Ellie is too modest, and she is also right.
Beckx left Rome for Fiesole on 30 October 1873.
He went back to Rome in 1883, where he died in 1887.
One may read in various places that the Society of Jesus was expelled from Italy in 1860, but Rome was only captured by the "royals" on 20 September 1870, and the law for confiscation of Jesuit property was only extended to the province of Rome on 19 June 1873, to take effect on 20 October.
A valuable source for this is the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. .
I believe that the original version in Flemish has been translated into German, but I don't believe that either are available online (Google books or other).
I don't think much of the "Libri theory". Libri may have been a book collector, but there were very many book collectors around in those days. No evidence has been presented that he ever had anything to do with Beckx. I can immediately think of two book collectors who did exchange books with the Jesuits in the Casa Professa in Rome.
One is Gian Francesco de Rossi. His collection was donated to the Jesuits by his widow, the duchess of Sachsen, through a contract signed by Beckx. This collection was stored in the Casa Professa, and affected by the confiscation by the state in much the same way as the Jesuits' own libraries.
The other is Prince Camillo IX Massimo. Several of his books were exchanged with the Jesuits. His son Massimiliano, by the way, studied at Villa Mondragone and was of great help to the Jesuits during the confiscations in 1873.
For both, the source is: Christine Maria Grafinger: Eine Bibliothek auf der Reise zwischen Rom und Wien. Eine Darstellung der Geschichte der Bibliotheca Rossiana, in: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Biblioteca Vaticana (Studi e Testi 363) Città del Vaticano 1997, pp. 95-146.
It is in German and again, there is no online version.
However, this is equally speculation. There is no evidence that either of them ever had anything to do with the Voynich MS.
Instead, the trace of the MS after it was sent from Marci to Kircher can be reconstructed with very good confidence. It is shown in this picture:
![[Image: ms_hist_AK.gif]](http://www.voynich.nu/extra/img/ms_hist_AK.gif)
I would also like to comment on the statement that Jesuits did not have any personal belongings. This is clearly not true. It should already be clear from the fact that stickers with "from the private library of P.Beckx" were used to protect a large number of books from confiscation.
It is, however, explicitly clarified by an important source, namely a Jesuit who was an eye witness to the confiscation of the Casa Professa, and who reported these events in a letter. This is Paul Pierling S.J. whose letter has been published in various sources, among others also the Flemish biography of Beckx mentioned above. It was already presented to the Voynich community by Xavier Ceccaldi, and may be found You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (see the appendix).
The most important passage is (in English):
Beckx left Rome for Fiesole on 30 October 1873.
He went back to Rome in 1883, where he died in 1887.
One may read in various places that the Society of Jesus was expelled from Italy in 1860, but Rome was only captured by the "royals" on 20 September 1870, and the law for confiscation of Jesuit property was only extended to the province of Rome on 19 June 1873, to take effect on 20 October.
A valuable source for this is the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. .
I believe that the original version in Flemish has been translated into German, but I don't believe that either are available online (Google books or other).
I don't think much of the "Libri theory". Libri may have been a book collector, but there were very many book collectors around in those days. No evidence has been presented that he ever had anything to do with Beckx. I can immediately think of two book collectors who did exchange books with the Jesuits in the Casa Professa in Rome.
One is Gian Francesco de Rossi. His collection was donated to the Jesuits by his widow, the duchess of Sachsen, through a contract signed by Beckx. This collection was stored in the Casa Professa, and affected by the confiscation by the state in much the same way as the Jesuits' own libraries.
The other is Prince Camillo IX Massimo. Several of his books were exchanged with the Jesuits. His son Massimiliano, by the way, studied at Villa Mondragone and was of great help to the Jesuits during the confiscations in 1873.
For both, the source is: Christine Maria Grafinger: Eine Bibliothek auf der Reise zwischen Rom und Wien. Eine Darstellung der Geschichte der Bibliotheca Rossiana, in: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Biblioteca Vaticana (Studi e Testi 363) Città del Vaticano 1997, pp. 95-146.
It is in German and again, there is no online version.
However, this is equally speculation. There is no evidence that either of them ever had anything to do with the Voynich MS.
Instead, the trace of the MS after it was sent from Marci to Kircher can be reconstructed with very good confidence. It is shown in this picture:
I would also like to comment on the statement that Jesuits did not have any personal belongings. This is clearly not true. It should already be clear from the fact that stickers with "from the private library of P.Beckx" were used to protect a large number of books from confiscation.
It is, however, explicitly clarified by an important source, namely a Jesuit who was an eye witness to the confiscation of the Casa Professa, and who reported these events in a letter. This is Paul Pierling S.J. whose letter has been published in various sources, among others also the Flemish biography of Beckx mentioned above. It was already presented to the Voynich community by Xavier Ceccaldi, and may be found You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (see the appendix).
The most important passage is (in English):
Quote:It was as late as 18 October that Father vice-superintendent of the Gesù received the official communication that announced the transfer of ownership [of the Casa Professa] on the 20th of the current month.
[...]
In order to know exactly what was the point, we thought it would be better to ask for some explanations on the way the seize had to be done. The notary answered that each religious person was allowed to keep all his personal properties, but that the community properties were transferred to the state. For lack of instructions, he was unable to resolve the doubt brought up by P. Rubillon about assistants libraries, but, three days later, the positive answer came back and each Assistant was authorized to take away his own books.
[...]
We walked immediately towards the great library. The absence of catalogue caused a surprise, which ended when genuine acts proved that the catalogue never existed. Copies of these acts were taken and the Piemontese seals closed the doors above which we can see St-Ignatius of Manrèse, with the caption: “Liber exercitiorum S.P.I. bibliothecas Societatis aperuit”. The library of the Duchess of Saxony, which must be transferred by will to the Emperor of Austria, was sealed by a secretary of the Austrian legation, some days later.