Provenance and history of the Voynich Manuscript

 
Provenance and history of the Voynich Manuscript

Alexander Amelkin


The Voynich manuscript was created by Dr. Johannes Hartlieb (1400 – 1468) in 1448/49. He was in the employment of Albrecht III of Bavaria-Munich from 1440, and of Albrecht's son Sigmund from 1456.

The husband of Anna von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen, Duke Albrecht III of Bavaria-Munich, married Anna out of necessity and continued to love Agnes Bernauer, who was executed in 1435. Anna was tormented by jealousy, especially strong after 1447. Then Albrecht asked his personal physician (Leibarzt) Johannes Hartlieb to direct Anna's attention to practices in the field of white magic, in which Anna was seriously interested.

At the request of Albrecht III Dr. Hartlieb on the basis of his drafts ordered to the scribes the "Chiromancy" and the "Voynich Manuscript" (the "Hartlieb Manuscript"), which were urgently created in the period from 1448 to 1449. Both books depicted a distorted reality, making them ideal divination tools.

"Chiromancy" was created by Dr. Hartlieb in 1448. However, Anna quickly became bored with hand fortune telling (palm reading). Anna needed something more mysterious.

Then started Dr. Hartlieb, in agreement with Albrecht, with the creation of the "Voynich Manuscript", which was based on various secret writing systems and old manuscripts from the early 15th century. There was a lack of time. Johannes Hartlieb had a team of trustworthy scribes and illustrators in the greater Munich area and in Augsburg. Based on secret writing systems such as "Kaldaisch", which Dr. Hartlieb perfectly mastered, since he was also a court diplomat, he created a special font "Voynichese" and a "Vocabulary", as well as drafts of various sections of the future "Voynich Manuscript".

90% of the "Voynich Manuscript" was just science fiction nonsense. The text didn't make any sense. Incidentally, Hartlieb has a manuscript on astrology (Johannes Hartlieb et al. (1448/56)), in which he gives various examples of secret writings, including "Kaldaisch". Only less than 10% of the astrological text of the "Voynich Manuscript" could be deciphered.

The scribes, who numbered not less than twelve, were given sketches of the various sections of the manuscript, as well as a large quantity of old parchment of various sizes. They were in a hurry and didn't keep the lines straight. They were also allowed to create their own text based on Hartlieb's rules. The fact that the text of the manuscript was created by several people at the same time is indicated by the presence of at least five parts of the manuscript with differences in handwriting, vocabulary and placement on the page. (Lisa Fagin Davis (2022, 2023))

Each scribe had to create at least 12 zodiac diagrams in a relatively free form, in addition to their own text, in collaboration with the illustrator. Some scribes were artists themselves. The zodiac diagrams in the Voynich manuscript were male and female. In total, there were 12 or more zodiac charts for each zodiac sign. Since some of the parchment was not cut into equal parts, some long sheets contained three zodiac diagrams or even more. Many zodiac diagrams differed from each other in drawings and inscriptions. Later this was interpreted as taking into account the characteristics of the customer category (guests of "Anna's Salon").

Dr. Hartlieb gave Anna the "Voynich Manuscript" in 1449. He presented the manuscript as the work of an early 15th-century magician, possibly Abraham von Worms. Anna was very happy and with the help of Dr. Hartlieb to conduct astrological sessions at parties in "Anna's Salon". The manuscript had not previously been stapled together and consisted of individual sheets. Anna conducted astrological sessions using these zodiac charts, so they were always in use and often kept in different places. Most of them were later lost or given away.

Dr. Hartlieb helped Anna to "decipher" the manuscript and made notes ("Michitonese") on the pages. It is also possible that the "Michitonese" inscriptions were the improvisation of one of the hired scribes.

During the sessions, Anna prophesied using zodiac charts. Anna predicted events in the life (fate) of the client (session guest) for a week, a month and a year and recommended various herbal mixtures and water treatments to solve possible problems. Dr. Hartlieb often attended meetings and wrote out recipes.

After Albrecht's death, Anna continued to conduct magical sessions at Nannhofen Castle.

