Re: FATE magazine

[Zandbergen@xxxxxxxxxxx (Rene Zandbergen)]

Dennis wrote:

>         This article claims (p. 22) that Voynich showed the VMs to H. O.
> Yardley soon after purchasing it.
> It's plausible, but I've never heard of it.  It also says that Yardley
> was the one to come up
> with the ubiquitous sobriquet "the most mysterious manuscript".  This I
> doubt, but I don't whether it
> was Brumbaugh who came up with it either.

It is usually attributed to Manly. Brumbaugh's book has a section which
is
a reprint of the relevant part in Kahn. This says that one of the people
trying to crack the VMs was Capt. John H. Manly (in 1917), then second
in
command of Yardley's MI-8. Then "... with the Voynich MS he failed and
so did Yardley (5)". Note 5 says: "Correspondence relating to the MS,
in Kraus' possession: letters, Yardley to Manly, February 18, 1921 and
January 13, 1922, Manly papers."
 
>         The article's worst misstatement is that Brumbaugh "determin[ed] that
> the document probably concerned the alchemical elixir of life".  :)  I
> wonder where they got this.

>From Brumbaugh :-)
With his translation tables he finds the word ILEXER in the bio section.

D'Imperio is rather supportive of Brumbaugh's theories in her book,
which
may have been for 'political' reasons (but maybe I am too suspicious
again
and she may have really liked his theories). Since D'Imperio and
Brumbaugh
are the usual sources for short introductory articles about the VMs, the
author will have felt justified. (He may of course have used Kahn
directly
to).

Cheers, Rene