19-10-2016, 03:24 PM
Mystery solved!
I was at the library today and had a look at Kraus' autobiography. It's all in there.
There's not much in his chapter about the Voynich itself beyond a recap of the Manuscript's history as it was known at the time.
He mentions the handover to Yale in the following terms ("we" is him and Anne Nill):
p. 222: "Many clients, mostly scholars, expressed interest, but nobody bought. I felt like Voynich, who had held the manuscript for such a long time. Dozens of scholars wanted to see it, others asked for photos. Institutions asked to have it on loan. I had to decline all such requests, to preserve its commercial value. There were no buyers. After seven years of unhappy ownership we felt the right thing to do was to turn it over to an institution where it could be freely studied. We chose the Beinecke Library at Yale as the recipient. Along with it Yale received boxes of correspondence, pamphlets, notes, and miscellaneous literature concerning the manuscript."
However, Kraus then devotes an entire chapter to "Yale and Beinecke", and this is where we can understand why he chose Yale: because of admiration for his friend Edwin J. Beinecke.
p. 295:
"Few of my collector friends made such a deep impression on me as Edwin J. Beinecke. His love for Yale University was contagious. Here was a man who valued that institution of learning as one of the most important pillars of our civilization and who backed his opinion with a lot of money."
p. 298:
"Large as his expenditures were, money was never better spent. Not only are treasures such as he bought available today only at many times what he paid for them, but his library and its contents have made the name of his family famous in the wide world of books. Every time I visit the Beinecke Library and see the inscription on the bronze plaque opposite the front door, "May this library... serve as a source of learning and as an inspiration to all who enter", I am glad to think that Mr. Beinecke's wish has been realized.
Under Beinecke's influence I made up my mind to imitate him in a way befitting my smaller resources, and I contributed to the rare book collection at Yale substantial gifts like the Cipher manuscript about which I speak in Chapter 31."
I was at the library today and had a look at Kraus' autobiography. It's all in there.
There's not much in his chapter about the Voynich itself beyond a recap of the Manuscript's history as it was known at the time.
He mentions the handover to Yale in the following terms ("we" is him and Anne Nill):
p. 222: "Many clients, mostly scholars, expressed interest, but nobody bought. I felt like Voynich, who had held the manuscript for such a long time. Dozens of scholars wanted to see it, others asked for photos. Institutions asked to have it on loan. I had to decline all such requests, to preserve its commercial value. There were no buyers. After seven years of unhappy ownership we felt the right thing to do was to turn it over to an institution where it could be freely studied. We chose the Beinecke Library at Yale as the recipient. Along with it Yale received boxes of correspondence, pamphlets, notes, and miscellaneous literature concerning the manuscript."
However, Kraus then devotes an entire chapter to "Yale and Beinecke", and this is where we can understand why he chose Yale: because of admiration for his friend Edwin J. Beinecke.
p. 295:
"Few of my collector friends made such a deep impression on me as Edwin J. Beinecke. His love for Yale University was contagious. Here was a man who valued that institution of learning as one of the most important pillars of our civilization and who backed his opinion with a lot of money."
p. 298:
"Large as his expenditures were, money was never better spent. Not only are treasures such as he bought available today only at many times what he paid for them, but his library and its contents have made the name of his family famous in the wide world of books. Every time I visit the Beinecke Library and see the inscription on the bronze plaque opposite the front door, "May this library... serve as a source of learning and as an inspiration to all who enter", I am glad to think that Mr. Beinecke's wish has been realized.
Under Beinecke's influence I made up my mind to imitate him in a way befitting my smaller resources, and I contributed to the rare book collection at Yale substantial gifts like the Cipher manuscript about which I speak in Chapter 31."
![[+]](https://www.voynich.ninja/images/collapse_collapsed.png)