Czech references (was Re: About Thaddeus Hajek)

[Zandbergen@xxxxxxxxxxx (Rene Zandbergen)]

Rafal T. Prinke wrote:

> [...] Jim Reeds has found the original text from Dee's MSS, while Mark
> Parry reported the quotation is from Charlotte Fell-Smith. It is,
> therefore, clear that Svitak used "free quotation" by Fell-Smith rather
> than the original text.

Indeed. Also, there appear to be two things:
1) Pages of cipher MS
2) A book about magic and alchemy.
The latter is the book of St. Dunstan, the former, if I understand
correctly,
are the so-called treasure maps, which Dee just sat down to decipher.
Neither of the two are related with the VMs, and Svitak seems to be
'guilty' of a double confusion. 

> [...] I suspect he had the book by
> Jaroslav Svatek, _Obrazy z kulturnych dejin..._ with
> him and that is where the information not found in English
> publications comes from.

Has this been translated into English? There is a reference to
the above (actually Josef Svatek, or is that the same?) in: 
  Voynich, a preliminary sketch of the history of the Roger
  Bacon cipher MS, 1921.
Voynich writes:
  Swatek, the Bohemian historian, records, and the American
  chemist, Henry Carrington Bolton, repeats after him, that
  during his various visits to Prague (1584-1588), Dee talked
  with emperor Rudolph for hours about the secrets and
  inventions of Roger Bacon.
The reference for Bolton is: The Follies of Science, Milwaukee,
1904.
Elsewhere, I have read that Dee only ever had one interview with
Rudolf.

Another source which was recommended by Lubos Antonin is the
historian (and friend of Marci) Bohuslav Balbin. Apparently he has
written a long anecdotal work in Latin, which has been
translated into Czech only in a very abridged manner. That is 
apparently a standard school book of Czech history, but the original
is very little read and may contain some 'trouvailles'.

> > He uses the non-Czech spelling of Raphael Missovski's name (like
> > I just did)
> 
> Yes - he is either spelt with "s-hacek" or (in some of his Latin
> publications) with "sch" - and always with final "y".

Actually, he used a 'w', but in any case, the proper name would have
been
Mnis'ovsky (cf. Otto, although he is listed under Missowsky).

> > but the proper equivalent of Voynich (Voynic').
> 
> Is it? I have always wondered about his surname. One of the
> Web pages says he was "Polish born" but I could not find
> any details. The spelling is certainly anglicized - and in
> Polish would be Wojnicz (there is now about 1000 persons
> of that name living in Poland).

Somewhere out there on the web I once saw a list of noble Russian
names and Voynich is among them.

> > > The "factoid" of Dee's ownership of VMs seems to be based on
> > > the comparison of folio numbering with those in Dee's MSS.
> >
> > Of course, this is very much advertised in the Newbold/Kent
> > book as being the truth.
> 
> I believe rather strongly that it was not so. Perhaps I will
> write a separate message explaining why.

Looking forward!

> > I no longer trust the picture used by Svitak, but if the above
> > is from Pelzel (>100 years later), how can we be sure it is her
> > true likeness? (No criticism, just curious....)
> 
> We can never be sure :-) But this engraving of Westonia
> certainly looks like a 17th c. copper-plate and is signed
> by the artist who can probably be identified. Moreover,
> the original comes from the museum in Most where she lived
> and was reproduced by eminent scholars - interested in
> her poetry rather than the magical connections. I can see
> no possible source of "reasonable doubt" here.

I agree.
Do you have easy access to a copy of Pelzel? Should you
be able to obtain copies of the portraits of Horcicky and
Missowsky, they would look so nice at my web pages.... (hint, hint).
Only if it is not too much hassle of course.

Best regards,
        Rene