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Reconciling Millicent Sowerby's Chronology

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• Reconciling Millicent Sowerby's Chronology

• Reconciling Millicent Sowerby's Chronology

  asteckley > Today, 12:22 AM

  Almost all sources describe Wilfrid Voynich's acquisition of the manuscript somewhat ambiguously by stating it happened in "1911/1912". There are some documented references that are believed to refer to the manuscript that put the acquisition by Voynich specifically in 1912. But I am unclear how definitive those references are.
  
  A more definitive source of information is Millicent E. Sowerby who provides a recounting of her meeting and working for Wilfrid Voynich, in her autobiographical book (Rare People and Rare Books). Unfortunately her book contains some certain mistakes of memory on her part.
  
  She states that she was interviewed by Wilfrid Voynich on a Monday and then began working for him one week later on Monday, December 18, 1912. This, however, is certainly incorrect since that particular calendar date was a Wednesday. Given that her (faulty) recollection was for Monday (first day of a work week) and that she is describing both an interview and the starting of a job, and also that it was one week before Christmas which would also be on a Monday -- all this would suggest that her memory was correct on the day of the week, but that it failed her on the year.  December 18, 1911, however, was a Monday, and so that is when she very likely when she actually began working at Voynich's London book shop. 
  
  She also describes that her very first sight of Voynich (just before he sat her down to interview for the job) :
  "He was standing at the far side of a long table covered with a red baize cloth, and was showing to a customer one of the magnificent illuminated manuscripts he had so recently acquired in Europe. "
  
  Later she states:
  "As I have said, he had returned from one of these European hunting trips shortly before I joined the staff, and news of the treasures he had found must have been getting about, for we had numbers of visitors, all in a state of eager anticipation... Another treasure that he had found in some ancient castle in Southern Europe was also the cause of great excitement and a large number of scholarly visitors—botanists and astronomers as well as medieval experts. This was the famous Roger Bacon cypher..."
  (In the removed text of the first ellipses she describes a book in Cryillic print that he had also brought back from his trip.) 
  
  Correcting Sowerby's reference to be 1911, would mean that Voynich acquired the manuscript in mid-to-late 1911 (shortly before Sowerby joined the staff).  This would be consistent with Wilfrid's own statement that he made in a letter early in the year 1917, wherein he said he had acquired a large collection of manuscripts, including the Voynich Manuscript, "six years ago." So this would be further evidence that Sowerby got her year wrong and not her day of the week.
  
  On the other hand, Wilfrid stated explicitly in his 1921 lecture that he acquired the collection with the manuscript in 1912. And there seems to be several other sources indicating 1912. (Again I am not sure how definitive those other sources are that it was 1912 and that it was the VMS being referred to.)
  
  Has anyone found a way to reconcile these conflicting statements?

• RE: Reconciling Millicent Sowerby's Chronology

  ReneZ > 9 hours ago

  Well spotted!
  
  From all I have seen I am unsure whether he acquired the MS in 1911 or 1912.  I tend to favour 1911 for the year of acquisition, but the evidence leaves a lot of room for the alternative. If it was 1912, it must have been very early in the year.
  
  Initially, the MS was in Florence before he brought it into the UK, but I do not know if the period in between is weeks or months. In any case we are talking about two different events.
  
  I can see three possible dates for Sowerby's start of work:
  - Monday 18 December 1911
  - Monday 16 December 1912
  - Wednesday 18 December 1912
  All are 'incorrect' in one of the four items, and we can be sure about December due to the reference to Christmas. I am not confident that any of the three can be eliminated.
  
  In any case, he difference between the two dates in 1912 is not really relevant, so the question remains on the year.
  
  You will have seen the page where I collect the evidence I am aware of (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). The summary about the year is section 1.4.1 and the majority of sources point to 1911. ELV's letter is probably the most specific and reliable. This was written in 1931. Sowerby's book was published in 1967, so much later. And they are referring to two different events. Sowerby repeats the year 1912 several times, which may or may not mean something.
  
  To the best of my recollection, sources that cite the year 1912 would be from after Voynich's 1921 publication, so are probably dependent on that.
  
  The book in Cyrillic print may also help, because this was one of Voynich's more notorious finds (at least for himself), and some more information might be available about it.
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