Re: Paleographer A. H. Carter

[reeds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jim Reeds)]

Albert Howard Carter was a professor of English literature in
civilian life, whose scholarly research involved a lot of reading
Elizabethan era manuscripts.


I have a copy of his "Some Impressions of the Voynich Manuscript",
a 2 page typewritten document, with 9 numbered paragraphs.

The first one reads:

1. On 10 September 1946 at 1200 I met Miss Nill in the Guaranty
Trust Company safety deposit section and spent an hour examining
the Voynich Manuscript. The main impression I carried away is that
although it is by no means a work of art, so much care, so much
time, and so much expense in velum of excellent quality went into
it, it cannot be a hoax. I is conceivably the work of a wealthy
and learned, if deranged, person, but not a hoax.

and so on.

There are copies in the National Cryptologic Museum, file VF 10-8,
and in the Friedman Collection of the Marshall Library, in
file 1614.

Maybe I'll type the rest of it up later today.


By an odd coincidence, my wife had some contact with his son,
also Albert Howard Carter, also an English prof. at the same
university.  I talked with him on the phone, & sent him a copy
of the report.

On Sep 28,  4:55, Dennis wrote:

> Subject: Paleographer A. H. Carter
> 	In looking at Prescott Currier's paper, I saw that he
> mentions "Some Impressions of the Voynich Manuscript,"
> unpublished notes by Prof. A. H. Carter (Former
> technical historian, Army Security Agency), 1946.
> Carter apparently was "a calligraphic or paleographic
> expert".  He said that "the writing is consistent
> throughout, and is obviously the work of one man"
> (P.C.'s words).  With his statistics on A and B, as
> well as his own study of the script, P.C. thinks Carter
> daft and/or incompetent.  
> 
> 	However that may be, I've heard of very few cases
> where a professional paleographer actually studied the
> VMs.  Would someone who knows this article please
> expand on it?
> 
> Dennis
>-- End of excerpt from Dennis



-- 
Jim Reeds, AT&T Labs - Research
Shannon Laboratory, Room C229, Building 103
180 Park Avenue, Florham Park, NJ 07932-0971, USA

reeds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, phone: +1 973 360 8414, fax: +1 973 360 8178


---End of forwarded mail from reeds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jim Reeds)

-- 
Jim Reeds, AT&T Labs - Research
Shannon Laboratory, Room C229, Building 103
180 Park Avenue, Florham Park, NJ 07932-0971, USA

reeds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, phone: +1 973 360 8414, fax: +1 973 360 8178