The Voynich Ninja

I'd have a hard time accepting any explanation where gaps were left or numbers reserved. You generally number in sequence, otherwise the whole point of the numbering is undermined.

Maybe you just proved that the Rudolph thing was an exaggeration indeed 

Seriously though.. are the numbered books somehow sorted by theme? Maybe he was using an early form of the Dewey decimal system. That might be a plausible reason for leaving gaps.

Although... this system would be messy and unpredictable. And it's not like he had a few thousand books to sort.

The matter is complicated by the fact that too few Horčický's books are known presently. If some books with duplicate numbers are discovered in future - that would judge towards several number rows being used in parallel.

Another thing that I thought of is that the whole Horčický's exlibris on the book number 4 has been faked (to make it look like that on the VMS, haha), but this romantic conspiracy is, I think, unlikely.

By the way, I was not able to find any information about the book "Disputatio Theologica De Verbo Incarnato" by Lamormain and Wroblicius, except that it exists (or existed in the past) and was printed in 1611 in Graz (where Lamormain lived at that time) by Widmanstadius.

Rene, do you have any extra information about this book? I think it would be useful to have a look at the title page, because it might feature some information about this man Wroblicius - at least his degree and position at the time.

Hello Anton,

I could not find much about either the man or this book. I know that Rafal had a bit more, from printed sources available to him.

The previous owner of book nr.40 is a different case. Jiri Berthold Pontanus is well known, and part of a circle of friends including Kelly's daughter Westonia.

I found out this You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (some register references or the like), it features two men of the surname Wroblicius, likely brothers: Laurentius Wroblicius and Michael Wroblicius (btw, a form of their surname is also "Wroblitius").

The first of them was born in 1637, the second one in 1644, and both in Březnice. It is not clear what Březnice is the right place. At present, there are two places in Czech Republic called that name (with the diacritic above "r"). The first one is south-west of Prague, the second one is the so-called "Březnice u Bechyně" and is south of Pargue near the location called "Bechyně". Neither of these places very close to various places of Horčický's residence, I guess.

But if they were Albertus Wroblicius's descendants, then they were likely his grandsons than sons, so their birthplace needs not be correlated with the residence of Albertus.

So this information is of little use.

As far as I can understand Czech, Laurentius was a choir master, while Michael was a more famous person, being a high school professor (and also a priest?), and he is mentioned in a number of catalogues and reference books, as suggested here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. Maybe those Czech sources can shed light on the Michael's ascendants and on whether he had relation to Albertus.

Why I am particularly interested in the book number 4 and this man Albertus Wroblicius is, of course, because the handwriting of the exlibris is the same as on the VMS, which suggests that the two books do share some common page in their history (beside their belonging to Horčický). Like, they were acquired by Horčický roughly at the same time. Or they were acquired for Horčický by the same person. Or, Horčický acquired them from a single person. This can't be readily said about book number 40, because the handwriting is different.

(14-07-2017, 06:51 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The previous owner of book nr.40 is a different case. Jiri Berthold Pontanus is well known, and part of a circle of friends including Kelly's daughter Westonia.

Hmm... I am puzzled now. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. state (referring to Prinke) that "In a manuscript owned by ... Pontanus, ... the signature of de Tepenecz appears in the same place as in the Voynich Manuscript and 'has the same form' ".

Does Prinke mean book number 40? If so, then this contradicts the image on your page where the signature does not appear in the same place, neither does it have the same form. Or does Prinke mean any other Pontanus's book which features de Tepenecz's signature? Or do Kennedy and Churchill just make a mess of Prinke's statements?

Returning to Wroblicius.

Rene writes (on his page first above cited):

Quote:The struck out name on the Aristoteles book (nr.1) indicates that the previous owner was called Wroblicius, but we don't know if this is Albertus Wroblicius, co-author of "Disputatio Theologica De Verbo Incarnato" (1611).

I think I've just found a more or less solid confirmation that it is Albertus Wroblicius.

Let me reproduce here, for convenience, the image from voynich.nu (here's the exact address of the page: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). The image shows the exlibrises from book number 4 (after some colour transformation). First we see the de Tepenecz's exlibris, with the number 4 assigned to the book. Next, we see "Ex libris Wroblicionim" (crossed out). Also we see the year 1604, in the same ink. But what we also see are the initials A.W. placed on both sides of the year (I highlight them with blue circles). The letter "W." is just somewhat obscured by the later stamp, and thus does not attract much attention.

It is evident that "A.W." with a year in between is just an integral part of Wroblicius's exlibrises - at least, of this particular one.

