11-03-2026, 03:59 PM
This document was put up for auction, but I only learned about it years later. I'm posting it in the hope that someone can provide me with information, as I haven't found anything online. It would be interesting to know its content. I think it could be of great importance for my parchment, too.
I tried to contact the auction house in 2019 to have more information about, but never received a response (the auction was in June 2013)
Notes from Auction House
Kircher, Athanasius
Letter from ATHANASIUS KIRCHER to Lord Marcus Mari of Cronoland regarding a manuscript containing arcane notes, sent by the same, in which Athanasius Kircher attempted to reveal and bring to light the secrets of that writing, which have remained intact until today and have escaped all research.
Roma, Typis S.Cong: de propag: Fide, 1669.
Printer's mark on the title page, damp stains that in some places make the text difficult to read, non-contemporary cardboard binding, partially worn at the edges. Ex-books woodcuts on the reverse title page by Louise Freemont Albergh (Oxford) and Paul Allen Kortenbree (Amsterdam).
*.* The unsuccessful attempt by Johannes Marcus Marci and Godfried Aloys Kinner to actively involve Athanasius Kircher in the long and complex attempt to decipher the mysterious cipher manuscript, now in the Beinecke Library at Yale (MS 408), better known in the twentieth century as the Voynich Manuscript, was well known in literature. Johannes Marcus Marci, the owner of the encrypted manuscript at the time, likely sent Kircher a copy or even the original
(according to Kinner's hypothesis) so that the great scholar could attempt to decipher it, given the Jesuit's universal fame for deciphering ancient hieroglyphics and unknown languages. In 1667, G. Aloys Kinner apparently wrote to Kircherasking him if he had succeeded in deciphering the parchment code.
Until now, however, there was no evidence that Kircher had in any wayworked on deciphering the manuscript (which remains completely obscure to this day), nor that he had ever responded to Marci's various requests .... This extremely rare pamphlet, whose existence was unknown, and which has remained in the private collections of Freemont Albergh (1876) and Kortenbree (1976), confirms the Geisa scholar's interest in the entire story and his repeated, unsuccessful attempts to decipher it. From reading it, we learn that Kircher was unsuccessful in his attempt, despite his fame and great erudition. Some analyses of the encrypted manuscript, which We recall written in an unknown alphabet, reported by Kircher in this letter to Johannes Marci, however, suggest that the Jesuit may have identified a possible interpretation. However, his advanced age (he died in Rome on November 28, 1680) may have somewhat hindered his attempts to continue studying the manuscript.
It is absent from the consulted bibliographies and from national or international libraries, including the Joost Ritman Library (Bibiiotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam).
I tried to contact the auction house in 2019 to have more information about, but never received a response (the auction was in June 2013)
Notes from Auction House
Kircher, Athanasius
Letter from ATHANASIUS KIRCHER to Lord Marcus Mari of Cronoland regarding a manuscript containing arcane notes, sent by the same, in which Athanasius Kircher attempted to reveal and bring to light the secrets of that writing, which have remained intact until today and have escaped all research.
Roma, Typis S.Cong: de propag: Fide, 1669.
Printer's mark on the title page, damp stains that in some places make the text difficult to read, non-contemporary cardboard binding, partially worn at the edges. Ex-books woodcuts on the reverse title page by Louise Freemont Albergh (Oxford) and Paul Allen Kortenbree (Amsterdam).
*.* The unsuccessful attempt by Johannes Marcus Marci and Godfried Aloys Kinner to actively involve Athanasius Kircher in the long and complex attempt to decipher the mysterious cipher manuscript, now in the Beinecke Library at Yale (MS 408), better known in the twentieth century as the Voynich Manuscript, was well known in literature. Johannes Marcus Marci, the owner of the encrypted manuscript at the time, likely sent Kircher a copy or even the original
(according to Kinner's hypothesis) so that the great scholar could attempt to decipher it, given the Jesuit's universal fame for deciphering ancient hieroglyphics and unknown languages. In 1667, G. Aloys Kinner apparently wrote to Kircherasking him if he had succeeded in deciphering the parchment code.
Until now, however, there was no evidence that Kircher had in any wayworked on deciphering the manuscript (which remains completely obscure to this day), nor that he had ever responded to Marci's various requests .... This extremely rare pamphlet, whose existence was unknown, and which has remained in the private collections of Freemont Albergh (1876) and Kortenbree (1976), confirms the Geisa scholar's interest in the entire story and his repeated, unsuccessful attempts to decipher it. From reading it, we learn that Kircher was unsuccessful in his attempt, despite his fame and great erudition. Some analyses of the encrypted manuscript, which We recall written in an unknown alphabet, reported by Kircher in this letter to Johannes Marci, however, suggest that the Jesuit may have identified a possible interpretation. However, his advanced age (he died in Rome on November 28, 1680) may have somewhat hindered his attempts to continue studying the manuscript.
It is absent from the consulted bibliographies and from national or international libraries, including the Joost Ritman Library (Bibiiotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam).