Re: VMs: Writer's Motivation

["Rafal T. Prinke" <rafalp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Rene Zandbergen wrote:

> > 7. what in today's standards could convince you to
> > buy an untranslatable book?
> 
> I have some books that are translatable, but
> which I cannot read. I (used to) collect Asterix
> books in other languages. The ones in Hebrew and
> Finnish will always remain unreadable to me.
> If I saw a Chinese one in a shop tomorrow, I would
> not hesitate to buy it.

Actually, I did buy what I believed was an untranslatable book
some twenty five years ago. It is a nice small volume, 
with just 39 printed pages - but two blank leaves inserted
after every printed one. Paper and printing looks early
19th c. - or maybe even late 18th c. Bound in leather with
nice gilded ornament - and inside a rubber stamp of a masonic
lodge in Potsdam.

It was quite expensive (still has the price of the antiquarian
bookshop writen in pencil) and of absolutely no use to me
- but nevertheless I bought it! 

There is no title page, printer or anything like that, and the
text starts:

B   n-I i hnemoo
aosbi, tm ias uae, i
i fom, aeotm, tppop
av; ymat e aim, art
a ogaetd, iaraaa by
cetat adop: w inm

and so on... word breaks are not quite obvious.

A couple of year later I discovered what it is - by accident
rather than trying to find out. It turned out to be 
a mnemotechnical help for freemasons learning Anderson's
Constitutions by heart. This is at least what I believe,
because the text consists of first letters of every word
in the said Constitutions.

So what was my motivation for buying it? I don't know.
I just liked it as an artefact.

Best regards,

Rafal
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