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Missing folios
- Missing folios
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RE: Missing folios
E Lillie > 28-07-2026, 05:48 PM
Hello.
"Those are quire-supports added by H. P. Kraus' conservator Helmut Haupt-Lehman in 1967."
Thank you for addressing this... I've long wondered what these were.
Best, Ernest -
RE: Missing folios
Rafal > 20-08-2026, 01:16 PM
I find it possible that the missing folios were actually sent to Athanasius Kircher.
The mainstream view is that Prague alchemist Georgius Barschius at some moment sent some copies or samples or maybe even entire book of Voynich Manuscript to Kircher.
See: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
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There seems to be some confusion for me, however.
Kircher writes to Barschius (translation by Gemini AI):
As for the little book filled with I know not what steganographic mysteries, which you transmitted to me joined to your letter, upon examining it in passing, I found that it requires an Oedipus [a solver of riddles] not so much ingenious as laborious.
He speaks not about sample pages or copies but entire small book (libellum).
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Yet somehow some modern authors claim that Barschius sent to Kircher not some full book but sample copies of some pages. See for example Wikipedia:
Baresch twice sent a sample copy of the script to Kircher in Rome, asking for clues. The 1639 letter from Baresch to Kircher is the earliest known mention of the manuscript to have been confirmed
(the source for Wikipedia seems to be this: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. )
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So what Barschius exactly sent to Kircher? Kircher speaks about "little book" but it rather can't be whole whole Voynich Manuscript because some years later Jan Marek Marci claims to send it to Kircher. The same book can't be sent twice. So either we have two books or "libellum" was actually some sample.
And if we are so unsure what it exactly was, how can we be sure that it was copied pages? Maybe these were original pages after all, cut from the manuscript?
Unfortunately if Kircher received any pages cut from Voynich Manuscript, there is no trace of it and they were lost. Or should we search stuff related to Kircher again?
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RE: Missing folios
nablator > 20-08-2026, 01:52 PM
(20-08-2026, 01:16 PM)Rafal Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Yet somehow some modern authors claim that Barschius sent to Kircher not some full book but sample copies of some pages.
A copy was sent, twice, that's literally said in the 1639 letter from Barschius to Kircher. How many pages is not said.
Translation by ChatGPT3/4:
Since in my library there was a certain script written in characters that were unrecognizable, I thought it would not be inappropriate to send him an Egyptian enigma to solve. (ChatGPT4: I deemed it appropriate to send this riddle for the Egyptian Oedipus to solve.)
Therefore, imitating a script (ChatGPT4: having copied the script) from an old book (whose bearer will be its visual inspector and informant), I sent that script to your reverence a year and a half ago, so that if it pleased your reverence to devote some effort to the investigation and to make known the characters of the unknown script, that work could benefit both its Oedipus (as far as the secrets contained in the book were worthy of such an excellent work) and myself, and the common good. For it is not advisable to entrust the book itself on a long and dangerous journey; indeed, even what I sent last time did not reach Rome, as I can tell from the fact that I have not heard anything about it in all this time. Therefore, I thought it best to send it again according to custom (ChatGPT4: I thought it prudent to send another copy), which Father Moretus told me had arrived safely in the city, which made me very happy; and I will be even happier if the aforementioned book is opened with your reverence's help, so that those who can share its goodness may do so.