31-10-2017, 07:14 AM
Well, it is gratifying to have the inexplicable explained satisfactorily, and I am happy to see, as I had begun to suspect after Rich's reaction, that the point wasn't against the Beinecke library but against Voynich.
My mistake.
However, that still doesn't make it any more correct.
I really doubt that it would be normal for antiquarian book dealers to subject their books to (forensic?) tests, but Voynich did one himself, to visualise the Tepenec signature.
More importantly, he did show this MS around quite a lot.
Singer reports seeing the MS in the hands of the book dealer Baer of Frankfurt, which may have been in 1912 or even 1911. (Singer only traveled to Frankfurt in the years 1911-1914, and one of the Baer brothers started a shop in London in 1911).
Millicent Sowerby, who was working in Voynich's shop in London from end 1912 to 1914 (from memory) reports how visitors would come to this shop to admire his recent acquisitions, especially the famous Roger Bacon cipher.
After Voynich moved to the US in 1914, he started a road tour, showing the most important items of his collection. The Roger Bacon cipher MS was one of the stars in these events. The first were in Princeton University and in New York city. The best known (and best documented) event was at the Art institute in Chicago (Oct. 1915), followed by the University of Michigan (early Nov.), the University of Illinois (mid Nov.), the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo (mid Dec.) and other museums.
He repeated this later (1917 I believe).
My mistake.
However, that still doesn't make it any more correct.
I really doubt that it would be normal for antiquarian book dealers to subject their books to (forensic?) tests, but Voynich did one himself, to visualise the Tepenec signature.
More importantly, he did show this MS around quite a lot.
Singer reports seeing the MS in the hands of the book dealer Baer of Frankfurt, which may have been in 1912 or even 1911. (Singer only traveled to Frankfurt in the years 1911-1914, and one of the Baer brothers started a shop in London in 1911).
Millicent Sowerby, who was working in Voynich's shop in London from end 1912 to 1914 (from memory) reports how visitors would come to this shop to admire his recent acquisitions, especially the famous Roger Bacon cipher.
After Voynich moved to the US in 1914, he started a road tour, showing the most important items of his collection. The Roger Bacon cipher MS was one of the stars in these events. The first were in Princeton University and in New York city. The best known (and best documented) event was at the Art institute in Chicago (Oct. 1915), followed by the University of Michigan (early Nov.), the University of Illinois (mid Nov.), the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo (mid Dec.) and other museums.
He repeated this later (1917 I believe).