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Re: VMs: Re: Cicco Simonetta / Sartirana / library...?

Hi Rene,

The main problem is that the VMs word structure
is not explained. (See Jorge Stolfi's word
paradigms).
It would be very useful to have some sample
documents written in the 1440's Italian (and
previously Spanish) ciphers, for comparison.

I'm working on this. I'm also planning to encipher some circa-1500 text using a number of pairified ciphers (like the Alphabeth Northmanique in Vigenere), to see what they look like.

> (5) The diagrams in the VMS are traced
> --> its diagrams are copies, not originals

This is problematic since there are only very
few 'similar' drawings known to us now. So few,in
fact, that it may be a coincidence.

According to Sergio Toresella, the circles for the astrological diagrams were hand-traced, not mechanically drawn. This would make no sense unless they were copies, not originals.

Without changing too much in your line of reasoning,
the drawings may well be originals, drawn to
illustrate the original text (which had no
illustrations). Think of Pliny's herbal.

I have some idea about how I can also prove at least some of the herbals are copies - but I'm still working on it. Suffice to say that what proof there is lies in the first quire. :-)

> (6) The contents of the VMS appear to be varied
> --> it is probably a collection of separate
> documents by separate authors

I like this idea very much, but cannot find any
evidence for it.

I have some idea about how I can provide evidence for this - I certainly believe that the herbal and the balneological sections are copies from quite separate manuscripts, and that the cosmo section is from a different source... but "smoking gun" proofs are hard. :-(

> (7) The handwriting is very consistent across all
> folios
> --> it was probably copied by 1-2 persons

Main difficulty is the two sets of herbal pages,
in Currier-A and B. One possibility (based not
on logic but on observation of the character
statistics) is that two men started writing at
the same time, but each developped a different
'encoding' style. When 'B' was ready, he helped
'A' to complete the herbal pages.
A wrote pharma and herbal (in that order) and
B wrote astro/cosmo, bio and stars (in that order).

This is interesting, and a thing which I think will come up in discussion again soon - but is not actually central to my argument. :-)

> --> (D) The original manuscripts of the VMS were too
> rare for a bibliophile
> and man of high culture like Simonetta to want to
> destroy - but too
> politically dangerous (for whatever reason) for him
> to keep.

The orginals may well have been valuable and rare
(often goes together), and if there were such
originals, they may also well have been lost
by now.
The problem of the copier may also very well have
been a much more simple one, that he did not have
permanent access to the documents: e.g. they
belonged to someone else who would not sell them.
Possibly also they were supposed to contain
information alien to the church and the owner was the church.

Well... I've outlined the scenario I think the evidence (taken as a whole) suggests. Take it as you like! :-)

On the hidden cellar question I don't wish to
say too much. There is a rumour that such cellars
exist(ed) in the basement of the Clementinum
in Prague, with lots of secret documents of the
Jesuits now lost (and possibly recently destroyed).

In fact, if the Sartirana castle has a hidden
room, why should the VMs not be in it? When would
it have come out?

It could be in a cellar, it could be in a void, or it could be inside some false brickwork - however, I'd say that the *really* smart money is on the originals being wrapped in oilcloth, placed inside a gold box with an epigram by Francesco Filelfo on, and buried in Simonetta's 1462-1463 Sartirana castle foundations (so it would never have come out to date, as planned).

Finally, there's a pretty good chance that, in the same gold box, there's a small pair of mysterious vials containing black and red powders (though whether they're what you might hope or not is another matter entirely). Do you think I'd love to be there when all that got dug up? You bet!

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 


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