Biocodicology - A Deeper Dive

[Jorge_Stolfi]

However, when that day comes, identifying the author(s) of the manuscript will be a major advance towards our understanding of the manuscript.

Even after that technology is available, in order to identify some DNA recovered from the VMS as being from person X, we will need samples of DNA that are known to come from person X, or at least from his relatives.  As was the case of that Leonardo article you linked.  

But would we ever get such samples?  Just statistically, the VMS Author is most likely to have been a Mr. Nobody who, when he was writing the VMS, was living some little town somewhere in Europe.  There is no reason to assume even that he was born in Europe.

Moreover, the (alleged) Leonardo DNA samples were recovered from a sketch that he drew himself.  But the VMS was most likely written by a Scribe or Scribes distinct from the Author, who must have left a lot more DNA on it than the Author himself.  How could we tell them apart?

And then there are all the people who handled the VMS in the past 600 years -- much more heavily than people handled that Leonardo drawing.  Barschius alone must have left 1000 times more DNA on it than the Author did.

However, that technology could resolve the question of whether Rudolf ever owned the VMS. His DNA should be rather easy to obtain.  If he indeed salivated when he saw the "Bacon Manuscript"...

All the best, --stolfi