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Presentation of Siloe facsimile with S.Bax and R.Zandbergen
- Presentation of Siloe facsimile with S.Bax and R.Zandbergen
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RE: Presentation of Siloe facsimile with S.Bax and R.Zandbergen
Koen G > 07-11-2017, 08:23 PM
"El códice lleva el nombre de su último descubridor, Wildrid Woynich..."
Anyway, David is also going there, so we'll have a few forum members present at the event! You guys should ask if there's a possibility for them to share any "special" pictures they shot of the MS
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RE: Presentation of Siloe facsimile with S.Bax and R.Zandbergen
-JKP- > 08-11-2017, 06:15 AM
I'm looking forward to hearing about it.
René's site doesn't really lend itself to reporting on "events", the way it is structured, but I hope he too will find a way to share his impressions. I would be very happy to hear them. -
RE: Presentation of Siloe facsimile with S.Bax and R.Zandbergen
davidjackson > 10-11-2017, 11:44 PM
An enjoyable evening was had by all at this event.
I must admit that the attractions of Burgos - a city I have not visited before- distracted me. I arrived at 19:56, assuming myself to be in good time, and expecting a long wait. Much to my distress, I was reminded that we were on European time, not Spanish - the event would start promptly, and everybody knew this.
To add to my distress, I hadn't bought my invite, and the burly security guards tried to throw me out on my ear.
I summoned my best Englishman attitude and was disdainful enough for them to call for the manger. I then escalated to Sevillian hauteur and eventually forced my way through the doors.
Whereupon I distracted an elderly man and proceeded to pinch his seat. It was in the boxes.
Tantalisingly close to me was a Voynich facsimile. I looked at it with saliva dropping. It was guarded by an amiable man with a smile of steel.
I couldn't take photos, as an enormous chandelier made any attempt pointless. I realise now I should have taken a few selfies afterwards. Ah well, too late now.
Well over 200 people attended. Many were locals who belonged to the culture circle, but there was a smattering of exotica.
The event was excellent, if you spoke Spanish. However, it was directed towards a generic audience. Juan explained how he had started Siloe, and told a fun anecdote about how recently he had to call security to remove a Voynich nutter from an event in Perpignan. He also showed us photos of the first Voynich facsimile being handed over to its new owner, an Arabian sheik. The copy was purchased by the American university of Arabia - I think- and donated to a wealthy sponsor. It's in the news.
Pablo added on a few bits about the negotiations with Yale. 12 years this project has been in the making. The first time they went to Yale, they were thrown out as 'just anther bunch of loons'. They had to show their prestige first, and they worked on other projects with the express intention of getting the Yale contact.
Rene gave us a fascinating oversight of the provenance of the book, and the history of Mr Voynich himself.
We then had a q&a session. This was rather -boring?- until Marta turned up. She had A Solution To Present. I shall not go into detail, but it involves an 11th century Spanish poem and the page with four red flowers. She admitted she'd only discovered the Voynich six weeks ago, but was adamant that she'd spent 20 years reading ancient manuscritos. She wasn't too coherent, but got an enthusiastic round of applause. Juan suggested that she put down her theory in print, otherwise somebody might steal it, and off she trotted.
Stephen Bax now gave us an overview of possible translation theories, and his own attempts in particular. It was similar to what we talked about in the recent video, so I won't repeat it all. I will say that the master of ceremonies, a well spoken woman, kept giving nervous glances up at Marta everytime she said 'the only person to have deciphered words of the manuscript'.
All in all, it was an enjoyable evening. I had a few drinks afterwards with Rene and Stephen, and it was delightful to finally meet them both in person.
The books are, I must say, fantastic. The quality is stupendous. They even have an authentic copy of the Marci letter inside
And what's more, it was suggested to me that the copies on display were the test ones, not the final product.
Looking at these copies, I realised the futility of suggesting that they were made by microdot, stencils, or other such nonsense. The fraud theory was also killed for me tonight.
The book is a labour of love. In the short time I held a copy, I had no great insight. But I'll tell you this. Give almost anyone in the world a copy, and tell them it's the original, stolen in an ocean's 14 style raid, and they'll believe you.
