RE: Voynich Authorship
Mark Knowles > 22-11-2024, 01:03 AM
In order to explore the implications of my Barbavara theory and look for more archival evidence I am going to Milan in the New Year. I been intending to do this for some time, but other aspects of life have distracted me from this goal.
As I have made clear elsewhere I think archival research is the key to pushing our understanding of the Voynich manuscript forward.
On the basis of my research I think the archives that are most likely to bear fruit are the archives in what was the Duchy of Milan at the beginning of the 15th Century and also possibly the Vatican archives.
Of the Milanese archives to search the first most obvious archives are the State Archives of Milan which are in Milan itself. However other cities in the Duchy of Milan such as Pavia, Tortona, Novara, Cremona, Cremona, Como and others also have state archives. There are also in many of these cities church archives as wells. Given that Abbot Antonio Barbavara and his brother Bishop Giovanni Barbavara were members of the clergy church records may be useful especially as the church was heavily tied in with politics at that time.
And there are other archives like the Bibliothèque Ambrosiana in Milan to explore.
Obviously, I don't know what exactly survives in the archives without looking. Whether I find evidence that supports or contradicts my theory depends on whether such evidence ever existed and whether if it did it still survives. The Barbavara/Milan may be false in which case there won't be supporting evidence, although I might find evidence which points to a different theory. Due to fires and the like if my theory is true it may be the case that I can find no surviving evidence as it has largely been lost or destroyed. Clearly due to the 1447 fire Milanese cipher records in Milan appears to have been completely or largely destroyed, but it is possible that there may be some cipher records that survives in one of the archives there. I have largely relied up to now on Milanese ciphers that were intercepted and so ended up in other archives outside of Milan.
My efforts will involve locating surviving records on the activities of the members of the Barbavara family during the period from which the manuscript dates. I will try to look for
astrological, cosmological, balneological, herbal manuscripts and other manuscripts from the time in those archives with imagery of the kind seen in the Voynich as well.
I intend to visit, out of interest, the Abbazia de Santi Nazzaro e Celso, although I don't expect to find much there as all their documents have long since been transferred elsewhere.
I need to ask Milan State archivists which other archives they recommend looking in.
I know Nick Pelling has interest in these archives, so I will certainly share my research with him.
At the moment I am planning to spend about 2 weeks in February doing archival research there. I don't anticipate visiting many archives outside of Milan in the old Duchy during those weeks. However that 2 weeks research may form a planning stage for a longer research trip in the future. In an ideal world, I will some day follow up my cipher research in the Vatican archives.