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Events that may have obscured manuscript history
- Events that may have obscured manuscript history
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Events that may have obscured manuscript history
-JKP- > 13-12-2018, 12:46 AM
Sometimes interesting articles like this come up, that reveal how a manuscript's provenance can be obscured by unusual events (the VMS certainly qualifies in this category, given that Voynich originally hid where he procured the VMS).
Here is a thread to post articles of this kind, and one to start it off...
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Unfortunately, this also happens:
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Sometimes the mysteries are solved (or partly solved):
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RE: Events that may have obscured manuscript history
ReneZ > 13-12-2018, 06:12 AM
Very interesting thread (IMHO).
Just a minor point as a start: Voynich should not be blamed for hiding the provenance of the MS. This was entirely due to the Society of Jesus and he was following their instructions.
In general, I have run into four types of 'loss of information', just from researching the history of the Voynich MS, or at least primarily.
1. Fires and other natural disasters
2. Thefts
3. MS mutilations (major and minor)
4. Things just disappear without a trace
For point 1, there are a number of well-known cases. For one, the Swedish war booty from the 30-years war, including lots of books and other treasures from Rudolphine Prague, was taken to Stockholm. A catalogue was made, the library went on fire and another catalogue was made, so there is a clear picture of the list of books that was lost. Here is a general article about this part of history from a perhaps unusual perspective (sorry in German):
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Another 'famous' fire was the Leuven library in WW2, but there are many more.
The case of the Galileo forgery is also associated with thefts from a library:
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and so is the case of the Vinland map:
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(search on the page for 'Ferraioli', but there are likely more detail on-line sources about this).
MS mutilations come in a variety of forms. Occasionally book dealers found it lucrative to sell manuscripts on a page by page basis. The sum total income was higher.
One of the web pages in JKP's contribution shows books from which pages have been removed. The Beinecke library has been a consistent target for this kind of mutilation and theft for some time, where a thief removed maps from books. This was a fairly well known collector, and someone may be able to dig up his name.
On a less destructive scale, some collectors preferred to rebind all their books and manuscripts. With this, all provenance information that was written on the old covers was lost. A typical case is is the bibliotheca Rossiana. See for example in this German article:
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(page 6).
This also happened with the Voynich MS, which was rebound by the Jesuits. There may well have been useful provenance information on the previous cover. Now we just have the Tepenec ownership that was written on the first folio.
Case of collections just disappearing are also quite frequent. One unfortunate example for the history of the Voynich MS is the library of Joh.Marcus Marci, which may well have included the letters he received from Kircher, other books he inherited from Barschius, some of which may even trace back to Tepenec.
This library was inherited by his son, who deposited it in the Augustinian monastery of Zahan (now Sagan in Silezia). It just disappeared from there. -
RE: Events that may have obscured manuscript history
davidjackson > 13-12-2018, 01:46 PM
A terrible case is that of the medieval Icelandic sagas. Árni Magnússon forcibly collected a fair number of them together and shipped them to Copenhagen for safe keeping. Sadly, his house then burnt down. Sometimes things are safer where they are!
I understand that in another 17th century case, a ship carrying many manuscripts also sank off the coast of Iceland, carrying them to a watery grave. -
RE: Events that may have obscured manuscript history
Davidsch > 14-12-2018, 12:38 PM
Of course, you can always point at individuals, but the biggest thieves in history are of course "countries".
For example Egyptian art: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
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I am now investigating a manuscript that is Scottish of origin, written in Scots,
and a single (unique=priceless) version, but is now in the BL because: "Our copy of ... was sold in lieu of tax to the British Museum/Library".
That particular MS should be on display in Scotland and not in England. -
RE: Events that may have obscured manuscript history
davidjackson > 14-12-2018, 12:53 PM
WQuote:"Our copy of ... was sold in lieu of tax to the British Museum/Library".
That'll teach them to pay their tax
When you say "written in Scots", do you mean Scottish Gaelic or Scots? -
RE: Events that may have obscured manuscript history
Kestrel > 15-12-2018, 03:04 PM
(13-12-2018, 06:12 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The case of the Galileo forgery is also associated with thefts from a library:
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and so is the case of the Vinland map:
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(search on the page for 'Ferraioli', but there are likely more detail on-line sources about this).
For anyone who may be interested, a recently-released book offers a very full (and eye-opening) treatment of the thefts associated with the Vinland Map:
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