Re: what we know about the VMS' creation time

[Zandbergen@xxxxxxxxxxx (Rene Zandbergen)]

Rafal responded,

> > Earliest known reference is the purchase by Rudolf II.
> 
> And even this is not "hard evidence" (even though quite probable).

Probable especially since it is so credible.
I just read Evans for the first time, and was sorry I had not read
the book before. Voynich was wrong about Dee being the most likely
person to sell the VMs to Rudolf, but of course he didn't have the
luxury of having access to this source. The elder Strada, Khevenhueller
and indeed Pontanus are even more likely sources IMHO. Evans even
points out that Pontanus and Tepenec (whom he consistently calls
Sinapius) were friends of sorts, which I think is quite interesting.
Evans' source for Tepenec and Pontanus was Balbin, who wrote in Latin,
so the Latinised forms of the names are understandable. Now what bothers
me is that Balbin was a good (close?) friend of Marci. If Pontanus
and/or Tepenec were known to have owned the Voynich MS, wouldn't 
Balbin have told Marci?

All speculation, I realise.

Evans also states (at least in the 1970's issue) that Pontanus'
library was widely dispersed, with lots of material now being
buried in a.o. the Strahov library, and that there is no complete
overview of where his books and MSS have gone since it is too big
a task. Not sure if that is still true now, but it gives us some
hope that there may still be things to be discovered somewhere.
 
> > In Dutch there's the expression 'carrying water to the sea'.
> 
> Interesting - IIRC in English it is "carrying coal to Manchester"

Coal yes, but I think I heard it was Newcastle.

> Perhaps it is not quite off topic to mention the expressions
> for something totally impossible to understand, such as
> "double Dutch"

... or "it's all Greek to me". The closest equivalent in Dutch 
is "koeterwaals" (German: "Kauderwelsch"). No idea what that
refers to, actually.

Cheers, Rene