Quote:If these two are really M&B (or only one of them), I could imagine some of the more interesting books sticking to their fingers...
As I wrote in another thread I don't believe that Mischowsky was the person who could abuse his power to effectively steal the books. He was too high to the court to perform such low and trifle crimes. And, after all, he was not a book collector or book seller, so he did not hunt for books in relation to their monetary value. And he who hunts for books to consume the contents therein, he usually is not a thief
These books were confiscated under the name of religious cleansing. If you've got piles and piles of books in the Rathaus, I wonder to what extent it would be considered stealing to take one. Maybe they were all taking books they liked, I don't know... I think it's impossible for us to enter a moral mind frame of people in such different times and circumstances.
What if certain books were to be destroyed but some were kept aside because they looked interesting from a medical perspective? Remember how Baresch mentioned in his letter to Kircher that he thought the book had belonged to a "good man" who had gone to Egypt in search of medicinal knowledge.
Ah, if books were to be destroyed, that's another thing. In my university years, I also took several to-be-destroyed books from the university library - the first two volumes of Marx's Capital and a couple of books of Engels.
Well, I looked at Searcher's reference in more details, unfortunately no possibility to copy and paste into translator, but looks like the commission (which members were Mnischowsky and Bacher) produced much fuss, convinced 90+ noble men, and Bacher afterwards proceeded to impose fines on folks. Btw, along with that, one Elisabeth Polixena is mentioned under the year 1652.
I recalled our fruitful discussions with JKP, Thomas Coon and Helmut about the
pox leber stuff, and the fact that "p" and "b" were often used interchangeably.
So I decided to see if we can find something about Dr. Georg
Pacher in addition to
Bacher. What do you think? Immediate success!
In You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view. Dr. Pacher is mentioned several times, many of them together with
Dr. Raphael Mnisch (sic!) for the period of 1620s. Some of cases look to describe activities already discussed above.
So it seems that all through the 1620s the said Bacher/Pacher was the regular companion of Mnischowsky in the activities of the latter.
I wonder if we should try "Paresch" in the search field to learn more of Baresch?
And here's the fourth form of Raphael's surname:
Mnisch.
It's interesting that while Mnischowsky and Mnisch seem to mean something like "man from Munich" (Munich = Mnichov in Czech), "Meisch" in German means rather something from which wine is prepared (see the dictionary of Brothers Grimm).
Anton, when you set your mind to something I'm surprised at the stuff you manage to dig up
It looks like their "German names" were purely based on phonetic similarity.
I wonder how likely it was that Baresch fulfilled such an official function for many years, travelling and gathering fines, to then become an alchemist, whatever that may entail exactly. I assume the title "Dr." meant doctor as in physician? In that case perhaps not unlikely. A large part of his biography is unaccounted for anyways.
Edit: all I found so far is that there was a dynasty of ropemakers called Georg Parsch in early 1600's You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view. :|
Pacher is better than Bacher, at least he is mentioned not only in connection with fines and convictions. In the You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view." (which is by no means
kurzer, neither even its title is), Georg Pacher is mentioned in the list of rectors of the Vienna University (section 6, p. 531) under the year 1628 in the following manner:
Quote:Georg Pacher, d. f.K., u. beyder R. Dr.
Note he was changed to the other person in the same year, so he was not rector even for a year. I wonder if it's possible to be a "Regimentsrat" and a rector at the same time and, respectively, if it's the same person. But if it is, then it's probably not Baresch after all, since we don't know of Baresch as of the Vienna's University rector.
I guess "beyder" is "bei der", so "u. bey der" is "mentioned as reverend doctor" (?), and what is d. f. K. (der f. K. as suggested by some other entries)?
The list of Vienna rectors in the You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view. lists Pacher as "Georg Pacher aus St. Bernhard in Österreich, J. U. Dr., k. k. Rath;"
OK, this Regimentsrat-companion of Mnischowsky and the Vienna rector
is the same person, and, at the same time, he is
not Baresch, just because he died in 1643 when Baresch was yet alive.
The bio of the noble Bacher-Pacher is given in You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view., and it runs as follows:
Quote:Georg Pacher, ein Oesterreicher, von armen ehrbaren Eltern im Dorf St. Bernhard anno 1574 geboren, erhielt einen Stiftplatz in Wien in dem Convicte zu St. Barbara, wurde nachmals Dr. juris und n. ö. Regierungsrath und war als solcher anno 1628 Rector magnificus der Universität zu Wien. Zuletzt war er Erzherzogs Leopold Wilhelm zu Oeſterreich Bischofs zu Passau, Straßburg c. geheimer Rath und Obersthofkanzler, und ward als Landmann in den neuen n. ö. Ritterstand angenommen den 13. August 1639. Er starb anno 1643.
Das Wappen ist ein schwarzer Schild, worin zwei gegen einander gekehrte aufrecht stehende goldene Löwen, mit beiden vor deren Pranken einen goldenen Stern in der Mitte halten, zwischen den Löwen geht eine rothe Spitze, mitten bis an den Stern reichend, darin auf grünem Hügel ein weißer Adler*) mit goldener Krone auf dem Haupte angebracht iſt; daneben beiderſeits aus der Erde Feuerflammen herausſchlagen. Auf dem gekrönten Helme zwei Adlerflügel, der rechte oben weiß, unten roth, mit einem goldenen Balken mit 3 ſchwarzen Sternen in der Mitte, der linke oben roth unten weiß mit ſchwarzen Balken, worauf 3 goldene Sterne. Helmdecke rechts ſchwarz und Gold, links roth und Gold.
* Wahrscheinlich ein Phönix.
But I'm not much disappointed. The good results of the day are some more names of Mischowsky, to find more info about him.
I find the reference to Barschius' thesis of significant interest!
W.r.t. the forms of Mnischowsky's name, the form 'Mni' is simply a phonetic rendering of the pronunciation of 'Mi'.
'Misch' is also the form used for the author of the Trithemian book now kept in Uppsala.
His book 'Funebria (etc)' ( You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view. ) was signed as: Raphael Misowsky de Sebuzin et in Lochkow.
The Dr. before his name must have been his academic title. He had no background in medicine. Note that Barschius was 'only' Magister.
There are more details in the letter that Voynich received from Dr.Klicman in Prague. I will write more about that when I am back home.