I had this thought experiment lately. Assuming that the VMS was not written in a scriptorium (i.e., not in an "official" place filled with dozens of professional scribes where one could easily notice that someone is writing a hundreds of pages of secret text in broad daylight), we could assume that it was written in a more secluded place, outside the scope of prying eyes. 

One way to do so could be to take the vellum from a scriptorium using theft, and then write the MS in a "safe place". After all, iron gall ink was not difficult to make "at home", so all that was needed for writing the manuscript DYI-style was a lot of vellum.

So I wonder, how easy would it be to steal 100 sheets of vellum from a scriptorium, and whether such a theft would go unnoticed (are 100 sheets "a lot" or "a little" in the scope of a professional workshop)? Would such a theft be recorded in the inventory of a scriptorium?

(10 hours ago)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I had this thought experiment lately. Assuming that the VMS was not written in a scriptorium (i.e., not in an "official" place filled with dozens of professional scribes where one could easily notice that someone is writing a hundreds of pages of secret text in broad daylight), we could assume that it was written in a more secluded place, outside the scope of prying eyes. 

One way to do so could be to take the vellum from a scriptorium using theft, and then write the MS in a "safe place". After all, iron gall ink was not difficult to make "at home", so all that was needed for writing the VMS DYI-style was a lot of vellum.

So I wonder, how easy would it be to steal 100 sheets of vellum from a scriptorium, and whether such a theft would go unnoticed (are 100 sheets "a lot" or "a little" in the scope of a professional workshop)? Would such a theft be recorded in the inventory of a scriptorium?

I began researching the use of parchment over the centuries after the discovery of one of the most important pieces in my collection: the parchment print of Raphael's "Madonna of the Fish" (including mine; another example exists in the English collection of R.H. Keynes, with different coverings
 You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
pages 18-19. Still on the same publication, I recommend reading from page 44 onwards the text by Theresa Fairbanks concerning the history of the creation of the parchment), engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi and/or his student in Rome, Marco Dente da Ravenna "il Ravennate."
From my research, parchment was readily available in Europe until the advent of paper and Swiss paper mills in the 16th-17th centuries, especially in Italy, France, Spain, England, and the Holy Roman Empire of Habsburg (Eastern Europe). Although expensive, there were many artisan workshops that prepared it and sold it to convents, religious copyists (in this case, almost always made in monasteries), artisan copyists, scholars, universities, lawyers, and private individuals who used it for their own purposes. Parchment had varying costs depending on the type of leather, the imperfections it contained (being an organic material), the shade, the thickness, and the quality and importance of the craftsman who crafted it. With the advent of paper, the use of "virgin" parchment was abandoned, becoming an even more valuable and rare material. Thus, the practice of reusing less valuable parchments, which were treated with various processes and reused for overwriting, became widespread.
There was also a black market for parchment.
However, availability at all levels was simply a question of price, not of lack of support.
This is just a short and simple summary because the discussion is much broader.

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

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

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

The VM parchment / vellum (what is the correct term now?) is generally of rather poor quality. If it was stolen, it was not a huge loss. I could also imagine this was given to someone for practice. Overall, the poor quality fits the poor artistic skills and overall 'provincial' feel of the VM.

Either the creator could not / did not want to spend more on higher quality material, or this was all he could acquire (by whatever means). But yes, if someone 'took' it, the disappearance of low quality sheets would raise significantly less eyebrows than 100+ premium sheets being gone. However, we do not know over which timespan and from how many sources the author acquired the sheets.

It would be interesting to investigate in which kind of environment parchment / vellum of VM quality would be most likely encountered. On one hand, the VM artist must have had access to a high level collection of imagery from different sources, something one would not expect in a poor or simple place. More from a premium workshop, university or even royal library or a wealthy collector. Remember, lavishly illuminated manuscripts were luxury products, not work books. On the other hand, the quality of the VM itself is unexpectedly low. I am still having trouble to reconcile these two facts. Poor artist in a posh place?

You make a lot of great points @Bernd.

(3 hours ago)Bernd Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I am still having trouble to reconcile these two facts. Poor artist in a posh place?

Maybe a scribal apprentice in a large scriptorium with a rich library?

But then again, the writing was made by at least 2 different sets of hands. So several people must have been involved, or known about such a theft. Perhaps brothers/siblings/family members?

Wladimir D has put forth the hypothesis the the sheets were originally much larger and cut only after drawing. I can't say how realistic this scenario is but it would drastically change the size and number of the 'acquired' sheets.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(2 hours ago)Bernd Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Wladimir D has put forth the hypothesis the the sheets were originally much larger and cut only after drawing. I can't say how realistic this scenario is but it would drastically change the size and number of the 'acquired' sheets.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

This is a very interesting discussion I hadn't considered before. So:

1. The vellums were filled in,
   
2. Then cut into their current size.
   

Then perhaps the Rosettes were also meant to be trimmed in such a way?

Anyway, this changes the "theft" hypothesis quite a bit. Because now it seems that the thief/thieves could simply take a large vellum and scroll it up. It's much easier to steal. Since this reduces the complexity of thieving quite a bit, its likelihood increases.

EDIT: does vellum crease when folded or scrolled? If so, theft is actually more unlikely than likely, because we don't see crease marks in the VMS.

The parchment (not "vellum"; "vellum" is a specific kind of parchment made from very young calves, which this isn't) used for the VMS is extremely poor quality, thick and full of flaws and holes. It is also untrimmed. This kind of parchment would not have been produced in or for a professional or monastic scriptorium. I suspect that the parchment was made by and for whatever community produced the manuscript - not purchased, and not stolen.

(1 hour ago)LisaFaginDavis Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The parchment (not "vellum"; "vellum" is a specific kind of parchment made from very young calves, which this isn't) used for the VMS is extremely poor quality, thick and full of flaws and holes. It is also untrimmed. This kind of parchment would not have been produced in or for a professional or monastic scriptorium. I suspect that the parchment was made by and for whatever community produced the manuscript - not purchased, and not stolen.

That is very insightful, thank you. It's quite a blessing to have actual experts chime in.

So when you say "I suspect that the parchment was made by and for whatever community produced the manuscript", are you implying that the tanner him/herself had knowledge of what the parchment would be used for? I.e., he/she was "in on it"?

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the highest-quality parchment was usually produced in Italy, France, and Spain, because artisans used lamb, goat, or calf skins (usually stillborn animals or fetuses, hence the term "uterine parchment," although today the theory of stretched skin is more prevalent). The lowest-quality parchment was typically produced in Northern Europe: Germany, England, Scandinavia, Czechoslovakia, Sweden and so on, where ox or cow skins, or at least those of adult or older animals, were used. This resulted in larger, more irregular hair follicles, which made writing more difficult and less fluid. The parchment was thicker, yellowish in color, and therefore required more invasive cleaning processes, which ultimately affected its quality.