VMs: Colour & New Book [was: VMS PDF Info]

[Barbara Barrett <barbarabarrett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Dana Dotted;
> I think that most of us would like to obtain a digitized colored copy of the
> VMS; however, to my knowledge there is no such copy currently available to
> the public. There have been serious efforts in the past to obtain a quality
> copy of the VMS from Yale, but to date no such copy seems to exist. Certain
> selected color folios of the VMS have been made available on the internet. I
> am not aware of anyone who has been allowed to take a full set of pictures
> of the the VMS for personal research.

Barbara Boils;
If VMS studies were in the world of egyptology (with which I am not
unacquainted), archaeology, or even medieval studies, Yale would be an
academic pariah if they behaved this way in this day and age. Nowadays a
good draftsmans' copy of a "new" inscription or papyrus is expected upon
publication, a colour photo of the original (if alone and not
supplementary to the draftsman's copy) would be considered less than
adequate, but to only release B&W shots would be an insult, a snub, to
the scholastic world! Not for aesthetic reasons, but because of the
problem of tone convergence which creates non existent "artefacts" and
obliterates significant data. No Egyptologist would consider a
transcription, never mind a translation, made from a B&W photo to be
sound until checked against either a draftsmans' copy or the original.

I dread to think of the number of errors that have entered the data due
to the Beinecke's outrageous inconsideration. The thought that all the
data so far, even a basic character count, are suspect because of the
nature of the source fills me with despair and not a little anger. 

The Beinecke gets away with this no doubt because they're just a library
and not an academic department or institution dependent upon peer
co-operation and support.

Lets hope that the new book I saw advertised on Amazon which promises to
publish more of the Ms than has ever been published before (and also
invite the public to solve the mystery!) goes some way to remedying the
situation. I've included the amazon.co.uk blurb after my "signiture" for
those interested.

Barbara

The Unsolved Riddle of the Voynich
Manuscript  
Gerry Kennedy, Rob Churchill 
Our Price: £16.99

Book Description
The incredible true story of the enigmatic sixteenth-century
codex - and how YOU can help decode it. 

                        Synopsis
In 1912, Wilfred Voynich, an antiquarian book dealer, stumbled upon a
strange
volume, its vellum pages covered in a beautiful but unrecognisable
script 
accompanied by equally mystifying pictures. The codex approximately 6 x
9 inches 
has remained undeciphered from that day to this. Voynich believed the
codex to 
be the work of Roger Bacon, others that the Elizabethan mathematician
and occultist
John Dee was the author. Whoever created the book which now resides at
Yale 
University it remains to this day a singular enigma which continues to
defy the
best efforts of linguists, cryptologists and scholars. This book will be
presented 
as an opportunity for the public to participate in solving the biggest
unsolved 
mystery in the literary world. At the end of each chapter will be all
the research 
to date which will be an invitation of the reader to get involved. The
book itself 
will be a history of the book as it is known and there will be a part or
complete facsimile of the manuscript. 

                        About the Author
The authors are producers and film-makers. Gerry Kennedy is a relative
of Voynich 
and has been researching the manuscript for many years and has amassed
and unique 
archive of material.
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