Re: Found: One tables-like character

[Brian Eric Farnell <bfarnell@xxxxxxx>]

< Please do not rely on
> the Diana Fernando book. She is a really well motivated person and
> has done a nice job or redrawing some alchemical engravings but
> her lack of scholarly methodology lets her down. That is my kind
> way of putting it !

Yes, I made the point that it was a semi pop occult book, there
is definitely an occult corollary to Sturgeon's Law (on Science
Fiction) "99% of everything is crap."  

> Some of the illustrations in her book are misleading to those
> who have not studied the subject in depth. 

However, the thing I saw wasn't in any list of standard symbols
I have ever seen and it was a photograph of a page, not am
illustration.  

> These are standard alchemical characters familiar in the 16th and
> 17th centuries. They have nothing directly to do with Trithemius,
> and are not "Steganographic" but straighforward conventional (at
> least to the alchemists of the time) signs. 

I am well aware of the long existence of alchemical symbols,
however this symbol looks far closer to Voynich than it does to
the old symbol for Arsenic, yet it has the word Arsenicum next
to it.  If it had been a drawing I would have dismissed it.  If
you put the three symbols side by side, it looks like a natural
evolution, with Voynich being far closer to this character in
the photograph than the character is to the 'standard' alchemy
symbol for arsenic.  Hmm, as I said, I don't put much faith in
the book as a scholarly piece of work, but does that mean the
photograph is faked?  If you showed me the same photograph with
the caption, "Taken from the Olaus Wormus edition of The
Necronomicon" I'd still want to know where the photograph came
from.  Regards,
Brian

Adam McLean wrote:
> 
> At 22:31 20/06/00 -1000, you wrote:
> >       I found a very Voynich like character in a semi pop occult book
> >in Border's Bookstore, the reference is at the bottom.  It was
> >in an entry for Johannes Trithemius.  I'm sure Rafal is familiar
> >with him, and a lot of things in there suggested to me that he
> >(or one of his students) might be a good candidate for the
> >writer (though he died in 1516). More on that later, I am very
> >busy right now.
> >       The character:  The text mentions that Trithemius used
> >steganographic characters, in the margin they had a small
> >picture marked "steganographic characters such as those used by
> >Trithemius"  they had no reference as to whether the writer was
> >Trithemius or someone else or where the picture came from.
> 
> Dear Brian,
> 
> These are standard alchemical characters familiar in the 16th and
> 17th centuries. They have nothing directly to do with Trithemius,
> and are not "Steganographic" but straighforward conventional (at
> least to the alchemists of the time) signs. Please do not rely on
> the Diana Fernando book. She is a really well motivated person and
> has done a nice job or redrawing some alchemical engravings but
> her lack of scholarly methodology lets her down. That is my kind
> way of putting it !
> 
> Some of the illustrations in her book are misleading to those
> who have not studied the subject in depth. An example is on p63
> where a portrait of Newton is shown on an alchemical book of
> Philalethes. Last year someone wrote to me thinking this was
> real. Also note the book by Dee on page 110 - another fabrication
> which serves to amuse but also confuses those who have not
> studied the subject in any depth.
> 
> Beware such glossy popular works - they are full of errors and
> the distortions of secondary and tertiary research.
> 
> Adam McLean
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