Here's a new VMS documentary in the series "Hidden Relics" on the Travel Channel, with interviews from myself, Claire Bowern, Bill Sherman, and Richard Santacoloma. It turned out well, I think.
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- Lisa
Thank you for sharing this link.
The documentary explains what the Voynich manuscript is and what we know about its history. The documentary doesn't cover any theory about the manuscript. Instead it is said that we don't know what the illustrations and the writing mean.
(02-02-2021, 02:17 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.(USA only)
These artificial limitations are getting ridiculous.
They are excluding 7 billion potential customers.
Is piracy the only way to watch the documentary if you don't plan on going to the US?
Maybe someone will upload it to Youtube.
I believe that you can find the video at:
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This is episode 12 of season 1.
The.part of the episode devoted to.the Voynich manuscript begins 21 minutes in.
It's a good introduction to the manuscript.
My only point of critique is on the narrator, who thinks homeopathy (a pseudoscience of the 1800's) is the same as herbal remedy
Many thanks to Mark for finding this.
I agree that this is a fine introduction. Nice also to see and hear Claire Bowern, whom I did not yet have opportunity to meet (even virtually).
Only just a few details:
- that the manuscripts were sold by the Jesuits because the Villa Mondragone needed funds for restoration works, is a myth, and I admit that I also believed this in the past, but there is no basis for it.
- Anne Nill DID have heirs and they were not happy when the MS was donated to Yale
- The Marci letter shown is not THE Marci letter
The third bullet is all the more surprising because the "real" Marci letter is owned by Yale and easily filmed. The letter shown must have been from a digital image. Access to the original is not possible.
Thank you, Lisa, for that info... and thank you Mark for posting that link.
I had understood that the show was going to be episode 26 of the Travel Channel show "World's Most Unexplained". And the trailer there still lists it as part of that series. So I was waiting for it to air, but it will be the last episode of that series this year, and might not be on until after April sometime.
So it is as surprise to me to hear it is part of this "Hidden Relics" series. That's really cool... and what a surprise to be able to watch it!
I also think they did a fine job with the subject. And they did take a very solid middle of the road approach, which is probably a good thing. If you start covering all the theories, mine included, it would need to blossom out into a much larger work, and end up being more confusing to the general public. I think they wanted to avoid controversy, and simply present the mystery of it all. And it does look to be a great introduction. Charlotte Blennerhassett was the producer and also interviewed me. She clearly had a very good grasp of the whole subject.
I was told by the cameramen that they had interviewed a woman who was into some sort of spiritual theories about the Voynich, and apparently she didn't make the cut.
The editor wrote me and asked permission to use my 3D CAD images of the Rosettes pages. I'm glad they used them, and also that they gave me credit! At the end, but...
René, on two of your points:
"- that the manuscripts were sold by the Jesuits because the Villa Mondragone needed funds for restoration works, is a myth, and I admit that I also believed this in the past, but there is no basis for it."
Yes I've long believed this, and this was the topic for a recent conversation I had with someone. That person had shown several picture postcards and other images of the Villa at the time, and it was clear they were doing quite well. In the doc, I was relating the generally understood story line at that point, and any counterpoints to that were not part of the show. Not by me, not by Rugg, I don't know about the others. I didn't, however, realize you were of the same mind about the "needing funds" story.
"- Anne Nill DID have heirs and they were not happy when the MS was donated to Yale"
Well I missed that information somehow. I would LOVE to know who the heirs are, or were. Is this information on your site? I and some friends tried to track down any relations of hers. On one of Ethel's immigration documents, she used in her references an address in Washingtonville, NY, and we wondered if this would lead to any Booles, Nills, or Voynichs.
As it happens, this is only about 45 minutes from where I live. The address is now a field (but may have been a resort in Ethel's time). I spent a couple of days in the town, researching some other Nills that lived there. There is a family plot for a Nill family in one of the cemeteries, and even has an Anne Nill in it, but she is not "ours". I even crashed a barbecue on a farm of some people whose family was related to these Nills, and spoke to two octogenarians... neither of which remembered any Anne Nill, nor any Nill. So that was a dead end.
Anyway, I point all this out to show it is an interest of mine... who Anne's relatives might be, and where she is buried, and so on. Do you know where she is buried?
All the best,
Rich.