VMs: Ruysschaert and De Ricci for dummies

[Xavier Ceccaldi <ceccaldi@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You will find here http://www.geocities.com/voyms/  a new text written for my own comprehension : my goal was to understand precisely the presence proof of MS 408 in Collegio Romano library, before 1912. Indeed, as far as I am concerned, the available literature let some questions unanswered:

• The first source is Voynich himself, but we need another independent source.
• At present, we don?t have any proof that Kircher received the manuscript, with a letter from Marci.
• Ruysschaert, in his manuscripts list transferred from Collegio Romano to the Vatican Library in 1912 (published in 1959), refers to MS 408 as one of the manuscripts preserved in Collegio. But the manuscript is identified by his reference in De Ricci, published in 1940, with the help of Anne Nill. This source may be dependent from Voynich.
• In 1963, H.P. Kraus met Ruysschaert, but his memory seemed weak.

I also found these kind of interrogations on VMS-list. This text may help to get a good understanding of sources and proofs we have now on that matter.

In fact, I show that Enrico Carusi?s work, used by Ruysschaert, was independent of De Ricci and Voynich.

In other respects, it?s obvious that MS 408 origin (Collegio Romano) is publicly known since October 1937, 23 years before the Ethel?s letter, opened at her death. Anne Nill, with Ethel?s authorization, has most likely given the manuscript origin to De Ricci in 1937 and probably just after the Voynich?s death, on March 19, 1930.

Best regards

Xavier Ceccaldi