Is there a reason why Hans Kraus chose to donate the VMS to Yale, of all places? Was this decision influenced by the fact that Yale professor Leonell C. Strong had proposed a decipherment of the VMS? It looks like Strong left Yale in 1953, so obviously the decision would not have been made to help Strong get access to the actual manuscript.
It's interesting that Kraus would donate the VMS and the sections of Voynich's papers related to it to Yale, but the rest to the Grolier Club. Why not keep the collection intact?
I think it's an interesting question whether the decision to donate the VMS to Yale was purely Kraus' idea, or whether Yale might have actively taken an interest in the VMS and "requested" it in one way or another.
Well, I understand he wrote the value of the donation off against fax. No idea why Yale, was he an ex-alumnus? I understand he did donate all the Voynich related paperwork to Yale.
The stuff he donated to the Grolier was not, as far as he understood, Voynich related but related to other business dealings with Nill.
His Wikipedia page says he was born in Vienna in 1905, attended medical school there, and did not immigrate to the US until 1938. I don't see any mention of a Yale connection but I have not studied his biography in any depth.
Including the papers relating to the VMS with the manuscript itself makes sense of course... but the question is why split the collection at all, if it's a donation? Why not donate the VMS and all of the papers to a single institution?
Sam G,
based on the wikipedia entry you mentioned, there may be more information about his motivations in Kraus' autobiography, A Rare Book Saga, where he apparently talks about the Voynich in pp. 218-222. I haven't read it. Perhaps another poster has?
Sam,
The spurious identification of one of the plants as a Sunflower completely skewed the research for a while, but did add to its interest for Americans. It also helps explain why Panofsky felt he had to adjust his original evaluation. I doubt he really believed it so late, but he wasn't likely to engage in a public dispute over such a minor matter, though even when making that adjustment (supposing the Spanish Jews must have been elsewhere post 1492) he only posited a date which would have been within the lifetime of someone who had emigrated from Spanish territories as an adult.
Not sure when Brumbaugh first arrived at Yale, but he and the librarian worked well together and perhaps that had something to do with it. No-one in Europe wanted the MS.
(16-10-2016, 02:54 PM)Sam G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Is there a reason why Hans Kraus chose to donate the VMS to Yale, of all places? [...]
It's interesting that Kraus would donate the VMS and the sections of Voynich's papers related to it to Yale, but the rest to the Grolier Club. Why not keep the collection intact?
I see three questions:
- Why donate at all (rather than sell)? This wasn't part of the above question, but the answer from David (possible tax advantage) goes in that direction.
- Why to Yale? I don't know the answer, but we have to keep in mind that Yale Univ. has several libraries, and the Beinecke is one of them, specifically dedicated to old books and manuscripts. As such, it is one of the biggest in the US. I don't know if that was already the case in the late 1960's, though. I do know that Kraus donated several books to the Beinecke in the course of time, but I don't know if he also donated to other libraries.
- Why split the material? Note that Kraus was a member of the Grolier Club, and this club is dedicated to book collection. He also had a lot of material related to ELV, such as handwritten originals of her books, her work on Chopin etc etc, and there was a complete set of catalogues of Voynich. In my opinion it made sense.
(17-10-2016, 06:35 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I see three questions:
- Why donate at all (rather than sell)? This wasn't part of the above question, but the answer from David (possible tax advantage) goes in that direction.
Perhaps, but it seems like even selling it for less than he paid for it would have outweighed the tax benefits.
Quote:- Why to Yale? I don't know the answer, but we have to keep in mind that Yale Univ. has several libraries, and the Beinecke is one of them, specifically dedicated to old books and manuscripts. As such, it is one of the biggest in the US. I don't know if that was already the case in the late 1960's, though. I do know that Kraus donated several books to the Beinecke in the course of time, but I don't know if he also donated to other libraries.
Do we know whether he donated these other books to the Beinecke before or after he donated the VMS?
Beinecke is certainly a major rare book library and a perfectly sensible choice, but it would be interesting to know why he chose the Beinecke over, say, the Library of Congress.
Actually, I just checked and it looks like he did in fact donate manuscripts to the Library of Congress the same year he gave the VMS to the Beinecke, according to his Wikipedia page:
One area of particular interest for Kraus was books relating to Sir Francis Drake. He eventually wrote a biography of Drake, based on materials in his collection, a collection that he later donated to the Library of Congress.[26] Kraus also put together a collection of important manuscripts concerning colonial Spanish America, particularly Mexico, including a letter from Amerigo Vespucci. Kraus donated that collection to the Library of Congress in 1969.[27]
Quote:- Why split the material? Note that Kraus was a member of the Grolier Club, and this club is dedicated to book collection. He also had a lot of material related to ELV, such as handwritten originals of her books, her work on Chopin etc etc, and there was a complete set of catalogues of Voynich. In my opinion it made sense.
I suppose this does make sense if the Beinecke is primarily devoted to actual rare books while the Grolier Club collections seem to focus on documents pertaining to the book trade itself.
(17-10-2016, 04:25 AM)Diane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Not sure when Brumbaugh first arrived at Yale, but he and the librarian worked well together and perhaps that had something to do with it. No-one in Europe wanted the MS.
I'd forgotten about Brumbaugh. It looks like he didn't start seriously researching the VMS until the 70's but had been interested in it since the 30's. It's interesting that two of the most famous students of the VMS were professors at the university where it wound up being stored.
Quote:Perhaps, but it seems like even selling it for less than he paid for it would have outweighed the tax benefits.
Yes, but he couldn't sell it. This way, he gained friends and reputation in the field and could write off the entire purchase value of the manuscript against his income tax.
He may even have been propelled by a genuine desire to expose the manuscript to people who might be able to decipher it!
Mystery solved!
I was at the library today and had a look at Kraus' autobiography. It's all in there.
There's not much in his chapter about the Voynich itself beyond a recap of the Manuscript's history as it was known at the time.
He mentions the handover to Yale in the following terms ("we" is him and Anne Nill):
p. 222: "Many clients, mostly scholars, expressed interest, but nobody bought. I felt like Voynich, who had held the manuscript for such a long time. Dozens of scholars wanted to see it, others asked for photos. Institutions asked to have it on loan. I had to decline all such requests, to preserve its commercial value. There were no buyers. After seven years of unhappy ownership we felt the right thing to do was to turn it over to an institution where it could be freely studied. We chose the Beinecke Library at Yale as the recipient. Along with it Yale received boxes of correspondence, pamphlets, notes, and miscellaneous literature concerning the manuscript."
However, Kraus then devotes an entire chapter to "Yale and Beinecke", and this is where we can understand why he chose Yale: because of admiration for his friend Edwin J. Beinecke.
p. 295:
"Few of my collector friends made such a deep impression on me as Edwin J. Beinecke. His love for Yale University was contagious. Here was a man who valued that institution of learning as one of the most important pillars of our civilization and who backed his opinion with a lot of money."
p. 298:
"Large as his expenditures were, money was never better spent. Not only are treasures such as he bought available today only at many times what he paid for them, but his library and its contents have made the name of his family famous in the wide world of books. Every time I visit the Beinecke Library and see the inscription on the bronze plaque opposite the front door, "May this library... serve as a source of learning and as an inspiration to all who enter", I am glad to think that Mr. Beinecke's wish has been realized.
Under Beinecke's influence I made up my mind to imitate him in a way befitting my smaller resources, and I contributed to the rare book collection at Yale substantial gifts like the Cipher manuscript about which I speak in Chapter 31."
Because Yale already possessed another faked "old" document; the Vinland map.
Yale is a notorious spook institute; Skull and Bones, anyone?
