ReneZ > 01-05-2024, 01:43 PM
(01-05-2024, 08:55 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The cases where we actually know everything about a manuscript's provenance are the extremes.
asteckley > 01-05-2024, 04:47 PM
(01-05-2024, 01:43 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The Marci letter, which is genuine beyond reasonable doubt, already takes it back all the way to the 17th century and mentions several owners. Several other pieces of evidence confirming and extending this have been found in the mean time.
LisaFaginDavis > 01-05-2024, 05:25 PM
(01-05-2024, 04:47 PM)asteckley Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.(01-05-2024, 01:43 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The Marci letter, which is genuine beyond reasonable doubt, already takes it back all the way to the 17th century and mentions several owners. Several other pieces of evidence confirming and extending this have been found in the mean time.
As I've said before, I'm not convinced of the modern forgery theory but also not of the alternative authentic 15th century theory.
(If I had to make a wager, I would probably put my money on the 15h century theory, but with conservative odds.)
I don't have the experience of looking at these old artifacts or of the historical contexts, so I mainly have to
base my evolving opinions on what is reasonable to an average person, and
on basic concepts of logic, information, evidence, data, etc. all of which transcend the specialized experience.
So I have to ask what may be some dumb questions about details when they are more 'historical' in nature.
Anyway, it's pretty clear that the particular provenance that is 'known' rests critically on the authenticity of the Marci
letter that Voynich claimed to have found in the manuscript. (That is to say, if the letter is authentic, then the evidence
of the other letters holds some weight. If not, they weaken considerably.)
But there's been a few questions I've had about that letter. These are separate from anything Rich has outlined in his blogs (as far
as I know).
I was wondering if you, or anyone else, might answer any of them (or point me to more detailed sources of the answers).
1) What is the Marci letter written on? Can it be C-14 tested?
2) If the letter was in the manuscript, one would expect that it was there for a considerable period of time. Possibly near 250 years,
but at an absolute minimum for the few years from the time it was in the Jesuits' hands till Voynich later found it, and
most likely for one or more periods of time measuring decades.
Is there any transfer of the ink, or more likely, the sealing wax onto the VMS vellum?
3) Why might Marci omit using Barschius's name while providing a review of the history of the book as he knew it.
He outlines the information that both of them already knew, but uses the terms "a close friend" (of Marci's) and the "then prossessor of the book",
even though both Marci and Kircher already knew Barschius. And he had made previous references to most of the same information in earlier
letters to Kircher. In those earlier letters, Marci had already
referred to Barschiuss by name, and as being among their "mutual friends"? Is it assumed that he had forgotten all that?
It simply stood out as a weirdness when I first read the letters all in order.
4) And additionally, in reference to you comments above, what are the several other pieces of evidence that have been found? (That is, where can i find the description of them?)
proto57 > 01-05-2024, 05:56 PM
(01-05-2024, 08:55 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.We don't know the author of most manuscripts. How can it be more extreme than "author unknown"? Author extremely unknown? And similarly, there are many manuscripts of which we don't even know in which country they were made. And of which we don't know how they ended up in the repository where they were first inventorized. Why? Because manuscripts travel. Because of Latin as the lingua franca. Because medieval scribes rarely signed their works.
I would flip it around and say that the situation of the VM is pretty standard. The cases where we actually know everything about a manuscript's provenance are the extremes.
proto57 > 01-05-2024, 06:12 PM
(01-05-2024, 01:43 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The Marci letter, which is genuine beyond reasonable doubt, already takes it back all the way to the 17th century and mentions several owners. Several other pieces of evidence confirming and extending this have been found in the mean time.
This is clearly a problem for someone suggesting that the MS is a modern fake, so the chosen approach is to discredit this evidence and then claim that there is none. This discrediting is either by saying (without any supporting evidence) that the Marci letter is also a fake.
(01-05-2024, 01:43 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Let's look at the Rohonc codex, which was mentioned in another thread the other day.
