12-06-2018, 10:20 AM
Koen,
until 2017 or so, when the improved transcription and translation came out, the wording of the letter from Kircher was easy to misunderstand. Indeed, the 'comparison sheet' was an initiative of Barschius and/or Moretus, and Kircher quickly recognised its true nature.
Whether the extract of the Voynich MS was presented as a loose sheets or made into a booklet is not clear. The letter seems to suggest the latter. What is certain is that this consisted of copies made of the MS, not original pages.
As you may remember, Fabrizio Salani argues that the single sheet he has is one of the pages of this copy.
I've been looking at the question how Kircher would have been perceived from Bohemia, why he would have been contacted, and whose initiative this would have been.
It's quite an interesting question. In 1637, Kircher was not yet *that* famous. In fact, he was mostly known as the man who was "working on the translation of hieroglyphics", but he seems to have been a bit of a show-off without a lot of substance. He claimed to have a document that would provide the key, but refused to show it to anyone, and took forever to translate it.
His book 'Prodromus Coptus (etc.)' (mentioned by Barschius) would have been very expensive, and not many copies would have been in Prague yet, though the University should be expected to have one.
A little bit off-topic:
There is also somehow a mathematical connection. When Kircher went to Rome, in 1633, he was originally ordered by the General of the Society to go to Prague. (Kircher himself claimed that this was to replace Kepler as the court mathematician, which is not credible). Some influential people made the General change his mind. Grienberger, the mathematician at the Collegium Romanum went to Prague instead, and Kircher replaced Grienberger in Rome, officially as mathematician, but in practice to work on Hieroglyphics.
Moretus, the first to contact him, was of course also a mathematician (in Prague).
When Marci travelled to Rome two years later, his first stop was with the mathematician Paul Guldin in Graz.
This whole mathematical connection might be coincidental, however, or it may be a 'Galilei' connection instead.
until 2017 or so, when the improved transcription and translation came out, the wording of the letter from Kircher was easy to misunderstand. Indeed, the 'comparison sheet' was an initiative of Barschius and/or Moretus, and Kircher quickly recognised its true nature.
Whether the extract of the Voynich MS was presented as a loose sheets or made into a booklet is not clear. The letter seems to suggest the latter. What is certain is that this consisted of copies made of the MS, not original pages.
As you may remember, Fabrizio Salani argues that the single sheet he has is one of the pages of this copy.
I've been looking at the question how Kircher would have been perceived from Bohemia, why he would have been contacted, and whose initiative this would have been.
It's quite an interesting question. In 1637, Kircher was not yet *that* famous. In fact, he was mostly known as the man who was "working on the translation of hieroglyphics", but he seems to have been a bit of a show-off without a lot of substance. He claimed to have a document that would provide the key, but refused to show it to anyone, and took forever to translate it.
His book 'Prodromus Coptus (etc.)' (mentioned by Barschius) would have been very expensive, and not many copies would have been in Prague yet, though the University should be expected to have one.
A little bit off-topic:
There is also somehow a mathematical connection. When Kircher went to Rome, in 1633, he was originally ordered by the General of the Society to go to Prague. (Kircher himself claimed that this was to replace Kepler as the court mathematician, which is not credible). Some influential people made the General change his mind. Grienberger, the mathematician at the Collegium Romanum went to Prague instead, and Kircher replaced Grienberger in Rome, officially as mathematician, but in practice to work on Hieroglyphics.
Moretus, the first to contact him, was of course also a mathematician (in Prague).
When Marci travelled to Rome two years later, his first stop was with the mathematician Paul Guldin in Graz.
This whole mathematical connection might be coincidental, however, or it may be a 'Galilei' connection instead.
![[+]](https://www.voynich.ninja/images/collapse_collapsed.png)