While adding categories to some old blog posts just now, up popped a mention of the Karlsruhe Virtual Katalog (KVK). I normally use KVK to find specific non-fiction holdings: but today I wondered what otherwise-unknown Voynich masterpieces it might be able to tell me about. At Dennis Stallings’ prompting, I’ve just started to add non-English Voynich novels to my Big Fat List, so this was a good opportunity to expand its scope in a rather more , errrm, “Teutonophile” direction…
- (2008) Das Voynich-Manuskript : ein ungelöstes Rätsel der Vergangenheit Erich H. Peter Roitzsch.
What can 32.60 euroes buy you these days? Not a lot of explanation about the VMs, if the Amazon blurb for Roitzsch’s book is anything to go by. Somewhat unbelievably, its Unique Selling Point is that mainstream Voynich researchers will be eternally grateful for any insight readers might have into this mystery. Sadly, “condescending and hostile” might be a better prediction. Oh well. 🙁
- (2008) Das Voynich Manuskript. Mystikthriller [Ungekürzte Ausgabe] (Broschiert) Panagiotis Konidaris ; übers. von Maria Sabbas-Scouras
Again, 19.90 euroes for a “Mystikthriller” might seem a little steep (particularly for those in the UK looking at the pound’s current 1:1 parity to the euro), but what the hey. As with The Voynich Enigma, a Templar seal on the cover flags what you’re getting – a Euro-zone admixture of Church, Templar secrets, and (I’d predict fairly thin) cryptography. Ah, bless.
- (2005) Das Voynich-Rätsel : Thriller Florian F. Marzin
Alexander the Great, Persia, Voynich Manuscript, terrible secret, sexy archaeologist, Yale, bla bla bla. Sorry to be so immediately negative, but when will these people learn?
- (2008) Der Fährtenleser 4: Das Voynich-Manuskript: Ein kryptobotanisches Rätsel (Taschenbuch) Markus Bühler ; Michael Schneider.
A bit of an oddity: 34 pages long, 8 euroes, a German-language magazine devoted to cryptozoology puts out an issue focusing on cryptobotany – and no prizes for guessing which bizarre manuscript is invited to the party. Might possibly be an interesting read – but I’ll admit to being somewhat skeptical.
- (2008) The seeress of Prevorst : her secret language and prophecies from the spirit world / John DeSalvo
The real curiosity of the day: a book describing the life and (odd) works a German mystic called Frederika Hauffe (1801-1829) whose convulsions and visions led to bizarre trance-like writing in both a “spirit language” and a “unique coded alphabet”. DeSalvo’s putative link between Hauffe and the VMs is anyone’s guess – but perhaps it would be worth having a look at his 224-page, pleasantly-affordable book. 🙂
Das Voynich Manuskript. Mystikthriller is a German translation of a novel in Greek, ‘The Prague Manuscript’ by Panagiotis Konidaris. Here’s a translation of the Amazon entry, along with some stuff from the author’s blog.
‘The Voynich manuscript is the only document which has yet to be deciphered by anyone. As it rests today in its velvet sheath in the rare manuscript library ofYale University, a series of ritual murders, starting with the bookbinder Orpheus Paleologos’ beloved uncle, shock the whole of Europe. Orpheus Paleologos goes to study this mysterious manuscript,as it refers to a centuries-old secret message. Now a game of chess begins that takes him from Monemvasia and Rome to Prague, in a race against the clock. The Vatican and the secret federation of the Carbonari are involved. As the historic ball around the Voynich Manuscript unrolls before our eyes, crusaders and monks, scientists and magicians, adventurers and emperors emerge. With the help of the Prague historian Sarka Bilek, Orpheus investigates the secret message of the Manuscript with the tenacity of a chess player, while he fights against the demons of his past, which emerge again and again in his sleep and ultimately in his waking life. When the last veil is lifted, nothing will be like it once was anymore. What does the Voynich Manuscript hide? And who will survive to tell humanity? . An exciting mystical thriller, which captivates its readers from the first to the last page like no other book.’
Orpheus Paleologos is obviously an apt name for the hero! The game of chess is involved too.
The author’s blog entry on the book:
http://konidaris.blogspot.com/2007/08/blog-post_03.html
I wonder if these late comments are seen by anyone…..
The first book quoted above is actually visbile on Google books in its entirety. Is that normal?
Anyway, it is here: http://books.google.de/books?id=0ZECGBhCXXkC
Even a necessarily brief examination of this book indicates that it might be much better
than assumed based on the Amazon blurb….
Hi Rene,
The excerpt on Google Books only goes up to page 47, which is really where the Internet research peters out and it (presumably) starts to get interesting – but if you’d like to read it and review it, I’d be delighted to post your comments here. 🙂
And yes, people do read these comments. Really! 🙂
Cheers, ….Nick Pelling….