01-03-2016, 11:52 AM
There's a big red stain in the upper corner of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. that looks like it was caused when some sort of red substance spilled onto the page. It seems that this must have occurred while the manuscript was already in its present order, or at least while this particular folio was the same position with respect to its adjacent folios, because there's a smaller "sub-stain" in the same area of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. - not merely a paint contact transfer, but a small circular stain apparently caused by the same red substance when it was still fully liquid. Look at it and you'll see what I'm talking about.
What's interesting about this is that the text in the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. stain has obviously been retouched. So if the stain followed the binding of the manuscript into its present order, and the retouching followed the stain, then the retouching - at least in this instance - must have occurred after the manuscript acquired its present order.
Since there's apparently quite a bit of retouching to other areas of the manuscript as well, it seems likely that most of this retouching also took place after the manuscript was in its present order, although it is of course possible that the manuscript has been retouched multiple times.
So it seems that the retouching, or at least some of it, was therefore not done by the original scribe, but was done by someone who presumably did not know enough about the VMS to put the pages in the correct order, yet still took the time to carefully retrace some of the text and do a decent job (to my eye) of reproducing the VMS letters.
What's interesting about this is that the text in the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. stain has obviously been retouched. So if the stain followed the binding of the manuscript into its present order, and the retouching followed the stain, then the retouching - at least in this instance - must have occurred after the manuscript acquired its present order.
Since there's apparently quite a bit of retouching to other areas of the manuscript as well, it seems likely that most of this retouching also took place after the manuscript was in its present order, although it is of course possible that the manuscript has been retouched multiple times.
So it seems that the retouching, or at least some of it, was therefore not done by the original scribe, but was done by someone who presumably did not know enough about the VMS to put the pages in the correct order, yet still took the time to carefully retrace some of the text and do a decent job (to my eye) of reproducing the VMS letters.
![[+]](https://www.voynich.ninja/images/collapse_collapsed.png)