Just remember to take out the certificate of authenticity before you try to flog it
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RE: Presentation of Siloe facsimile with S.Bax and R.Zandbergen
-JKP- > 11-11-2017, 06:25 AM
Thank you, David. I really enjoyed reading that.
(10-11-2017, 11:44 PM)davidjackson Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....
Stephen Bax now gave us an overview of possible translation theories, and his own attempts in particular. It was similar to what we talked about in the recent video, so I won't repeat it all. I will say that the master of ceremonies, a well spoken woman, kept giving nervous glances up at Marta everytime she said 'the only person to have deciphered words of the manuscript'.....
Marta's not doing him any favors. Since it's a theory at this point, not a solution or even a "partial decipherment", her enthusiastic endorsement will only make it more embarrassing for him if he turns out to be incorrect. -
RE: Presentation of Siloe facsimile with S.Bax and R.Zandbergen
davidjackson > 11-11-2017, 06:47 PM
The Siloe people also run a very interesting museum on books (el museo del libro) here in Burgos. They are opening a new museum cafe with a unique theme! -
RE: Presentation of Siloe facsimile with S.Bax and R.Zandbergen
-JKP- > 12-11-2017, 02:11 AM
(11-11-2017, 06:47 PM)davidjackson Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The Siloe people also run a very interesting museum on books (el museo del libro) here in Burgos. They are opening a new museum cafe with a unique theme!
LOL!! Haha, good marketing.
Now... imagine if the VMS were cracked and the text turned out to be something really strange... -
RE: Presentation of Siloe facsimile with S.Bax and R.Zandbergen
Paris > 12-11-2017, 09:58 AM
(11-11-2017, 06:47 PM)davidjackson Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The Siloe people also run a very interesting museum on books (el museo del libro) here in Burgos. They are opening a new museum cafe with a unique theme!
First of all, thanks to you, DavidJackson, for this summary of this event.
I watched carefully your photo about this new coffee of the museum.
We can see a lion reading a book.
It makes sense because the city of Burgos (where is located this museum) is part of the province of Castille-and-Leon.
Leon = Lion, in english.
But, I was interested by the blazon above the lion.
It's not the blazon of Burgos.
It looks like a "4" if you turn head on the left.
This symbol is very similar to an alchemic fireplace.
This fireplace is located in the castle of Fontenay-le-Comte (France).
Originally, it was located in another castle, in Coulonges-sur-Autize (France), in 1563.
The description of this fireplace has been done by an anonymous alchemist, Fulcanelli, in 1930, in his second and last book, Dwelling of the Philosophers. -
RE: Presentation of Siloe facsimile with S.Bax and R.Zandbergen
ReneZ > 12-11-2017, 10:01 AM
There will probably be some sort of report of the event on the Siloé site, but let me also share some of my impressions.
Burgos is one of the well-known cities of Spain, but it remains a 'provincial town'. Still, the event attracted so many people that the place was packed. The organisers estimated between 300 and 400 visitors. This is due to the fascination of the Voynich MS, of which I got to know a new dimension.
We all know that there are amateurs that lilke to exchange thoughts in fora, and there are even more interested people who don't, but occasionally come up with interesting publications (e.g. Schinner, Reddy & Knight, Muntemurro, Amancio et al.). There are also plenty of people without great previous knowledge about the MS who are coming up with translations, and there are quite a few historians, medievalists and MS experts whose opinions are very hard to get.
Beside this, there is an enormous number of people who are simply fascinated by this single MS and would like to know more. Of course, only a very small fraction of them are willing to spend many thousands of Euros for the facsimile, but they are still hundreds. I had a chance to talk to several of them. They came from different European countries just for this event.
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RE: Presentation of Siloe facsimile with S.Bax and R.Zandbergen
davidjackson > 12-11-2017, 06:58 PM
Hi Paris,
The lion emblazon is a slightly modern reconstruction of the symbol of Fadrique de Basilea, a German printer who setup an important printing press in Burgos in the late 15th century. He was one of the first printers in Spain and turned Burgos into the most important printing centre of the nation.
The book museum is called "Fadrique de Basilea" in his honour. Here's his original colophon which he put in his incunubles to mark his work:
![[Image: csm_fadrique_solo_leon__01_1fcf98cda2.png]](http://www.museofdb.es/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_fadrique_solo_leon__01_1fcf98cda2.png)