The "Voynich Manuscript" possibly shows either Nannhofen Castle or Blutenburg Castle. Nannhofen moated castle was built a little earlier (from 1423) than Blutenburg moated castle (from 1424), and Albrecht von Wittelsbach and Augsburg bather's daughter Agnes Bernauer sometimes met there secretly.

Externally both castles were very similar and had a similar history. Since Blutenburg Castle was built about five years earlier than originally assumed, some events (for example the birth of Agnes Bernauer (1405 instead of 1410) and her daughter Sibylla (1424 instead of 1430), the meeting of Agnes and Albrecht (1423 instead of 1428) could have occurred, and the construction of Blutenburg Castle ("Blytenburg", "Pluedenberg", from 1424 instead of from 1429)) also took place about five years earlier. (Jutta Czeguhn (2017))

The author of the "Voynich Manuscript", Doctor Hartlieb, often visited both castles. With the creation of the Voynich manuscript, Duchess Anna von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen developed a passion for fortune telling using astrological zodiac cards. She did this in both castles until her death in 1474. In the 16th century, Nannhofen Castle and its library came into the possession of the Court Chancellor of the House of Wittelsbach. Later, the Court Chancellor handed over the "Voynich Manuscript" to Emperor Rudolf II.


   Generalization:

   1. The Voynich Manuscript was written by at least six people. These were either the authors themselves, or scribes from the monastery artel, carrying out the orders of the authors based on their sketches. The manuscript was written for a specific commercial purpose, as parchment was very expensive at the time and was purchased for the project as a worthwhile investment. I believe that this is an ingenious imitation of a fortune-telling book, used for predictions and diagnoses in order to attract wealthy clients to pharmacies and medical institutions. The manuscript was used in white magic sessions in high society.
   2. Centers of events - Augsburg, Munich, Prague - the inner circle of Duke Albrecht III of Bavaria-Munich and of Emperor Sigismund I of Luxembourg.
   3. Group of putative collective authors: Kaspar Bernauer, Johannes Hartlieb, Jacob Pueterich von Reichertshausen, Abraham von Worms, Sigmund Gotzkircher and from two to eight more specialists in the field of balneology, herbal medicine, pharmacology, gynecology, astrology, cryptography, cosmology and white magic.
   4. Jakob Puetherich von Reichertshausen (1400–1469) was one of the most trusted advisors of Duke Albrecht III, whom Jakob Puetherich von Reichertshausen also served as an accomplished diplomat, and it was most likely he who wrote the Voynich Manuscript along with Dr. Hartlieb and company.
   5. The group developed an imitation font and created the Voynich Manuscript for white magic sessions in order to attract clients to pharmacies, medicinal baths, clinics, etc.
   6. There are three candidates for the prototype castle from the Voynich Manuscript: Blutenburg Castle, Nannhofen Castle and Pasing Castle (Wasserschloss Blutenburg, Wasserschloss Nannhofen und Wasserschloss Pasing). It was in these castles that white magic sessions using the Voynich Manuscript were held.
   7. There could be several copies of the Voynich Manuscript, and they differed from each other. Perhaps several fragments from different versions of the manuscript survived, and then they were put together.
   8. One of the copies was presented to Anna of Brunswick (Anna von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen) and then went to Emperor Rudolph II. Or maybe Emperor Rudolf II owned another copy of the manuscript from the library of his predecessors - Emperor Sigismund I of Luxembourg and intermediate successors. The third version is that Karl Widemann bought several fragments of the manuscript from the descendants of its creators and then sold or donated them to Emperor Rudolf II.
   9. The Voynich manuscripts are a purely commercial project on which people have been making money for 600 years in a row. It is a hoax written by a group of doctors, astrologers, balneologists, diplomats, advisers, poets, writers, magicians, philosophers and alchemists from the inner circle of Duke Albrecht the Third of Bavaria-Munich and Emperor Sigismund the First of Luxembourg for sessions of white magic, in which the authors of the manuscripts (and there were from 5 to 12 slightly different unbound copies) were selling their recipes, advices and services. Sessions of white magic were often conducted by duchesses (who were fond of the occult sciences) in their castles, and the doctors wrote out prescriptions for the participants in the sessions, who were mainly women from noble and wealthy families. The Duchess could predict anything from the manuscript. Other women believed her because they were fascinated by the mysterious manuscript. To achieve the predicted happiness, ladies were recommended to pay a fee either to improve their health, or to receive a “verse of happiness” from the poet, or to consult an adviser, or to draw up a personal horoscope, or to use an alchemical remedy, etc. It was cool! Therefore, the Voynich manuscripts were aimed primarily at women.



