[Blog Post] MSI at last!

[ReneZ]

One important thing is that it was nothing unusual for people to just write in books that we would now consider valuable. It was their property. In earlier centuries books were scribbled full be their owners.

Still, I see another problem. Marci wrote in his letter to Kircher that the previous owner (Barschius as we now know) spent years try to break the secrets of this MS, and Marci also sends Barschius' notes to Kircher.

So, if Marci knew of all these efforts, why would he consider that he could break it himself with a simple substitution cipher? Of course, this is just double-guessing but it is a bit odd.
Then, perhaps, he was trying to preserve Barschius' last or best or most representative attempt in the MS itself?

I am more puzzled by this issue than by the third column.