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Re: VMs: Georg Barchius - deja ne pas vu



Hi Jorge and all
 
I could not resist to this deja vu. It seems that Lana was a kind of cryptologist; besides this he possibly had a Bacon-like personality, for instance I picked that he is called an inventor of the flying boat ( not saucer ).
 
Here is one of his works not far away from one other of Kircher.
ATHANASIUS KIRCHER (1601-1680)
Polygraphia Nova et Vniversalis ex Combinatoria Arte Detecta.
Rome, Varese, 1663.
This work of the German scholar and mathematician is based principally on the writings of Johannes Trithemius. Joaquín García Carmona and others see also the influence of Blaise de Vigenère (1523-1596), whose multi-alphabet cipher seems to have been transformed by Kircher into a numerical cipher. Of special interest in Polygraphia is part 1, where Kircher proposes a system of pasigraphy, or universal writing, employing numerals to stand for words of similar meaning in Latin, Italian, French, German, and Spanish. Parts 2 and 3 deal with cryptographic methods now largely abandoned. (Galland p. 102-103; Guyot p. 426; Stojan 35; Westby-Gibson p.105)
 
FRANCESCO LANA TERZI (1631-1687)
Prodromo all'Arte Maestra.
Brescia, Rizzardi, 1670.
Italian naturalist and physicist, Lana Terzi deals principally with problems of aeronautics, mechanical engineering, and microscopy, including a section on the construction of flying machines. Of special note are the opening sections, wherein alphabet and numerical ciphers are described. Prodomo includes an early illustrated description of a cipher employing musical notation, a method initially proposed by John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, in his Mercury; or, The Secret and Swift Messenger (London, 1641). Lana Terzi also proposes methods of writing for the blind, and of teaching the deaf to speak, which he himself put into practice. (Galland p. 107; Guyot p. 124; LC 84:20)

And here is the site:

http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/rarebooks/semeiology/cryptography.html

Cheers
 
Jean


Jorge Stolfi <stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> [Rene:] [Re Barchius book at Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek]
> I have a feeling of deja vu though...

Now that you mention it... Yes, back in March/2002! At that time,
thanks to Google and a providential typing error on my part, I
stumbled on a list of three books attributed to "Georg Barchius".
Unfortunately Rafal quickly pointed out that the author of those books
was a certain Johann Conrad Barchusen.

However, that did not explain where the name "Georg Barchius" came
from. The source in question was a bibliography on the history of
pharmacy at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, maintained by a
research group called "Folchia". Apparently the bibligraphy did
contain an entry for "Georg Barchius", but some mixup occurred
somewhere, which the result that Barchusen's name got dropped, and his
books were listed ju! st after the name "Georg Barchius".

I wrote to the group's address, and got this reply (with my comments
in brackets):

> Dear friend:
>
> The name "barchius" appears in any [=some --JS] edition of
> Barchusen's works at de Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid. While I
> was doing my "Tesis Doctoral" I've seen it. I'll see my notes
> again and I'll go to the National Libray someday nextly, may be
> this week. Then I'll writte you again and, I hope, can say you
> more about it. But you must be sure that if the name Barchius is
> relationated with the works of Barchusen in our web, may be for
> any reason. So I think that Barchius is a latinized form used in
> any edition and it haven't relation with the Barschius you're
> looking for.

[I am not convinced by that explanation, since there are dozens of
webpages out there on J. C. Barchusen, and none of them mentions the
supposed alias Barchius. Moreover, it does not explain why Barchius
first name is "Georg". But let's wait and see.]

> Now I'm analizing some correspondence between A. Kircher with J.
> Caramuel. In other side I'm doing the same with the relation
> between Lana-Terzi (You know him?) and A. Kircher to try to
> establishe a relation with the three ones and alchemy. Sorry for
> my bad english.

[I don't know whether they have seen Rene's pages with the letters
to Kircher. I will mention that just to be sure.]

> PD: Excellent your work about the Voynich ms., really! May be you, or any
> other person, send us a litle abstract (6/7 pages) to insert in the new
> number of our review "Panacea"?

[I won't have the time to do this; any takers? Gabriel and Rene,
what about the Aesculapius article?]

> GRUPO FOLCHIA
> Historia de la Farmacia
> Facultad de Farmacia, U.C.M.
> Plaza de Ramón y Cajal, s/n
> 28040-MADRID
> Tlfno.: 91.394.17.95
> e-mail: folchia@xxxxxxxxxxx
> web: http://www.ucm.es/info/folchia/

I then tried the librarians at UCM, and eventually got information
from Cristina Ortiz of the Facultad de Farmacia Library that all
historical books from all UCM libraries had been gathered at the
Biblioteca Histórica; but Mercedes Cabello of the latter said that
they had no record of any book by "Georg Barchius".

And there that lead, unfortunately, died...

... until now, it seems! I presume that Miguel López was the anonymous
compiler of the Folchia bibliography with whom I corresponded in 2002,
and that he finally found the source of the "Georg Barchius" entry ---
not in Madrid, as he had thought, but in Vienna.

So, anyone got hold of that book? Could its author be our Georg
Baresch? Does the book give any other clues about the author?

All the best,

--stolfi

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