Re: another Horcicky's MS

[Jorge Stolfi <stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    > [Rafal:] Most interesting is one MS signed by "Jakub z Tepence"
    > on folio [1r] - which has finally convinced me the erased
    > signature on the same folio of VMS was genuine (I was uncertain
    > of it before).

This is a big find!

Have you seen both signatures? Are they in the same handwriting?
Do they spell the name in the same way?

Can we confirm whether the handwriting is Jacobus's own, or
someone else's?

Of course, the last question is not as important as the previous ones.
Even if the name was written by the Clementinum's librarian (or
whomever else inherited Jacobus's books), as long as the handwriting
is the same then it is almost certain that Jacobus owned the book
before Baresch.

(If the handwriting is the same but not Jacobus's, the "almost"
applies because the person who wrote the name on both MSs may have
been mistaken.)

(And, whether the handwriting is Jacobus's or not, there is still a
small chance that the signature was forged by Voynich, in order to
back up Raphael's assertion and neutralize Marci's skeptical
disclaimer.

Note that Jacobus's signature is still the only concrete evidence
connecting the VMS with Rudolph's court, and therefore with Dee and
Bacon. Without it, Raphael's assertion can be easily dismissed ---
Marci's letter does not even tell whether Raphael ever saw Rudolph's
"Bacon" MS. Perhaps RM only heard of it and *presumed* it was the VMS.

So, even if V. believed in the Bacon theory himself (or precisely
*because* he believed it), he may have felt the need to "enhance" the
evidence in order to convince the skeptics.

It doesn't seem impossible that Voynich could have obtained a sample
of Jacobus's "signature" from some other manuscript, perhaps even the
same one that you mention, and copied it on the VMS.

According to the "prosecution", V. played it safe by erasing the fake
signature until the name was barely readable on the UV photos; and
then carefully removed all remaining traces of ink from the VMS,
by rubbing the bottom of the page with chemicals.

Voynich presumably picked Jacobus because he was the person who best
fit the role: an alchemist/doctor who was known to be in R's court at
the right epoch, and was close enough to the emperor to have have
"inherited" such a precious book---but at the same time was
sufficiently obscure that no one would know what happened to his
books. Someone whose signature Voynich had the means to forge, with little
risk of it being disowned by experts---an obvious risk if he had
picked, say, Dee, Hajek, or Rudolf himself. (Besides, there was always
the risk of someone coming up with hard proof that the book had never
been in Dee's hands. In that case, a "signature" by Dee could only
be explained as forgery. Ditto for Rudolf, and possibly also for
famous courtiers with an extensive "paper trail", like Hajek or
Sendivogius. That risk would have been much smaller for the relatively
obscure Jacobus's.)

OK, this is getting close to paranoia... but forgeries and "evidence
enhancements" *do* happen, and some of them are even more devious than
the above theory.  And V's story about applying chemicals to f1r in order
to bring out hidden writing (at the cost of erasing the last bits of
that precious signature) is a bit difficult to believe...

Rene, do you recall when it was that V. identified the signature as
Jacobus's --- was it before or after he picked Dee as the likely
"bearer"? And is it known who applied the chemicals to f1r, and when?

All the best,

--stolfi