Sources: https://amelkin.de/a.pdf , https://youtu.be/UayExSZ7EYk and https://yuppie-blues.de

Scientific research in art, history and technology: http://proza.ru/2024/04/22/1729

Keywords: #michitonese #voynichese #hartliebese #amelkin #vms #voynich #voynichmanuscript #michiton #top #follow #great #media #history #surprising #free #why #youtube #science #compare #lowcost #best #geheim #geheimnis #entschluesselt #secret #code

Copyright: © Dr Alexander Amelkin ( https://duo-amelkin.de https://amelkin.de http://feeria.de http://panpsy.de ) - Version 2023-231127Y3
 



 
  О РУКОПИСИ ВОЙНИЧА (VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT)
 
  Автор идеи - маг Йоханнес Хартлиб. Манускрипт Войнича был в 15-том веке создан в нескольких (как минимум в двух) неидентичных копиях, выполненных в артели писцов как минимум пятью переписчиками, имевшими право самим генерировать тексты и иллюстрации на основе исходного манускрипта, написанного доктором Хартлибом. Это - бессмыслица, созданная в коммерческих целях, некое подобие гадальной книги, использовавшееся на магических сеансах. Поскольку некоторые страницы рукописи написаны сразу двумя писцами (то есть содержат два почерка), это свидетельствует о переписывании рукописи именно в артели на основе единовременного заказа. До нас дошла компиляция из разных копий, сшитая позже в неправильном порядке. Ранее рукописи часто не сшивали. Они хранились в виде отдельных листов в специальных футлярах.
 
  Отдельно остановлюсь на магических сеансах с использованием манускриптов. Как всё получилось? Альбрехт Третий Баварский был женат на герцогине Анне. Герцогиня Анна почти безвыездно жила в замке, посвятив себя воспитанию детей и череде непрерывных беременностей. Ей было очень скучно, и к тому же она изводила себя приступами ревности. Единственным серьёзным увлечением Анны была белая магия. В этом Анна была очень похожа на всех соседних герцогинь. Альбрехт, видя страдания своей супруги, обратился к своему придворному врачу, дипломатии, советнику, автору многих книг и прежде всего зятю доктору Йоханнеса Хартлиба за помощью. Доктор Хартлиб был известен как самый продвинутый в Баварии специалист во многих областях, а именно белой магии, алхимии, астрологии, левитации, метаморфозологии, фитобальнеологии, тайнописи, фармакологии, фитотерапии, ботаники, физиологии и пр. Йоханнес Хартлиб откликнулся на просьбу герцога Альбрехта и предложил Анне заняться сеансами белой магии и предсказаниями судьбы. Он написал специально для герцогини Анны иллюстрированную книгу "Хиромантия" для гадания по руке. Анна была неописуемо рада подарку и тут же собрала весь окрестный высший свет в Замке Блютенбург на свой первый сеанс белой магии. Однако гадание по линиям руки быстро наскучило Анне своей однообразностью и недостаточной популярностью. Она сказала: "Ich will mehr!" И вот в этот момент доктора Хартлиба посетила золотая идея: можно убить двух зайцев сразу! Надо написать в нескольких экземплярах тайную гадальную книгу для одновременных сеансов белой магии в различных замках, на которых клиентам будут предсказывать судьбу в части здоровья и направлять их в аптеки и клиники доктора Хартлиба для излечения и профилактики! Он собрал все свои рукописи, все методики тайнописи и написал рукопись, известную сегодня как Манускрипт Войнича. При этом Хартлиб намеренно создал бессмыслицу, что позволяло на сеансах делать любые прогнозы и предсказания. Хартлиб отнёс рукопись в артели писцов и заказал там до десяти экземпляров манускрипта. Пять писцов одновременно создавали эти манускрипты, и им для скорости исполнения заказа было дано право самостоятельно генерировать "слова". А дальше история известна.
 
