04-08-2025, 11:46 AM
Many thanks for your interest and your feedback!
It will be difficult to weigh the likelihood that Wideman obtained the MS from Rauwolf.
I fully agree that this is far from certain, and one can speculate a lot back and forth without really getting anywhere.
I do not know what Stefan Guzy may have seen that makes him more confident than I am.
At the same time, Rauwolf remains the best candidate that we know of, due to his interest in herbs and medicine, but the problem is with all the people that we do not know of.
Wideman's library catalogue has been in the process of being published for many years now, by Carlos Gilly, but I am not aware that this edition is available now. Should this be out, it would be very interesting. If it includes indications that Wideman owned other books that trace back to Rauwolf, it makes his case stronger.
About the point that no other names of earlier owners are given, I do not think that this is suspicious at all.
While we may be quite interested in this, this would not have been the case at that time at all.
Who would care who owned a certain book before?
It was not unusual for owners to write their names in books, and it is even possible that there was something about this on the original inside cover. If so, this was lost latest when the Jesuits gave it its present cover.
That Marci mentioned Rudolf II to Kircher was certainly due to Rudolf's fame, and to finally get Kircher more interested. (It does not seem to have worked).
What's more, Marci does not only send the MS to Kircher, but also Barschius' notes. These may just have been translation attempts, but may also have included other information. It is really too bad that these do not seem to have survived.
It will be difficult to weigh the likelihood that Wideman obtained the MS from Rauwolf.
I fully agree that this is far from certain, and one can speculate a lot back and forth without really getting anywhere.
I do not know what Stefan Guzy may have seen that makes him more confident than I am.
At the same time, Rauwolf remains the best candidate that we know of, due to his interest in herbs and medicine, but the problem is with all the people that we do not know of.
Wideman's library catalogue has been in the process of being published for many years now, by Carlos Gilly, but I am not aware that this edition is available now. Should this be out, it would be very interesting. If it includes indications that Wideman owned other books that trace back to Rauwolf, it makes his case stronger.
About the point that no other names of earlier owners are given, I do not think that this is suspicious at all.
While we may be quite interested in this, this would not have been the case at that time at all.
Who would care who owned a certain book before?
It was not unusual for owners to write their names in books, and it is even possible that there was something about this on the original inside cover. If so, this was lost latest when the Jesuits gave it its present cover.
That Marci mentioned Rudolf II to Kircher was certainly due to Rudolf's fame, and to finally get Kircher more interested. (It does not seem to have worked).
What's more, Marci does not only send the MS to Kircher, but also Barschius' notes. These may just have been translation attempts, but may also have included other information. It is really too bad that these do not seem to have survived.