2020, 05:43 PM

  Yes, Thomas Henry Huxley is a tricky example, he, Huxley entered Sydenham College and later was admitted to study at Charing Cross hospital
  neither of which are defacto universities but he did take and pass an exam at the University of London.
  I should have googled harder
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