The Book Switch Theory

[Jorge_Stolfi]

It only becomes confusing once one starts to introduce fantasies like Voynich faked the Tepenec ex libris, or worse. That is a good sign that these fantasies should be dropped.  Please consider that my last word on this.

Not fair to declare the debate closed after implicitly calling "loonies" those who doubt the Standard Provenance Theory (SPT).

I will respond in kind opportunely.  Meanwhile, here is an example of the questionable things in the Standard Provenance Theory.  It claims that letter 39a from Kircher to Moretus, dated 1639-03-12, refers to the copies of some VMS pages that Barschius had sent previously to Kircher.  But everything in that letter refutes that interpretation: Kircher

• calls the first item 'booklet" (libellus) rather than "sheets" (folia) 
  
• says that it is steganography, not code
  
• says that it does not require insight but only tedious work to read
  
• implies that Moretus was the poser of both queries, not just the bearer
  
• refers to both things as having been sent by Moretus by courier, not in person
  
• does not deny that the two pieces are in the same "Illyrian" (Glagolitic) characters
  

So it is almost certain that these two items were unrelated to Barschius sample.  They were probably both in Glagolitic characters: a "booklet" which Kircher thought was a very simple code (or even plaintext) and a single loose sheet.  And they probably had been sent by Moretus on his own, probably in 1638 or 1639.  Kircher got such requests all the time (and even Barschius himself conjectured as much in his letter.) 

There is nothing in letter 39a, from 1639, that suggests that the "booklet" could have been the page copies that Barschius  sent Kircher in 1937 and were taken to Rome personally by Moretus.  The connection is pure wishful thinking.  Morever, Barschius's letter from 1639-04-27 does not mention the above letter from 1639-03-12, that Moretus should have received by then. 

The exclusion of letter 39a does not make much difference for the SPT.  But this is an example of the many fantasies that are included in it, and even advanced as evidence for it.  Like the "wax stains" on f0v...

All the best, --stolfi