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Re: Re: VMs: Argentina...and Moretus

Hi  Jean,
 
in his second letter, Baresh made a hint that the first letter may have
never reached Kircher -  but at the same time he claims the deliverer
reached Rome safely. Since Baresh did not get any answer from Kircher,
he was trying  to excuse him.
 
We may understand it better when we realize Kircher was once tricked to
"solve" the fake and was then publicly exposed to some ridicule. He 
apparently threw the first  letter and the attachment in  garbage, judging
by  the fact he kept the second letter. Of course, the letter may have got
lost after all.  Still, no samples were found belonging to second letter and
apparently Kircher sent no answer to Baresh to that  letter  either (and
there is no  mentioning of it in Marci's letter either). Of course, he may
have sent letter asking for more samples, but surely there would be then
the   third letter by Baresh in existence ( he was desperate to get VM
solved).    Privately, Kircher may have consulted with Marci who in his
famous letter hinted that Kircher was interested - that's why he sent him
the whole thing.  Neither there was found any proof (so far) that Kircher
worked on the VM at all.
 
What we are missing  here  is Kircher's correspondence to Marci. We
may assume  it should have been be  in Jesuits's archive in Prague since
he was admitted to the Order on  his deathbed. Unfortunately, the whole
archive was confiscated by Joseph II and taken away. Jesuit archive in
Rome does not have it  and Prague does not  have it  (according to  our
contacts there) - so the only place it possibly could be is Vienna, but we
have no contact there. Anybody wants to help?
 
Jan
 
P.S. There was a rumor at that time that  Jesuits secretly buried the
archive in their cellar before they had to leave Prague 1773, but I doubt if
we get permission to dig there :-).
 
Hi Dana,
 
Happy New Year to you and VMS-list!
 
Thanks for the attached, this is certainly an interesting article about VMS. I was struck by the reference to Moretto. The conveyor of the Baresch letters to Kircher seems to be Moretus, already
referenced by Rafal especially:
 
http://www.voynich.net/Arch/2002/12/msg00158.html
 
He certainly is of interest, being an alleged intermediary between the ellusive alchemist and Athanasius.
 
I searched a bit about him and found he was really linked to Kircher:
 
http://www.stanford.edu/group/shl/Eyes/modesty/ProbXIV.htm
 
Here is a confirmation and more details about his role in Prague:
 
http://daemon.kap.vslib.cz/kap/util_a.pdf#search='moretus%20theodore'
 
"In 1637 Baresch wrote his first letter to Kircher, and from his later reference to it we may conclude that he was familiar with Kircher's Prodromus Coptus, which appeared in 1636. He sent this letter via the famous Prague matematician Theodor Moretus S.J. This letter (which should have been accompanied by some transcriptions of the Voynich MS) is lost. "
 
(Rene, http://www.voynich.nu/curricula.html).
 
Moretus, born 1601 or 1602, was in Prague from 1630 to 1667 and died that year in this city. The story seems plausible...and since it s a time for wishes perhaps the letter lost and its accompanying transcriptions of the VMS are still somewhere?
 
Jean
 


Dana Scott <dscott520@xxxxxxx> wrote:
The following article in Spanish concerning the VMs was written by Marcelo Dos Santos for the Argentinian web based magazine Axxon: 
 
"El Manuscrito Voynich"
 
Tycho Brahe referenced by Marcelo in a separate article for Axxon: (note Star chart)
 
"The Inconceivable History of Witches, Cystitis [which may have contributed to Tycho's demise] and Celestial Mechanics" 
 
Axxon, Science Fiction in Bits:
 
 
Happy New Year!
 
Dana

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