The Voynich Ninja

(01-04-2026, 05:31 PM)Mark Knowles Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I know a lot about the Barbavara family. In fact I have met the surviving members of this family. There are two different Francesco Barbavaras from the 15th century. The first ran the government of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. There is a cipher key in the Cipher Ledger of Francesco Gonzaga in Mantova headed "Francesco Barbavara" from around 1400(I forgot to mention this). The second and the person I am more interested in was Ducal Secretary and Head of the Chancellery to Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, from 1425 to 1433. One can also find enciphered letters written by his brother Marcolino Barbavara from the 1440s in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in the Library in Paris. Of course, the ciphers I refer to here can be found in my archive. I particularly associate the Voynich manuscript with another brother Abbot Antonio Barbavara who collected rare plants and had an interest in medical and scientific matters.(The first Francesco Barbavara was the uncle of the second Francesco Barbavara.)

I really appreciate your assistance. I think the most useful things you could do, in my opinion, would be to study the inventories available online for the Turin archives and/or any other archives in towns/cities you might be able to visit nearby. You might then be able to determine if they have early 15th century documents than might include ciphers.

Alternatively, I increasingly think a useful exercise would be to go through the cipher ledgers for Lucca and Mantova in my archive and identify who all the correspondents were and who those correspondents worked for. These involves the difficult, but not impossible task of, trying to read the handwriting and then researching who that person was. For example, as I said, one of the cipher keys in the Mantova Ledger is headed "Francesco Barbavara" if I didn't know who that was I could research him with Google and discover that he worked for the Duke of Milan.

Anyway, anything you can do to advance our knowledge of early 15th century cryptography would be of value. However, I daresay you have other responsibilities to take your time, so you must not do more than is feasible for you.

Thanks for providing the family connection. May I ask was Antonio Barbavera a brother of the first Francesco, or of the nephew? Or a cousin of either in the family?

I recall a Google Drive mentioned, and am unsure if this is where the cipher archive is that you possess, but if you'd like to provide it here or a link to private message, feel free to send it through the forum inbox.

Also, I found this thread from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. that mentioned a Marcolino Barbavera. If there isn't already one, a family tree might help visualize the connections because juggling more than 2 involved figures can definitely complicate the search. I'd be happy to draw one. 

The nephew Francesco Barbavera had a brother named Marcolino, who both used ciphers. According to this You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., Giovanni Michele Barbavera was also brother to Marcolino. Whether or not they were half brothers isn't mentioned, but it doesn't mention if he was also a brother to Francesco. But the page does mention Francesco Barbarvara II, which could be an easier way to refer to the nephew. It also mentions that Antonio was related, but not how.

Yes, Milanese Ambassador to the Pope, Marcolino Barbavara, Ducal Secretary, Francesco Barbavara, Bishop of Como and later Tortona, Giovanni Barbavara and Abbot Antonio Barbavara of the Abbey of Saints Nazzaro and Celso by the Sesia river were all brother to the best of my knowledge. In fact there were two more brothers Apostolic Protonotary Pietro Barbavara and Mayor Nicolino Barbavara.

There is a cipher key headed Scipione Barbavara in the Tranchedino Cipher Ledger, Scipione Barbavara was the son of Marcolino Barbavara.

However, I have still not had the opportunity to study the Barbavara family archive. The person who currently has possession of the archive is not very helpful to say the least. I am on very good terms with his sister Anna Barbavara, so maybe one day I will be able to see that archive.

To be honest the most important thing for my research at the moment is to locate Milanese ciphers from the time when Francesco Barbavara was Ducal Secretary, 1425 to 1433. The best lines of enquiry that I have relate to the archives of the Biblioteca Bonetta in Pavia and the Vatican Apostolic Archives(the intercepted letters of Milanese Ambassador Guarniero Castiglioni). I will visit the Biblioteca Bonetta or a friend may do it for me. I don't know when I will visit the Vatican. However there may be other archives where Milanese ciphers from the period I am interested in may be found.