07-10-2016, 09:03 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-10-2016, 09:14 PM by Diane.
Edit Reason: clarify
)
Ellie,
I don't think there is sufficient evidence or reason to assume that the Jesuits were liars or given to underhanded dealings.
It is true that their circumstances meant that they could not even sell their own property to buy text-books without the risk of having a rapacious nationalistic government steal - sorry 'claim' it from them.
Apart from that, I think we should assume that either they didn't know exactly where the books had come from (they had apparently lain in the Villa Mondragone, or perhaps in Fiesole, in the same trunk for 25 years, but their having Fr.Beckx tags on them would lead to an assumption that he had taken the books to Fiesole or from Fiesole back to Rome - the last journey he ever made, so far as we know.
There's a fairly simple reason for not imagining that the Voynich ms was in the 'castle' which Beckx occasionally visited while in Austria - which is the sort of suggestion you sometimes see made - not sure why. Anyway: First, Voynich had obtained the books from whatever "Austrian castle" it was as a whole collection and bought them outright. That was the "Austrian castle collection" whose source he happily advertised (without being completely specific) when he toured with "his collection"
The link below talks about his display in 1915 and he happily talks about the an "Austrian castle collection".
His source for the Voynich, however, he continued to obscure, or to obfuscate and then to say plainly that he couldn't talk about .. and indeed he never did.
The reason he gave was that he hoped to obtain more of the collection - which might be true, too, but I rather think that either he had promised the Jesuits not to risk having the rapacious national government demand they hand over the money obtained for the books, or that somewhere along the line people began to feel uneasy that some of these books were, in fact, ones 'acquired' by Libri. The Libri scandal was still very fresh in the minds of bibliophiles in England, and Wilfrid's career (its superficial details, I mean) is closely parallel to Libri's... and what is also interesting is that a number of books which Kraus sold after Wilfrid's death are certainly from the "libri collection".
That could even be the reason no-one would touch the Voynich manuscript, though it was offered for sale from 1912-1931.. and later.
However - the 1915 exhibition is mentioned as part of my investigating all this, so hope you don't mind the link:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
I don't think there is sufficient evidence or reason to assume that the Jesuits were liars or given to underhanded dealings.
It is true that their circumstances meant that they could not even sell their own property to buy text-books without the risk of having a rapacious nationalistic government steal - sorry 'claim' it from them.
Apart from that, I think we should assume that either they didn't know exactly where the books had come from (they had apparently lain in the Villa Mondragone, or perhaps in Fiesole, in the same trunk for 25 years, but their having Fr.Beckx tags on them would lead to an assumption that he had taken the books to Fiesole or from Fiesole back to Rome - the last journey he ever made, so far as we know.
There's a fairly simple reason for not imagining that the Voynich ms was in the 'castle' which Beckx occasionally visited while in Austria - which is the sort of suggestion you sometimes see made - not sure why. Anyway: First, Voynich had obtained the books from whatever "Austrian castle" it was as a whole collection and bought them outright. That was the "Austrian castle collection" whose source he happily advertised (without being completely specific) when he toured with "his collection"
The link below talks about his display in 1915 and he happily talks about the an "Austrian castle collection".
His source for the Voynich, however, he continued to obscure, or to obfuscate and then to say plainly that he couldn't talk about .. and indeed he never did.
The reason he gave was that he hoped to obtain more of the collection - which might be true, too, but I rather think that either he had promised the Jesuits not to risk having the rapacious national government demand they hand over the money obtained for the books, or that somewhere along the line people began to feel uneasy that some of these books were, in fact, ones 'acquired' by Libri. The Libri scandal was still very fresh in the minds of bibliophiles in England, and Wilfrid's career (its superficial details, I mean) is closely parallel to Libri's... and what is also interesting is that a number of books which Kraus sold after Wilfrid's death are certainly from the "libri collection".
That could even be the reason no-one would touch the Voynich manuscript, though it was offered for sale from 1912-1931.. and later.
However - the 1915 exhibition is mentioned as part of my investigating all this, so hope you don't mind the link:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.