The Modern Forgery Hypothesis

[ReneZ]

Rene, I am wholly satisfied that Marci's letter is genuine and that the VMS is a book from the 1400s, not a modern forgery.  But what is it that you find "incredible" in that blogpost?  That Voynich and/or Strickland may have seen the letters from Marci and Barschius in Kircher's Carteggio, before the sale of the books?

Going down from worst:

- that Voynich would be allowed to 'borrow' the entire Kircher correspondence and take it outside for some time. Forum rules prevent me from properly expressing the likelihood of that. Let's say: no chance on Earth.

- that anyone would be able to write a letter, copying 'free hand' the handwriting of another letter so accurately. The opportunity for that is already missing. (On a side note, the need of some contraption to then copy the signature seems superfluous but that is not for this list).

This is really enough, but I can go on:

- indeed, that Voynich would have had any access to the non-sellable material inside the Villa Torlonia (not Mondragone). Even the visit of the Vatican librarian, who was even a Jesuit, was hidden from the rector of the institution.  

- that all this complicated, time-consuming effort was worth it for a completely innocuous letter. (Which, by the way, he then ignored for several years, and pretended it was for a different Rudolf than the one he supposedly intended to write about).

Indeed, Strickland is one of few people who knew about, and had full access to this material.

Now you have seen the extent of the carteggio, the many different volumes, the thousands of letters in various languages and different handwritings. The key material for this hypothetical enterprise is in completely inconspicuous letters spread over different volumes: the last letter from Marci that is in the different handwriting; the single line in a letter from Godefrid Kinner. 

I could go on but I don't like long posts....