  Александра Амелькина обвиняют в ненаучности его аргументов в пользу его гипотезы о происхождении Рукописи Войнича. Привожу здесь убийственные контраргументы или железные факты. Попробуйте оспорить.
 
   (1) Доктор Хартлиб родился не в 1410, а в 1400 году. Иначе бы он никак не мог участвовать в гусситских войнах в 1419 году.
 
   (2) Только доктор Хартлиб владел в то время в Баварии всем спектром знаний, затронутых в Рукописи Войнича. В трудах и материалах доктора Хартлиба есть все рисунки и схемы, похожие на графический материал Рукописи Войнича. В работе Хартлиба "Медикоастрологический Календарь" и других его трудах содержатся различные шрифты и системы тайнописи, включающие в себя до 70% символов, содержащихся в Рукописи Войнича, включая надпись "Michitonese".
 
   (3) Доктор Хартлиб не сам написал Манускрипт Войнича, а поручил эту работу пяти переписчикам, которые на основе черновиков Хартлиба создали до 10 различных вариантов Манускрипта Войнича, имея право свободно в определённых рамках генерировать слова и рисунки. Об этом свидетельствуют некоторые продублированные страницы манускрипта (f70v1, f71r, f71v, f72r1), отличающиеся почерком и деталями, принадлежавшие разным вариантам манускрипта.
 
   (4) Что же касается изображения замка в манускрипте, исследователи отмечают, что общая планировка крепости на рисунке (четыре башни, соединенные стенами, ров или река и центральное здание - Herrenhaus или Wohnturm) удивительно точно повторяет оригинальную структуру замка Блютенбург тех лет. Отсюда родилось предположение, что Хартлиб мог зарисовать в своём черновике рукописи именно замок Блютенбург, а переписчики добавили стенам характерные зубцы. Но есть и другая версия. Баварский герцог Альбрехт III Благочестивый (1401–1460) имел итальянские корни: Его матерью была Элизабетта Висконти, дочь правителя Милана Бернабо Висконти. Из-за этого Альбрехт с детства рос в окружении, испытавшем сильное влияние итальянской культуры. Когда Альбрехт решил построить Замок Блютенбург для своей возлюбленной, а позже тайной супруги Агнес, он внёс романтический итальянский элемент в стены замка, оснастив их зубцами типа "ласточкин хвост".
 
  (5) Поскольку некоторые страницы рукописи написаны сразу двумя писцами (то есть содержат два почерка), это свидетельствует о переписывании рукописи именно в артели на основе единовременного заказа. Я предполагаю, что доктор Хартлиб тесно работал с артелью писцов в Аугсбурге, так как именно там гораздо позже и переиздавалась его книга "Хиромантия". Поскольку доктор Йоханнес Хартлиб свою книгу "Хиромантия" отдавал на изготовление переписчикам в Аугсбурге, то и Манускрипт Войнича он скорее всего заказал в артели писцов тоже в Аугсбурге. Возможно в Аугсбурге он также в замках организовывал сеансы белой магии с манускриптами, где они и хранились. Позже (в 16-том веке) фрагменты манускриптов в Аугсбурге выкупил Карл Видеманн и сшил их воедино.
 
  (6) Поскольку доктор Хартлиб получил обширное образование в различных странах, Манускрипт Войнича содержит множество символов и слов, связанных с латинским, итальянским, немецким, греческим и арабским языками, а также астрологией, алхимией и криптографией.
 
 
 
  Recent updates on the Voynich Manuscript
 
  The concept of the Voynich manuscript traces back to the magician Johannes Hartlieb. In the 15th century, several distinct copies of the Voynich Manuscript were produced by a workshop of scribes - involving at least five different copyists who were authorized to generate their own text and illustrations based on the original manuscript written by Dr. Hartlieb. It is a work of nonsense created for commercial purposes - a sort of fortune-telling book used during magical sessions. What has survived to the present day is a compilation of various copies, bound together later in the wrong order. Manuscripts were often left unbound in those days; instead, they were stored as loose sheets in special cases.
 
