‘The Curse of the Voynich’ category posts - « Cipher Mysteries »


The Curse of the Voynich is a controversial 2006 book by Nick Pelling (that’s me), which puts forward the claim that the Voynich Manuscript might well have been written by Antonio Averlino, the Florentine Quattrocento architect better known as “Filarete”.
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Much disputed (mainly by people who have their own cock-and-bull Voynich theory to promote), but fascinating all the same(even if I do say so myself).
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What, you haven’t bought a copy yet? Shame on you!


25 posts in 3 Pages. ...

Filelfo’s 1465 letter to George Amirutzes…

Posted by nickpelling on Feb 24th, 2010 - 4 comments.
Art historians have long debated whether or not dissatisfied architect Antonio Averlino made the trip from Italy to Constantinople in 1465: one of the key pieces of evidence supporting the notion is the letter of recommendation written in Greek by Averlino's old friend Filelfo (the humanist writer and Hellenophile) and addressed to George Amirutzes (Mehmed II's personal tutor). This is one of those things ...
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“Voynich Averlino hypothesis” summary…

Posted by nickpelling on Jan 10th, 2010 - 2 comments.
In the last few days, several people have independently asked me to summarize my "The Curse of the Voynich" Voynich Manuscript theory (that it is an enciphered copy of Antonio Averlino [Filarete]'s lost books of secrets). Good theories generally improve when you retell them a few times: for example, back when I was first pitching my new type of ...
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“The Curse of the Voynich”, now back in print…

Posted by nickpelling on Dec 24th, 2009 - 2 comments.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! Today's brief news is that 100 copies of "The Curse of the Voynich" have just arrived from the printers, so those 20-odd people who ordered one from Amazon this month should be receiving it by the New Year (post willing). Alternatively, if you'd like your own shiny signed copy, order one via PayPal using ...
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Nick Pelling online radio interview with Red Ice Creations…

Posted by nickpelling on Sep 23rd, 2009 - 1 comment.
Just to let you know that a Voynich Manuscript radio interview I gave a few days ago (either download it, or click on the Flash Player play button [half a screen down on the right] to hear it) has just gone live on the Red Ice Creations website. They wanted me to chat about all things ...
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VBI, now in English English!

Posted by nickpelling on Jul 8th, 2009 - 4 comments.
His eyes stinging from all the Google Translate hits popping up on his server logs (what did I tell you?), Elias Schwerdtfeger posted up an English translation of his Voynich Bullshit Index post from a couple of days ago, no doubt cursing me through gritted teeth as he typed. :-) By my reckoning, I reckon my Averlino theory in ...
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Q13 and Voynich balneology sources…?

Posted by nickpelling on Jun 18th, 2009 - 4 comments.
One of the (frustratingly small) number of art history leads the Voynich Manuscript's author dangles before our eyes is the balneology part of Q13 ("quire 13"). Specifically, there are two bifolios that depict baths and pools, where the pictures helpfully allow us to reconstruct what the page layout originally was:           84r/84v - contains Q13's quire number (which should be at ...
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The Voynich Cipher for code-breakers…

Posted by nickpelling on Jun 6th, 2009 - 11 comments.
Though (as was apparent from the rapid social media take-up of yesterday's XKCD webcomic) the Voynich Manuscript is now firmly wedged in the cultural mind, sadly the level of debate on it is still stuck circa 1977 - and if anything, Gordon Rugg's foolish "hoax" claims have helped to keep it there. But it is demonstrably written ...
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Some new Voynich Manuscript blogs…

Posted by nickpelling on May 27th, 2009 - 8 comments.
(1) A big hello to Rich SantaColoma as he emerges from the VMs "List Closet" into the bright(-ish) light of the blogosphere. His "New Atlantis Voynich Theory" blog sets out his basic stall - which is that, thanks to his "Nagging Sense of Newness" about the Voynich Manuscript, he harbours strong doubts that it is anywhere near as ...
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Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Filarete… aha!

Posted by nickpelling on May 20th, 2009 - 4 comments.
Right at the start of (1970) "Brunelleschi: Studies of His Technology and Inventions" (pp. xi-xiii), Frank Prager summarizes Gustina Scaglia's research into how Brunelleschi's ideas for machines spread. They posit a key missing manuscript (dubbed "The Machinery Complex"): but their discussion is fairly specialised, and so it is quite tricky to follow. Here's my attempt at representing the argument - green boxes represent manuscripts that still exist, ...
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Voynich Photoshop gags…

Posted by nickpelling on Mar 20th, 2009 - 8 comments.
Cracked.com is running a Photoshop contest - "The retarded Truth behind the World's Greatest Mysteries". Truth be told, my favourite entry is mrlarry's tame dinosaur moving Stonehenge's stones in its mouth. But there are a couple of Voynich Manuscript themed entries too... Sanchez's competition entry (quarter size) The ...
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