RE: How quickly did the VMS leave the possession of those who understood it?
cvetkakocj@rogers.com > 03-12-2025, 04:20 AM
According to my research, the author could have been a well-known 15th century mystical poet, writer, theologian, educator Nicholas Kempf, Carthusian prior from Strasbourg. He spent 30 years as a prior in two different Carthusian monasteries in Slovenia at the time when Basil Council was promising Church reform that would allow the use of vernacular languages in liturgy. After his studies in Vienna, he taught there for a few years before he chose to enter the Carthusian monastery at Gaming, one of the most prestigious in the German speaking world at the time. Several of his faculty members and students entered that monastery and later became leaders in Slavic charterhouses. This means that he had to learn Slavic language, most likely Slovenian and Czech. Throughout his life, he also kept in touch with many humanistic academics at Vienna University. It is well documented that he was a poet, yet none of his poems were found. Since large floral part of the Voynich manuscript looks like poems, this could be his poems. It is also documented that he was a mystic. His most famous work is Mystical Theology, theoretical book on mystical religious experience. The weird pictures in biological part, and in Cosmographia, could be a reflection of mystical experience.
Lisa F. Davis conclusion that the Voynich Manuscript was originally unbound makes perfect sense. From my own experience.
As a poet, I had a habit of writing my poems on loose sheets, never in the notebook. The reason for this is that the artistic inspiration does not come at once and not as controlled as writing a novel. The author did not write hundred poems at one sitting.
As a leader of Carthusian monasteries, his responsibility was also to teach monks and lay brothers the language, the herbal healing, prepare sermons. This would likely be done on loose shits of parchment.
As he was moved from one monastery to the other, he would have carried with him unbound folios, including at the time of his last transfer back to Gamming Charterhouse where he died in 1497, at the age of 97.
The Voynich manuscript could have been written by him alone over a long period of time, or some loose folios could be written by his Slovenian humanistic friends, his students.
It would also be more reasonable to expect the monastery to have loose parchment on stock, rather than bound books, although many 15th century and earlier manuscripts were written after the parchment was made into a book. With the monks fleeing monasteries because of Turkish incursions, there was probably a lot of old parchment on stock.
My dating of the Voynich Manuscript is assumed by certain events that are reflected in the VM.
Kempf started writing poetry as a student at the university, that is several years before he entered the monastery in 1440, at the age of 40.
Biological section most likely coincided with his mystical experience. Nicholas Kempf wrote his Mystical Theology in 1459, which means that he must have had the experience prior to that.
The sketches of open swimming pools could have been created at that time also, because as a prior of the jurklošter charterhouse, Kempf bought a house in Laško where the Carthusians build the open swimming pool for public baths. Could the pictures be the sketches for an open pool to be build?
In the expectation of the use of vernacular languages in religion, Kempf could have invented some letterforms to make reading less confusing for Slovenians living in different kingdoms with different writing conventions. Since Church reforms were not implemented, and since Slovenian dynasty of Counts of Celje was extinct during Kempf's life time, there was no more apparent need for written Slovenian language which existed in oral form for centuries. German and Latin writing became a norm. Besides, the use of the printing presses most likely made tall Voynich Letters unpractical. First Slovenian book was printed in 1550 by a Slovenian Protestant writer in Tubingen.
The picture of a 'castle' looks like the Jurklošter Carthusian monastery in the valley between two mountains.
The other church looks like Maria Laach Abbey, which was related to Carinthian dukes.
While the use of 8-like d, and 9-like y, as well as EVA r (VM glyph) went out of use, by the time Kempf retired at Gamming, the same shape of r is still used in the word OROR, which indicates that the words in marginalia could have been written by Kempf in his old age, when he adopted German writing convention, but he still used some VM glyphs. It could also have been written by somebody close to him.
There was one Slovenian academic, Kempf's contemporary, Thomas of Celje, who was a bishop of Constance, and had been very close to Emperor Frederic III and his son Maximillian. He died the same year as Kempf. There is some speculation in Slovenian sources that Thomas might have written Slovenian Dictionary and grammar book around the year 1470, but the book was never found. Could the pages with the labels be considered a dictionary and a grammar book? Thomas died in the same year as Kempf? Could he have spent his last days at Gamming as well?
Perhaps, the other monks at Gamming were not able to read Slovenian, but if the loose papers were found in Kempf's possession at the time of his death, they would have been aware that the writing was valuable because he was one of the most famous 15th century mystic and Carthusian reformer. The binding might have been done by the monks soon after his death.
According to Stefan Guzy, Wiedemann obtained many books he sold to Emperor Rudolf at Gaming Charterhouse. Could Voynich Manuscript be one of them?
The Czech language in the 15th century was quite similar to Slovenian, however the phonetic Slovenian, in which I believe the manuscript is written, would not be understood by people around the Emperor.