29-04-2021, 06:41 PM
(29-04-2021, 02:45 PM)Helmut Winkler wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Clearly this also means Edward must have had a certain proficiency in German
I would not bet on that, the Western principalities of the Empire (Palatinate, think of Isabeau de Baviere, Luxemburg counts, bishops Trier) were losely affiliated with France and its rulers at the time, it is more likely they spoke French and Latin of course
I agree that the official language of diplomatic communication was more likely French and/or Latin, yes, I do not doubt that.
But a curious and brilliant linguistic mind such as Edward, 2nd Duke of York, the famous translator of The Master of Game from French into English, would certainly have had the curiosity to learn some German while he was stationed at his diplomatic post in Heidelberg. Perhaps this is why the meaning of the German marginalia in the Voynich ms is somewhat unclear: because it was written by an English nobleman who only knew a little German and was just playing around with the language. Just a hypothesis.
Another interesting and curious historical note: Heidelberg University was founded in 1386, just about a decade before Edward's diplomatic appointment in the city. The city must have been a hub of enthusiastic new scholarship at that time. In such an atmosphere, it is not difficult to imagine Edward having the interest and curiosity to learn styles of scripts typical of the region, which may well have piqued his curiosity for their distinction from those he was familiar with in England and/or in France. I can easily imagine such a person preferring to use the more "exotic" (for him!) style of script as the basis for such an invention as the Voynich script and cipher.
Geoffrey