‘Beinecke Library’ category posts - « Cipher Mysteries »


The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library is part of Yale University in New Haven, CT. Perhaps the most (in)famous rare book in its collection is Beinecke MS 408 – somewhat better known as The Voynich Manuscript (“the VMs”), one of those as-yet-undeciphered manuscripts this blog is so foolishly passionate about.
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Having said all that, if you just pitch up at the Beinecke expecting to be able to see the VMs for yourself, you’ll probably be somewhat disappointed when the curators turn you away. Contact them first, and tell them exactly why a first-class academic like you needs to examine the VMs in person (and why the eerily beautiful hi-res scans on their website aren’t good enough for your needs), and they might just change their minds…


27 posts in 3 Pages. ...

Voynich f116v: pax nax vax?

Posted by nickpelling on Aug 31st, 2010 - 2 comments.
Many historians and palaeographers have concluded that the interleaved '+' signs added to the Voynich Manuscript's back page indicate that the containing text is some kind of spell, incantation, chant, charm, curse, pious utterance, etc. Well, it's completely true that '+' was used in all of the preceding forms to indicate that the (non-silent) reader should physically trace out the sign of the cross at ...
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“So goddamn Voynich…”

Posted by nickpelling on Aug 20th, 2010.
"Can you stop being so goddamn Voynich?" Dan shouted down the phone at her continued silence. "I'm sick of reading between your lines, playing guess-what-Marie-means like our whole off-line life is some afternoon quiz show. Since our shared New Haven hajj, you've been no fun - zero fun - and all I'm getting from you are stupid little clues that even the Cipher Mysteries guy wouldn't ...
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“Criminal Minds” Voynich-themed fanfiction (part 1)…

Posted by nickpelling on May 18th, 2010.
I can't claim to read your busy modern brain: but there's certainly a moderate chance that you just happen to dig both FBI profiler police procedural drama "Criminal Minds" and the Voynich Manuscript. If so, you may well be pleased to know that madlori (just don't call her 'lady', ok?) has just posted part 1 (of 4) of her ...
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Go Oilers…

Posted by nickpelling on Apr 1st, 2010 - 4 comments.
So there I was in my first awesome week working at the B: my room mate Lynina kept saying that I was so 'Legally Blonde', and I was like "but do I have a dog? No? Well, I don't think so". And then she just kept on about the East Coast / West Coast thing, and I'm like "so now ...
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The balneological Panteo…

Posted by nickpelling on Feb 12th, 2010 - 17 comments.
A nice email arrived from Paul Ferguson, pinging me about Giovanni Antonio Panteo/Pantheo (i.e. not the Giovanni Agostino Panteo who wrote the Voarchadumia as mentioned here before) and his book on baths & spas that is listed in the STC as Annotationes ex trium dierum confabulationibus (printed in Venice 1505).  According to The Story of Verona ...
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More APOD spin-off comments…

Posted by nickpelling on Feb 4th, 2010 - 20 comments.
The APOD third-time-lucky Voynich page has (just as you'd expect) been reblogged and retweeted near-endlessly, even on the What Does The Prayer Really Say blog, which describes itself as "Slavishly accurate liturgical translations & frank commentary on Catholic issues - by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf", and has a Catholic priest smiley in the header:  o{]:¬)  Quality-wise, I have to admit that this tramples ...
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Happy New Year, and some predictions for 2010…

Posted by nickpelling on Dec 29th, 2009 - 10 comments.
Once again, it's time to roll out and dust off the Cipher Mysteries crystal skull crystal ball (no, I didn't buy it on eBay, nor did I nick it from the British Museum) to peer dimly ahead to 2010. What will it bring us all? Of course, 2009's big news was the radiocarbon dating of four slivers of the Voynich Manuscript's ...
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Voynich Manuscript – the state of play…

Posted by nickpelling on Dec 4th, 2009 - 31 comments.
For decades, Voynich Manuscript research has languished in an all-too-familiar ocean of maybes, all of them swelling and fading with the tides of fashion. But now, thanks to the cooperation between the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the documentary makers at Austrian pro omnia films gmbh, we have for the very first time a basic forensic framework for what ...
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Micky Bet Voynich piece, now in English (sort of)…

Posted by nickpelling on Nov 20th, 2009 - 3 comments.
Much as I enjoyed watching Micky Bet covering the Voynich Manuscript, I couldn't help but wonder how much better it would be had it had a slightly funkier script. So (courtesy of the kind people at Overstream) I added my own captions. Enjoy! :-) (If you can't see this in your browser or email client, here's a ...
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Every Voynich Book Ever Written (Condensed)…

Posted by nickpelling on Nov 14th, 2009 - 12 comments.
As my plane reached New Haven in Chapter One, I began to realize that this "Voynich Manuscript" mystery was going to be a tough nut to crack. And when the first of my idealistic (but fruit-loop) cryptographic allies got ritualistically murdered by the end of Chapter Two, it was clear that the stakes were higher than an NBA star's dandruff. Yes, ...
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