How could it escape everybody's attention before (has it? ).

[attachment=1490]

(15-07-2017, 01:47 AM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Returning to Wroblicius.
...

How could it escape everybody's attention before (has it? ).

I'm not well-informed about the later provenance of the VMS, but I can see that the W could easily be missed in the B&W e-facsimiles and the A possibly be mistaken for "Anno".



Those researching Wroblicius might already be aware of this, but for those who are getting newly acquainted with this topic (like me), here is a note about an Ex Libris on a book previously owned by a Martin Wroblicius with an old signature and an auction number of 397. It was published in the Strängnäs-Dubletter i Det Kongelige Bibliotek (which refers to the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen) and is listed on the Project Runeberg site:


39. S. Bonaventura: Tractatus plurimi. Strassburg: Martin Flach, 31. Oktober 1489. (Inc. Haun. 572. 2°). Hain *3465. Auktionsnummer

397. Gammel Signatur X 118.

Paa Bindets Inderside er opklæbet et Exlibris, som jeg ikke  har kunnet identificere. Bogen har tilhørt en Martin Wroblicius (Ex  libris Martini Wroblicij 1626). I 1637 er den kommet i Klostrets Eje.


Which translates to:

"On the inner binding is attached [clipped] an Ex Libris, that I have not been able to identify. The book belonged to a Martin Wroblicius (Ex libris Martini Wroblicij 1626). It became property of [part of the holdings of] the Cloister in 1637."

So there is another Wroblicius (maybe a relative?) from around the same time who owned at least one 15th-century book.



Other possible relations mostly in Bohemia:

Albertus M. Wroblicius (probably born approx. 1580 to 1590 and probably still alive at least until 1642)
Stanislaus Wroblicius (a Grammar Magister listed in Jesuit history by Schmidl, published 1754). Not sure, but he or someone with the same name may be from Mislow, Poland (near Warsaw) and may have died young (age 22, ca. 1616???).

Petr Wroblitius (I can't read Czech or Polish and only a little bit of Russian, but it appears he was alive in 1613)
Martinus Wroblicius (alive in 1626?)*
Johann Wroblitius (?–1632)
Laurentius You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (1637– 1667)
Michael You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (1644–1706). In 1699, a Pastor? Michael Wroblitius "historicus domus" was sent with others on a mission to convert.
Nicolaus Vroblitius (c. 1700s). Pastor, possibly of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Pawłowice? Silesia included parts of both Czech and Poland in earlier times and became part of the Holy Roman Empire and then part of Prussia in 1742.



*Christie's East 1981 catalog lists a Martinus Wroblicius inscription date of 1626 (folio 2, recto 2) in Goff C45's provenance.

In 2016, Lucie Večerníková listed the surname as extinct in the Blatna estates (the region around Blatna, southern Czech).

Albertus M. Wroblicius—possible references:

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You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. from the University of Karlova, recorded an incident of bad behaviour by Albertus Wroblicius Silesius, in June 1606.

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In You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., Graham includes a footnote describing a marginal book inscription on folio 14v:

"Ab Anno 1611 ad Mensem Martium, diem 16 indictione septima. Anno 1624 hunc librum talem qualem vides inveni M. Albertus Wroblicius... Baccal parochus Maioris Bitessi."

From the year 1611 to the month of March, day 7 of the 16th levy. In 1642, I found the book you see here M. Albertus Wroblicius... Baccal Pastor of Greater Bitessi.

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In You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., Albertus Vroblicius/Wroblicius is listed on page 374 [as a graduate?].

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If it's the same Albertus Wroblicius, Dr. František Rezác has written that he was placed in Kojetine in 1617, to help promote the Catholic Reformation but that efforts to convert were not successful.

So... if the above all refer to the same person, and Albertus Wroblicius was the owner of the book with the name and initials A W, then perhaps it was one of his university textbooks. He would have been in his late teens or early to mid-20s in 1604.


Also, assuming all the above reports on Albertus Wroblicius and his possible relations are reasonably accurate and if they all refer to the same person, I think there's a strong probability that the common ground between Wroblicius and Jacobi á Tepenecz is the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).

Jacobi was educated by Jesuits, and tended the Jesuit botanical garden before becoming Rudolph II's herbalist and physician.

The known VMS provenance leading to Kircher is also strongly tied to the Jesuits and the Wroblicius family had a long line of Jesuit clerics. Possibly more than one book owned by Wroblicius may have come into Jacobi's hands. The Jesuits in that era were very keen on books, science, and learning—a characteristic that sometimes put them at odds with more traditional members of the Catholic church.