research about the provenance of the voynich manuscript

Author

Methods & Findings

W. Voynich, 1911/12 [1]

W. Voynich acquires the VMS together with the Marci letter from 1665. [2]

W. Voynich, 1919

In early 1919, while preparing photostats of the VMS, W. Voynich accidantly underexposed a plate of the first page, revealing the partially erased signature „Jacobj à Tepenece“, Jacobus Horcicky de Tepenecz (?-1622), Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Alchemical Laboratory of Rudolph II, who was some time between 1608-1622 owner of the VMS. [3]

VOYNICH (1921)

Rudolph II (1576-1612), Emperor of Bohemia, obtained the VMS from an unknown person for the sum of 600 ducats in Prague. [4]

A Request at the Bohemian Archives in Prague by Wilfrid Voynich revealed that Dr Raphael is Raphael Missowsky (1580-1644), Attorney-General of Ferdinand III, Emperor of Bohemia. [5]

?

P. Beckx [6]

GARLAND (1932)

Mostly biography of W. M. Voynich. [7]

DE RICCI (1937)

Voynich MS (as part of 'The Estate of Wilfrid M. Voynich') originated from the Collegium Romanum in Rome. [8]

E. Voynich, 1960

"Anne M. Nill, Voynich's secretary since his move to the US, remained a close friend of ELV and, upon ELV's death, inherited the Voynich MS. Since ELV realised that she was the only one who knew some of the details of the sale of the MSs, she had written a letter, only to be opened after her death, giving the details she remembered. Anne Nill opened that letter in 1960, to find out that the mysterious castle where Voynich acquired the MS was located in Frascati, and about the fact that Voynich had to promise absolute secrecy about this." [9]

TILTMAN (1967)

"Villa Mondragone lies in Frascati near Rome, built by Cardinal Altemps about 1570. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII issued from Mondragone the bull reforming the calendar. The villa apparently continued in the Altemps family as in 1620 a later member of the family bequeathed the Mondragone library to the Vatican library. In 1865 the villa became a Jesuit college which was finally closed in 1953." [10]

BRUMBAUGH (1977)

Further evaluation of the material which obtained Wilfrid Voynich from the Bohemian Archives revealed that George Baresch (lat. "Barschius") could be the former owner of the VMS, which is mentioned in the letter of Marci in Prague to Kircher in Rome. [11]

KENNEDY & CHRUCHILL (2004) p.253

Of the thirty other volumes Voynich is known to have purchased from the Villa Mondragone, almost all had a note attached to the cover acknowledging Petrus Beckx as their former owner. During political upheavels in Rome in the 1870s, Becks then the General Secretary of the Jesuits, transferred his library to the Villa Mondragone."

KRAUS (1978)

"I knew that he had published the catalogue of the Mondragone Library and I hoped to get information about the Cipher Manuscipt. To my great surprise he thought that the manuscript was still in the library. I asked him: 'Can you show it to me?' 'Yes,' he replied, and headed for the stacks. Soon he returned without it. I had to tell him that I owned the codex, and how it came to me." [12]

ROBERTS & WATSON (1990)

Claim the folio numbers in the VMS are by John Dee's hand. [13]

RUYSSCHAERT (1959)

Describes the MSs acquired by the Vatican from the Collegium Romanum and mentions that W. Voynich bought a number of them which have been transferred to various American libraries, including the VMS. [14]

CECCALDI (2003-05-24)

a testimony on w.m. voynich, from g.r. allen, 1998

CECCALDI (2003-05-24a)

the voynich's exhibition in chicago, october 1915

CECCALDI (2003-06-04)

on voynich's life and death, by one of his friend

CECCALDI (2003-06-15)

voynich in london - biographical details

CECCALDI (2003-06-15a)

some voynich's catalogues

CECCALDI (2003-06-22)

ms 408 in collegio romano

CECCALDI (2003-09-07)

villa mondragone, father strickland and voynich

University of Arizona, 2011

Radio Carbon Dating of velum samples of the VMS.

Results between 1404 and 1438.

ZANDBERGEN (2013-10-04)

Books once owned by Jacobus Horcicky

ZANDBERGEN (2015-07-22)

MSs Voynich acquired in 1911-1912

ZANDBERGEN (2015-04-26)

17th century letters related to VMS

ZANDBERGEN (2015-06-01b)

origin of the ms

ZANDBERGEN (2015-08-09

history of the vms

ZANDBERGEN (2015-06-02)

biographies

ZANDBERGEN (2015-08-08a)

source texts

ZANDBERGEN (2014-06-09)

inventory of Rudolf II. Museum

ZANDBERGEN (2015-06-12)

 Not the Villa Mondragone, but an Austrian Castle

ZANDBERGEN (2015-07-15)

An Aristotle MS bought by W. Voynich from the Jesuits in 1912

ZANDBERGEN (2015-08-09)

"From this important letter [G. Baresch to A. Kircher] written in 1639 it is clear that Barschius did indeed own the MS and that, 18 months earlier, he had sent Kircher a partial transcription of it, exactly confirming the details known from the 1665 Marci letter."

"Marci mentions him [G. Baresch] in his book 'Philosophia Vetus Restituta' (1662), calling him a very good friend, indicating that they were friends for 40 years, and that Barschius left Marci his alchemical collection and library in his will."