Possibly interesting old (lost) books

[Zandbergen@xxxxxxxxxxx (Rene Zandbergen)]

Dear all,

here is more about the so-called 'Welsche', about whom I
wrote a few weeks ago. The source is a German book of 1902
by one Adalbert Wrany (reference at my web site).

The "Wälschen" came to Bohemia till the 18th C for mining.
Their name is based on a romance word for people from
the Venetian area. Apparently, this should be understood to
mean that they could be from anywhere in Italy [I did not
capture the logic for that :-/].

One thing they are known for are the so-called "Walenbücher"
(Valesian books), reputedly from the 12th-13th century, which
only survive in later copies.
Probably the oldest surviving copy is the parchment Walenbuch
of Antonius de Medici (in the Breslauer Stadtbibliothek) of
1430. Reputedly very interesting is the the "Trautenauer" copy
from 1465 which is in possession [in 1902] of Prof. Joh. Böhm
in Budweis (Budvar). 
These books are mostly about fabulous ways for discovering gold
and precious stones.
These people also made mysterious marks in the mountains,
the oldest of which are dated to the 15th C.

It wouldn't be hard to imagine that one from these hordes of
people coming from Italy and with a penchant for old mysterious
books, was the 'bearer' of the MS, in which case we'd be stuck
with a pretty anonymous one... 

Cheers, 
        Rene