Why is the MS not a copy of older, non European sources?

[-JKP-]

Most people seem to think that the content of MS Beinecke 408 was created at the time of its writing in 15th century Europe. The images are peculiar, but this is seen as the result of an individual's quirks, rather than unexpected cultural influences.

So I would like to know why people are convinced of this, and why they seem to be very unlikely to consider any non-medieval-European sources.

...

You can't assume what other people assume.

For example, I have written that the crossbow appears only in zodiacs in Germanic regions (among many other things). That does NOT mean I'm assuming the VMS is from there. It points to that region, but I have NOT made assumptions about where it is from or where the person(s) who created it was from because there is, as of yet, no smoking gun. In fact, I'm constantly looking farther afield because the journey is interesting and there might be something that has been overlooked.

Pointing out similarities to European influences is simply a piece of data, not an assumption. It's an observation.


I have looked at every corner of the earth, including Antarctica (there were botanical expeditions to Antartica), Patagonia, the Gulf Coast, Japan, Malaysia, Borneo, Madagascar, Ghana, etc. The DATA brings me back to Europe whether I want to go there or not, but the data is incomplete, so one cannot make assumptions or come to conclusions, nor should others assume that presentation of this data is a theory or assumption.