[split] BessAgritianin's reading of 116v

[ReneZ]

5. Is the user of the Manuscript (defined by me as the one, who wrote the marginalia - all explanatory notes) Jacobus  de Tepence? I think so, but the final word have handwriting comparison experts.

In the early 2000's I had a chance to visit the magnificent Strahov library. I spent some time in the reading room (which, unfortunately, looked nothing like You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), looking at some books, one of which was previously owned by Tepenec, and in which he had written his ex libris. (The photo at my academia account is from that event).

I got to talk to the MS curator, and showed him some pages of the Voynich MS. He had not seen it before, but found it quite interesting. While looking at the writing on the last page (f116v) I mentioned that there was a hypothesis that the MS was created by Jacobus de Tepenec. He immediately said that that was impossible, and this writing was from at least 100 years before his time.
He made no statement about the actual Voynich MS writing.

I specifically remember this, as it was the first time I had a chance to talk to someone who had real knowledge about this material. Until that time, it was all talk among amateurs at the Voynich mailing list.