Hello Wladimir,
I think that there is no doubt that this fire due to spilling of an oil lamp really happened. It is described in some detail in Dee's diary.
See J.O. Halliwell-Phillips' edition of Dee's library (usually just referred to as "Halliwell"), p.25.
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There is a list of books that was lost due to the fire, while the book of St.Dunstan clearly came out undamaged.
One of the lost books is the "Angelicum Opus", which is most probably the "book written in nothing but hieroglyphics" that Arthur Dee remembered seeing in his youth.
That the Voynich MS does not fit the description of the book of St.Dunstan I already argued before.
With respect to the damage to the Voynich MS, there are two more points.
There is clearly a stain on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. as you say, but it is not possible to say whether this stain is from the oil spill in the above-mentioned event. In fact, since the oil was burning this is very unlikely.
More importantly, it is impossible that any quire was removed from the book after the current binding, and this binding is very old. I discussed exactly this topic with some MS conservators, and they clearly stated that taking a quire out of this MS would de-stabilise the entire text block (i.e. the block of quires sewn onto the straps). They stated it so clearly that I became aware that I asked a beginners' question and I felt as if I should have known it.
I think that there is no doubt that this fire due to spilling of an oil lamp really happened. It is described in some detail in Dee's diary.
See J.O. Halliwell-Phillips' edition of Dee's library (usually just referred to as "Halliwell"), p.25.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
There is a list of books that was lost due to the fire, while the book of St.Dunstan clearly came out undamaged.
One of the lost books is the "Angelicum Opus", which is most probably the "book written in nothing but hieroglyphics" that Arthur Dee remembered seeing in his youth.
That the Voynich MS does not fit the description of the book of St.Dunstan I already argued before.
With respect to the damage to the Voynich MS, there are two more points.
There is clearly a stain on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. as you say, but it is not possible to say whether this stain is from the oil spill in the above-mentioned event. In fact, since the oil was burning this is very unlikely.
More importantly, it is impossible that any quire was removed from the book after the current binding, and this binding is very old. I discussed exactly this topic with some MS conservators, and they clearly stated that taking a quire out of this MS would de-stabilise the entire text block (i.e. the block of quires sewn onto the straps). They stated it so clearly that I became aware that I asked a beginners' question and I felt as if I should have known it.