The history of the Voynich MS is described in three parts, on
three pages: As this is a subdivision by topic, the three
histories will overlap in time. This page addresses the first
part, the origin of the manuscript. It will first address the
process of creating the MS, and the time in which this probably
took place, followed by analyses of the possible place where
this happened, and the possible author(s). In this section I
will refer to 'the author' as if it were a single person. This
is not necessarily true, but it is done for convenience and
readability. The question about the number of authors is
discussed further below. The Voynich MS is made of parchment,
but not vellum in the strict sense (1). The limp parchment cover
was added at a much later date and is not part of the original
MS. De Ricci (2) states that the limp vellum cover and the paper
end leaves of the MS were added in the 16th Cenury. The quality
of the parchment is quite good, but not top rated, i.e. not like
the parchment used in expensiv