The Modern Forgery Hypothesis

[proto57]

So, in short, if Voynich succeeded in cashing in on his "new found" Bacon attribution, it very much... IMHO... have served him, and was serving him, to not have the Voynich deciphered... assuming it could be deciphered. But I still do not agree that meaning favors genuine, in this or any other case. Hopefully though, if it has meaning it is deciphered at some point, and that may offer us the answer.

Let's assume Newbold's proof that the MS was from Bacon would increase its value.
Putting an incentive on Newbold would be a completely normal thing to do in case the MS was genuine, so this point is not in favour of either option. It is neutral and plays no role in the discussion.

The fact that Voynich hoped to make $100,000 dollars from the sale of this MS is also no argument.

At the same time he was offering perfectly genuine manuscripts from the Jesuits for 150,000.
For that see here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

I don't know... as with many of these issues, people... and we of course... might disagree. I do not believe this is a neutral issue. I feel it is historically considered suspicious, and/or questionable, and/or unethical, to pay for expert opinion... especially as a percentage of a sale based on whether or not said opinion added the sale. The possibility always arises that the expert will have their opinion swayed by these offers.

It is different in, for instance, court, where paid expert testimony is often used. But while they are paid outright, they are not paid based on the results of their testimony, and often their word ends up helping the opposite side in the case. I mean, they are not told they will only be paid if their testimony works out, nor, worse, offered a percentage of the settlement, if realized. I believe it may even be illegal to make that type of offer.

Also, the opposite side of a case, when cross examining a paid or otherwise compensated witness, often asks, "Where you offered money or any other incentive for your testimony today?". Of course they do this to undermine said testimony. My point being, this is a thing: Questioning paid testimony.

I missed or forgot about that $150,00 offer. I had wrongly believed the highest prices were for the "Lives of the Martyrs", the successful sale to Morgan, at $75,000 (possibly not completely owned by him), the desired amounts for the Voynich ($100k to $160k), and the valuation of the 1475 Valturius at, I think, $75,000. Big money in manuscripts it seems. Poor Ethel and Nill... if he has managed any of these sales, like the one you bring up, there would have not been all that worry in their last years.