24-05-2016, 12:28 PM
Hello folks
I've been looking at this for a while and am excited to find this forum!
Here's my theory - based on pretty much zero proof, but hey, you never know what might give someone with the smarts to crack it the inspiration
It's a Franco-German 'book of shadows' - so basically a witches workings. Kind of like an ancient version of the books we keep today, noting elements, plants, spells, astrology and atmospheric conditions to which we write what works and what doesn't, and what to be wary of.
If you consider the 'Rudolph paid 600 ducats' and that not only was he fascinated by alchemy and the quest for the Philosophers Stone but he also welcomed witches, what if a witch were to say she had the answer the alchemists couldn't deliver on and that the cost was 600 ducats. So he paid only to find it was impossible to translate so had to keep her/him well off to have her decode? Especially since everywhere aside from Prague in his time would have had witches killed on detection. It would have to have been coded.
I have leafed through it (digitally only unfortunately) and every time, I can't help but think it is so similar to my own.... If only I could read the blooming thing!
I've been looking at this for a while and am excited to find this forum!
Here's my theory - based on pretty much zero proof, but hey, you never know what might give someone with the smarts to crack it the inspiration
It's a Franco-German 'book of shadows' - so basically a witches workings. Kind of like an ancient version of the books we keep today, noting elements, plants, spells, astrology and atmospheric conditions to which we write what works and what doesn't, and what to be wary of.
If you consider the 'Rudolph paid 600 ducats' and that not only was he fascinated by alchemy and the quest for the Philosophers Stone but he also welcomed witches, what if a witch were to say she had the answer the alchemists couldn't deliver on and that the cost was 600 ducats. So he paid only to find it was impossible to translate so had to keep her/him well off to have her decode? Especially since everywhere aside from Prague in his time would have had witches killed on detection. It would have to have been coded.
I have leafed through it (digitally only unfortunately) and every time, I can't help but think it is so similar to my own.... If only I could read the blooming thing!