This MS was found in a private library of a count that was donated to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
And that's it. There is no record when it entered the library, where it came from, who owned it before.
Nothing. Now that is a case of bad or missing provenance. And, indeed, this has led to a belief for over a hundred years that the Rohonc codex should be a fake.
Even a potential faker was identified - here also without evidence. He could have done it.
ReneZ > 01-05-2024, 06:45 PM
R. Sale > 01-05-2024, 07:23 PM
Aga Tentakulus > 01-05-2024, 07:28 PM
proto57 > 01-05-2024, 07:35 PM
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The evidence presented by Rich, that the letter should be a fake is the observation that it has too many (or unusual?) folds.
It is the same problem again: if this is unusual for an original, it is also unusual for a fake.
Basically, this is a complete non-sequitur.
The fact that it has multiple different folds does not lead to the conclusion that it is a fake.
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I am quite surprised to see you use the term '15th century theory'. This is not a theory, it is the default.
It has been strongly reinforced by all the tests that did not show any unusual substances.
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.If the Marci letter were radio-carbon dated, would that change anything? Already the dating of the MS itself is not stopping Rich from advocating his Voynich-faked-it theory.
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The fact that almost all the sources confirming the information in the Marci letter is correct were in a completely sealed-off collection, not accessible to Voynich, and way too large to just stumble upon it, is also completely ignored.
Can you at least agree that Voynich never had this information? Honest and serious question.
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.We don't know how Marci folded it when he sent the letter to Kircher.
Someone (perhaps the Jesuits) folded it such that it just fitted inside the MS, perhaps attached to the inner front cover.
Voynich may have carelessly refolded it, and so may Kraus.
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.That it is genuine is shown by the fact that the handwriting is the same as in a contemporaneous letter from Marci that only became available to non-Jesuits after 1930.
asteckley > 01-05-2024, 09:10 PM
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Andrew,No opinion -- maybe i missed this issue being brought up somewhere.
in case there were an argument about whether any page in the Voynich MS was written by a left-hander or a right-hander, you have two more or less equivalent positions, in terms of likelihood. Both can be called theories, or hypotheses, I suppose.
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The question between genuinely old or modern fake is a completely different situation. Considering it a fake is a highly exceptional position, which
requires some convincing evidence before it can even be considered. I am quite surprised to see you use the term '15th century theory'.
This is not a theory, it is the default.
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.It has been strongly reinforced by all the tests that did not show any unusual substances.
About the Marci letter, in addition to Lisa's response, indeed, there are quite plausible reasons why Marci would not mention Barschius' name,
but we don't know for certain, and guesses cannot be used to draw any further conclusions. Just to point out that it would be equally unusual for a
faker to leave out the name. This whole question has no impact on anything.
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.If the Marci letter were radio-carbon dated, would that change anything?.I agree that it would not change things if the vellum (of the letter) appeared to be from the same period as that of the manuscript. But it WOULD change things
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Already the dating of the MS itself is not stopping Rich from advocating his Voynich-faked-it theoryI think Rich's point about the C-14 dating was more about how it as interpreted and its relation to "listening to the experts" and
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The fact that almost all the sources confirming the information in the Marci letter is correct were in a completely sealed-off collection, not accessible to Voynich, and way too large to just stumble upon it, is also completely ignored.And I'd give you an honest answer -- but I literally have not paid any attention so far to that particular set of evidence.
Can you at least agree that Voynich never had this information? Honest and serious question.
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The evidence presented by Rich, that the letter should be a fake is the observation that it has too many (or unusual?) folds.I agree. I think it only adds evidence that something may be amiss. (One of those little red flags that is too weak to
It is the same problem again: if this is unusual for an original, it is also unusual for a fake.
Basically, this is a complete non-sequitur.
The fact that it has multiple different folds does not lead to the conclusion that it is a fake.
(01-05-2024, 06:45 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.That it is genuine is shown by the fact that the handwriting is the same as in a contemporaneous letter from Marci that only became available to non-Jesuits after 1930.Please point me to that -- it sounds quite relevant.