Clik here to view.
Earliest archival reference to the Voynich Manuscript…???
A vast constellation of curious books revolves around the hazily uncertain core of the Voynich Manuscript: as with most things, some are outright good, some are just plain bad, while most live in a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“The True Path of Alchemy” is *not* the VMs…
A big tip of the hat to Rafal Prinke: thanks to a swift reply from him last night, I can now say definitively that “The True Path of Alchemy” is not the VMs (confirming Rene’s suspicion), because both...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Otakar Zachar’s (1899) “The True Path of Alchemy” book…
Today’s Cipher Mysteries post comes from long-time Voynich researcher Jan Hurych, who very kindly agreed to go through Otakar Zachar’s (1899) monograph on the “Cesta spravedliva v alchymii” (“The True...
View ArticleChrysopoeia versus Mythopoeia…
Fingers on buzzers for a quicky historical quiz: name these three historical characters and the unusual link they share… A 13th century speculative English monk A 14th century Parisian bookseller (and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The secret history of “Antonio of Florence”…
I’ve just received (directly from the author, thanks!) a copy of Vladimír Karpenko’s admirably thorough 1990 AMBIX paper on the “cesta spravedlivá” pair of manuscripts. From his analysis, it seems very...
View ArticleAntonio of Florence translation…
Jan Hurych has very kindly emailed in a translation of the short piece of text I uncovered relating to the 14th century Prague apothecary Antonio of Florence. With a few minor style tweaks, here it...
View ArticleSome online herbals…
Blogger of the visually bizarre BibliOdyssey has a number of nice online herbal scans you might well enjoy: each page has a brief description of the related manuscript and links to other places you can...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Beautiful Infinity…
There are colours in my eyes, history flickering and sputtering as a beautiful infinity reaches out to hold my bloodsoaked hand… * * * * * * The Brazilian girl’s plan is stone-cold in its vision,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Alchemy decoded, finally…?
Like many people, I’ve always vaguely wondered how the alchemical ‘code’ worked: that is, how the abstruse (and indeed playfully indirect) language of alchemy mapped onto actual things and processes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Announcing “The Blitz Ciphers”…
A few weeks ago, some new ciphertexts pinged on my Cipher Mysteries radar: the story goes that they had been found just after WWII in wooden boxes concealed in the wall of an East London cellar that...
View ArticleEarliest archival reference to the Voynich Manuscript…???
A vast constellation of curious books revolves around the hazily uncertain core of the Voynich Manuscript: as with most things, some are outright good, some are just plain bad, while most live in a...
View Article“The True Path of Alchemy” is *not* the VMs…
A big tip of the hat to Rafal Prinke: thanks to a swift reply from him last night, I can now say definitively that “The True Path of Alchemy” is not the VMs (confirming Rene’s suspicion), because both...
View ArticleOtakar Zachar’s (1899) “The True Path of Alchemy” book…
Today’s Cipher Mysteries post comes from long-time Voynich researcher Jan Hurych, who very kindly agreed to go through Otakar Zachar’s (1899) monograph on the “Cesta spravedliva v alchymii” (“The True...
View ArticleChrysopoeia versus Mythopoeia…
Fingers on buzzers for a quicky historical quiz: name these three historical characters and the unusual link they share… A 13th century speculative English monk A 14th century Parisian bookseller (and...
View ArticleThe secret history of “Antonio of Florence”…
I’ve just received (directly from the author, thanks!) a copy of Vladimír Karpenko’s admirably thorough 1990 AMBIX paper on the “cesta spravedlivá” pair of manuscripts. From his analysis, it seems very...
View ArticleAntonio of Florence translation…
Jan Hurych has very kindly emailed in a translation of the short piece of text I uncovered relating to the 14th century Prague apothecary Antonio of Florence. With a few minor style tweaks, here it...
View ArticleSome online herbals…
Blogger of the visually bizarre BibliOdyssey has a number of nice online herbal scans you might well enjoy: each page has a brief description of the related manuscript and links to other places you can...
View ArticleA Beautiful Infinity…
There are colours in my eyes, history flickering and sputtering as a beautiful infinity reaches out to hold my bloodsoaked hand… * * * * * * The Brazilian girl’s plan is stone-cold in its vision,...
View ArticleAlchemy decoded, finally…?
Like many people, I’ve always vaguely wondered how the alchemical ‘code’ worked: that is, how the abstruse (and indeed playfully indirect) language of alchemy mapped onto actual things and processes in...
View ArticleAnnouncing “The Blitz Ciphers”…
A few weeks ago, some new ciphertexts pinged on my Cipher Mysteries radar: the story goes that they had been found just after WWII in wooden boxes concealed in the wall of an East London cellar that...
View Article
