For example, I believe that the top line of f116v says “ por le bon simon s(int)…“, and that this was possibly even written by the original author. My opinion (which you can take or leave) is that if we put more palaeographic effort into reading the VMs’ marginalia, we would very probably improve on this unsatisfactory situation. It should be pretty clear that we have two quite separate types of historical data here – pre-1500 ( codicological) and post-1600 ( archival) – with no obvious way of crossing the roughly century-long gap between them. A small number of the manuscript’s plant drawings do seem to depict actual plants ( f2v has a water lily, for example), though most do not.that both the folio (leaf) numbers and quire (group) numbers were added at a later date There is strong codicological evidence that the current page order and binding order differ from the original i.e.Some marginalia (in the zodiac section) appear to be in Occitan, where the spelling most resembles that known to be from Toulon so it is probable that the manuscript spent some time in South West France.Two owners have added writing in fifteenth century hands so it was probably made before 1500.Several of its drawings have parallel hatching ( similar to Leonardo da Vinci’s) so it was probably made after 1410 if from Germany, after 1440 if from Florence, or after 1450 if from elsewhere.The clear, upright handwriting is most often described as being reminiscent of either Carolingian minuscule (800-1200) or its Italian Quattrocento revival form, the “humanist hand” (circa 1400-1500) – the radiocarbon dating points to the latter.Radiocarbon tests carried out in 2009 date itsvellum to between 14 with 95% certainty, though as yet there is no cast-iron proof that the text and drawings were added straight away.However, before 1600 things quickly get murky, to the point that the list of “very probably true” things we can say about the Voynich Manuscript’s early art history is embarrassingly short:. In 1969, Kraus donated it to Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.He bequeathed it to his wife Ethel, who bequeathed it to Anne Nill, who sold it to H.In 1912, it was bought ( probably for peanuts) by dodgy antiquarian book dealer Wilfrid Voynich.For the next few centuries, it was (almost certainly) owned by Jesuits & moved around Europe.Circa 1645-1665, it was owned by Johannes Marcus Marci of Cronland, who gave it to Athanasius Kircher.Circa 1630-1645, it was owned by (otherwise unknown) German Bohemian alchemist Georg Baresch.Circa 1610-1620, it was (very probably) owned by Rudolf II’s “Imperial Distiller” Jacobus z Tepenecz.Circa 1600-1610, it was (very probably) owned by Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II.Its last four hundred years of history can be squeezed into eight bullet points ( though there’s much more detail here if you’re interested):. Whether a work of cipher genius or loopy madness, it is hard to deny it is one of those rare cases where the truth is many times stranger than fiction. “Beinecke MS 408”, or “the VMs”) contains about 240 pages of curious drawings, incomprehensible diagrams and undecipherable handwriting from five centuries ago. The infuriating Voynich Manuscript ( A.K.A.
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