(Yesterday, 01:04 PM)Rafal Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Even if they didn't need the money badly, they probably prefered selling the stuff to having it confiscated at some moment.
And I suppose some of them would prefer to burn the manuscripts than give them away to the state.
No, that is not what happened. Potenza's paper is quite clear about this and my English summary + extension should reflect this as well.
1. The Jesuits had their main institutions, i.e. their main sources of income taken away from them: the Roman College and the Novitiate. The latter was continued on a smaller scale in Castel Ganolfo. They needed some money.
2. The 'old books' of which Voynich got about 30, and the Vatican about 200, were not their main concern, but their own historical materials were.
The main Jesuit library used to have several tens of thousands of volumes. The few hundred handwritten books and an even smaller number of early prints (including incunables) were all that was left because they hid them.
The 30 or so that Voynich managed to buy turn out to be the more valuable ones.
With one exception, they are all on parchment while the larger collection is about 50/50 between parchment and paper. The majority of Voynich's books are illustrated or beautifully illuminated. In the remainder that is now in the Vatican there are only a few that match the ones Voynich obtained.
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With respect to what Voynich said, and who suggested Villa Mondragone, see my web site: You are not allowed to view links.
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(yes it needs a bit of a clean-up). There is a link to another page with more background information.
What I find interesting is that he immediately sold seven of the 30-ish books to another book seller: Tammaro De Marinis, who put them in his own 1913 sales catalogue.
This catalogue says nothing about the origin of these manuscripts, and also does not mention Voynich anywhere. However, many years after Voynich's death (1947), he mentions that he got some of these books from Wilfrid Voynich, and that they originated from the library of Duke Henry Benedict Stuart in Frascati.
This is evidently what Voynich told him, as Voynich definitely could not trust De Marinis with the truth. He still managed to convince him not to talk about it, at least until 1947.
So here is my guess.
This is a hyposthesis that is still based on some pieces of circumstatial evidence, for example:
that Voynich is not listed as a visitor to Villa Torlonia, while Ehrle, the Vatican librarian is once, and Strickland many times.
I imagine that Voynich never visited Villa Torlonia, and was not even told where exactly the books were hidden.
Strickland initially took out, say, two of the most beautiful items and showed them to Voynich.
This may even have happened in Villa Mondragone (where some anonymous visitors are mentioned).
It would have likely been in or near Frascati.
(In fact, two of the most valuable manuscripts that Voynich obtained do not appear in APUG 3289).
After Voynich agreed to the terms and conditions, he also agreed that Strickland select other illustrated or illuminated manuscritps on parchment, for a standard price of 500 Lire (100 dollars) per item.