  I would like to dwell briefly on the magical sessions involving these manuscripts. How did it all come about? Albrecht III of Bavaria was married to Duchess Anna. Anna spent almost all her time at the castle, occupied with childcare and a state of perpetual pregnancy. She was terribly bored and tormented herself with fits of jealousy. Her only serious pastime was white magic - a pursuit she shared with many neighboring duchesses. Witnessing his wife's distress, Albrecht turned for help to Dr. Johannes Hartlieb - his court physician, diplomat, advisor, and author of numerous books, as well as his brother-in-law. Doctor Hartlieb was renowned as a leading expert in numerous fields - specifically white magic, alchemy, astrology, levitation, metamorphosology, phytobalneology, cryptography, pharmacology, phytotherapy, botany, physiology, and more. Johannes Hartlieb responded to Duke Albrecht's request and proposed that Anna engage in sessions of white magic and fortune-telling. He wrote an illustrated book on palmistry - *Chiromancy* - specifically for Duchess Anna. Anna was overjoyed by the gift and immediately gathered the local high society at Blutenburg Castle for her first white magic session. However, palmistry soon bored her due to its monotony and lack of popularity. She declared, "Ich will mehr!" ("I want more!"). At that moment, Doctor Hartlieb had a brilliant idea: he could kill two birds with one stone. He would produce multiple copies of a secret fortune-telling book for simultaneous white magic sessions at various castles; during these sessions, clients would have their fortunes told regarding their health and be directed to Doctor Hartlieb's pharmacies and clinics for treatment and preventive care. He gathered all his manuscripts and cryptographic methods and wrote the text known today as the Voynich Manuscript. Hartlieb intentionally created nonsense text, which allowed for any kind of forecast or prediction to be made during the sessions. He took the manuscript to a scribal workshop and ordered up to ten copies. Five scribes worked on the manuscripts simultaneously; to speed up the process, they were authorized to generate the "words" themselves. Johannes Hartlieb was the most educated physician in 15th-century Bavaria, and there was no other scholar in the region with a comparable breadth of knowledge and experience. I have attempted to identify similar specialists in Bavaria from that era, but so far without success. I focused my search specifically on Bavaria because the illustrations and certain inscriptions in the Voynich Manuscript led me to conclude that it was likely written there, most probably around the mid-15th century. As a prolific writer, Dr. Hartlieb would certainly have possessed a substantial stock of old parchment — produced during the first half of the 15th century — which he could have handed over to a team of scribes to produce the manuscript based on his own drafts and instructions. The rest of the story is well known.
 
  I am facing some accusations that the arguments supporting my hypothesis regarding the origin of the Voynich Manuscript are unscientific. This concerns Dr. Hartlieb's alleged involvement in the creation of the Voynich Manuscript. I present here some devastating counterarguments.
 
  (1) Some researchers consider Dr. Hartlieb too young to be connected to the Voynich Manuscript. I hold a different opinion and provide a rationale. Dr. Hartlieb was born in 1400, not 1410; otherwise, he could not possibly have participated in the Hussite Wars in 1419.
 
  (2) Dr. Hartlieb was the only person at the time who possessed the full spectrum of knowledge covered in the Voynich Manuscript. His works and materials contain drawings and diagrams resembling the manuscript's graphic content. Hartlieb's *Medico-Astrological Calendar* features various scripts and cipher systems incorporating up to 70% of the symbols found in the Voynich Manuscript, including the inscription "Michitonese".
 
  (3) Dr. Hartlieb did not write the Voynich Manuscript himself; instead, he commissioned five scribes to produce up to ten different versions based on his drafts, allowing them the freedom to generate words and drawings within certain parameters. This is evidenced by certain duplicated pages that differ in handwriting and detail (f70v1, f71r, f71v, f72r1). Therefore, there is no need to compare the handwriting of Dr. Hartlieb with that of the individuals who wrote the manuscript. The presence of duplicated pages and diagrams also indicates that the Voynich Manuscript is assembled from several surviving fragments belonging to different versions of the manuscript.
 
  (4) Regarding the depiction of the castle in the manuscript, researchers note that the fortress's general layout - four towers connected by walls, a moat or river, and a central building (*Herrenhaus*) - mirrors the original structure of Blutenburg Castle from that era with remarkable accuracy. This has led to the hypothesis that Hartlieb sketched Blutenburg Castle in his draft, while the scribes added the characteristic crenellations to the walls.
 
