Re: VMs: Mad Kircher, was (lots)

[Dennis <tsalagi@xxxxxxxx>]

Seth Morabito wrote:
> 
> For the general case, the evidence from the Kircher
> letter itself points to a 600 ducat profit to whomever sold it to Rudolf
> II.  

	Yes.  However, I've been looking at Rafal Prinke's
excellent discussion of the question of Dee's
involvement, in which he discusses the "600 ducats":

http://hum.amu.edu.pl/~rafalp/HERM/VMS/dee.htm

We once discussed how much "600 ducats" is in
contemporary buying power and came up with about
900,000 US$.  However, what Rafal says sounds to me
like it could have been far less.  Rafal notes that
"600 florins for a rare and curious manuscript bought
by the Holy Roman Emperor was not really that much",
and the other examples point to not much money.

	Would anyone clarify this for me?

Dennis
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