Horčický's books

[Jorge_Stolfi]

The forgery hypothesis is possible, but what motive would Wilfrid Voynich have had to fabricate it? The manuscript’s origin from Prague seemed well established, supported in particular by the letter accompanying it. Its provenance was also traced back beyond the reign of the known emperor, which strengthens its credibility. Moreover, the manuscript was already considered valuable from the very beginning of its documented history.

The provenance of the VMS is not well established, not at all.  The "mainstream" version hinges entirely on Wilfrid Voynich's statements -- and in fact, it seems, not even directly, but by  interpreting them to say more than what they actually say.  For starters, there is serious doubt about the claim that Marci's letter was ever attached to the VMS.

But, again, that is a very long discussion that has generated hundreds of posts on that thread an on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..  Suffices to say that, in order to sell the VMS as a Bacon Original, Wilfrid needed (1) evidence that the VMS was the book mentioned in Marci's letter, and (2) and explanation for how such a valuable book could have left Rudolf II's library and ended up in Barschius's hands.  That "signature" by Jacobus serves admirably well for both purposes...

I think the removal of the ex libris, as well as the alteration of the marginal mark, was likely carried out by someone else—someone intent on preserving the mystery, even before Athanasius Kircher became involved. This person may not have wanted anyone to know that the manuscript had been in the possession of Jacobus, nor to read the beginning of the unsuccessful decoding in the margin. Perhaps it was not even Jacobus himself.

That is one possible explanation for why the ex-libris would have been erased, if it was not forged by Wilfrid; and why neither Barschius nor Marci mentioned that signature -- even though anyone who examined the manuscript with any care should have seen it, if it was there.   Maybe Jacobus "tacitly borrowed" the VMS from Rudolf's library, or Barschius "tacitly borrowed" it from Jacobus or from Jacobus's donation to the Clementinum...

All the best, --stolfi