  (5) The fact that certain pages of the manuscript were written by two scribes simultaneously (i.e., displaying two distinct hands) indicates that the manuscript was copied by a scribal workshop as part of a single commission. I hypothesize that Dr. Hartlieb worked closely with a scribal workshop in Augsburg, given that his book *Chiromancy* was republished there much later. Since Dr. Johannes Hartlieb commissioned scribes in Augsburg to produce his *Chiromancy*, it is highly probable that he also commissioned the Voynich Manuscript from a scribal workshop in that same city. He may have also organized sessions involving "white magic" and these manuscripts—which were kept on-site—at various castles in the Augsburg area. Later, Karl Wiedemann purchased manuscript fragments in Augsburg and bound them together.
 
  (6) Given Dr. Hartlieb’s extensive education across various countries, the Voynich Manuscript contains numerous symbols and words associated with Latin, Italian, German, Greek, and Arabic, as well as with astrology, alchemy, and cryptography.
 
 
   LITERATURE
 
   [1] Franz Kuerschner (1872): "Herzog Rudolph's IV. Schriftdenkmale." - In: Mittheilungen der K.K. Central-Commission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale, 17 (1872), 71-80
 
   [2] Marco Heiles (2021): "Johannes Hartlieb: Life and Work Before 1441: Also a Contribution to the Methodology of Writer Identification / Johannes Hartlieb: Leben und Werk vor 1441: Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Schreiberidentifizierung." - Zeitschrift fuer deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 2021, Vol.150 (3), p.337-379
 
   [3] Stefan Guzy (2022): "Book transactions of Emperor Rudolf II 1576-1612. New findings on the earliest ownership of the Voynich manuscript." - International Conference on the Voynich Manuscript 2022, The University of Malta.
 
   [4] Alexander Amelkin (2016): "Das Voynich-Manuskript", Munich, http://feeria.de.
 
   [5] Johannes Hartlieb (1440): "Kraeuterbuch", Kap. 31, 32, 88, 131, 150, 157 und 162
 
   [6] Johannes Hartlieb u.a. (1456): "Medizinischastrologischer Kalender." - BSB Cgm 7958, Muenchen, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Kurzaufnahme einer Handschrift, BSB-ID 991048728419707356, Digitalisiert von Bayerischer Staatsbibliothek am 20.10.2022 https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb00144181
 
   [7] Bernhard Bischoff (1954): "Uebersicht ueber die nichtdiplomatischen Geheimschriften des Mittelalters." - In: Mitteilungen des Instituts fuer Oesterreichische Geschichtsforschung, vol. 62 (1954), 1-27
 
   [8] Keagan Brewer (2021): "The Voynich Manuscript, Dr Johannes Hartlieb, and the Emotions underpinning Gynaeco-sexual Encipherment." - SMRG Talk – The Voynich MS, Sydney Mediaeval & Renaissance Group, AEMA News.
 
   [9] Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis (2020): "How Many Glyphs and How Many Scribes? Digital Paleography and the Voynich Manuscript." - Manuscript Studies: A Journal of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2020.
 
   [10] Johannes Hartlieb (1448): "Encyclopedic Manuscript Containing Allegorical And Medical Drawings." - Library of Congress. - Ein Ordner mit einer Auswahl von Werken anderer Autoren, die zur Erstellung des Voynich-Manuskripts verwendet wurden  
 
   [11] Item 1. "Juengste Forschungen des Heimatvereins Moeglingen e. V. zur Ortsgeschichte haben sensationelle Ergebnisse erbracht.  Der um 1400 in Moeglingen geborene Johannes Hartlieb "war ein studierter Arzt, gelehrter Rat, Diplomat, Hofdichter und fruehhumanistischer Uebersetzer am Hof der Wittelsbacher in M;nchen."
 
   [12] Item 4. https://www.blutenburg.de/rundgang-und-geschichte/geschichte "Bis etwa 1430 bestand die Blutenburg aus dem sogenannten Herrenhaus (Wohnturm) und war von vier Tuermen und einem Wassergraben umgeben."