A Happy New Year to all Cipher Mysteries readers, for it might well be a good year for historical cipher mystery research!
As doubtless most of you know, 1912 was the year when Wilfrid Voynich [very probably] bought the “ugly duckling” artefact now named after him from the Villa Mondragone in Frascati in Italy, making this year (in the absence of any specific dating evidence) its modern centenary.
Now, the media love centenaries (e.g. Charles Dickens’ 2012 bicentenary) because it’s news that they can project manage in advance; and so this Voynich Manuscript centenary is bound to inspire plenty of glossy magazine articles and perhaps even documentaries and films. In fact, I know there’s at least 22 minutes of new Voynich TV documentary coming this Autumn, because the director had me running round in an Italian heatwave to make it (though as normal, I’m not allowed to talk about it until it’s all announced la-la-la).
But how should we best celebrate a hundred years of patchy history, failed cryptology and hallucinogenic theorizing? [Well, apart from cracking its cipher, of course. 😉 ] The longstanding joke on Jim Reeds’ VMs Mailing List (before it lost both its momentum and its way) was that we’d all share a pizza to celebrate breaking the Voynich, with the slices loosely signifying the many contributions different people made. Yet as the decades have accumulated, this jokey pizza base has worn rather thin: the Voynichian collaborational camaraderie dwindled long ago, to the point that we now have little or no consensus on even basic aspects: the sweet taste of Voynich success pizza looks likely to elude us for some time.
All the same, I’ve long thought it would be really great if we could collectively do something for 2012, if only to stop lazy journalists and bloggers cutting-and-pasting the Wikipedia Voynich Manuscript article for the thousandth time. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could conjure up – however fleetingly – a real-world forum where well-informed, thoughtful people could, well, just talk sensibly and openly about the manuscript, its curious text, its odd drawings, its murky history, its codicology… a bit like a “Voynich pub meet” but to the nth degree…
And so it is with very great pleasure that I am delighted to announce that an international Voynich conference has been organized for 11th May 2012 at the Sala degli Svizzeri at the Villa Mondragone itself, no less. The organizers are Claudio Foti (author of an Italian Voynich book) and Voynich researchers Michelle Smith and Rene Zandbergen: even though booking for attendees doesn’t open till 1st February 2012, would it be forward of me to hope that I see many of you there?
It’s entirely true that I’ve agreed to give one of the presentations: but don’t let that put you off 😀 , there are plenty of high-calibre attendees who may well be speaking too, such as (though none of these are yet confirmed):-
* Rene Zandbergen – long-term Voynich researcher, & creator of the excellent voynich.nu
* Greg Hodgins – carried out the recent vellum radiocarbon dating
* Joe Barabe – performed the ink and paint analysis for McCrone Associates
* Paula Zyats – Assistant Chief Conservator at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
* Rafal Prinke – expert on the history of alchemy (and all kinds of other wonderful stuff)
* Philip Neal – long-term Voynich researcher and Latinist (translated many Kircher letters)
* etc
I don’t yet know if the whole day is going to be podcasted, webinared, or Twitter hashtagged. Frankly, I hope that it is, because I do appreciate that not everyone can afford to take a couple of days off from their working life to engorge (on fantastic Italian food) and engage (in Voynich-related chat). All the same, all credit to Messers Foti, Smith & Zandbergen for making this splendid thing possible – and let’s hope that it encourages someone with sufficient leverage to convince the Beinecke curators to allow a multispectral scan for Paula Zyats to announce at the conference… wouldn’t that be great! 😀
wow! what a line-up.
I always seem to be the first to comment on your posts. Perhaps because I check my mail first thing in the morning, and you write last thing at night.
In future I’ll be more reticent about posting, promise!
I do hope the papers will be published – pdf perhaps?
So 2012 is the Voynich centenary and Charles Dickens’ bicentenary. Just a coincidence, or could there be more to it?!? 😉
Happy Voynich New Year!
David: actually, with the radiocarbon dating, who’s to say that the real date wasn’t 1412? Perhaps right now, someone’s preparing to announce that 2012 in fact marks the Voynich’s sexcentennial… Looking forward to the press conference! 😀
Paper? Did someone say pdf? Please, please do!
Many thanks for the thumbs up, Nick!
Unfortunately, our date clashes with a conference in the US that both Paula Zyats and Joe Barabe are attending, so neither of them will be able to make it to the Villa Mondragone.
Other than that, news will be presented at the above link a it unfolds.
Happy Voynich New Year, and Happy Voynich Centennial! I plan to attend!
Nick, I looked and looked at your “menu” of cipher sites and couldn’t find one that would fit this little news item (I’m not quoting, but only extracting):
South Sudan – performing Shakespeare “Cymbeline”
Globe to Globe
London in April/May (?)
Lanquage: Juba Arabic (pidgin)
Nick, you are so right!
I’ve just looked up listings for ‘Voynich’ with Google, within the past 48 hours. Thirteen pages of them (I get two listings in all that).
But I had to preserve this media hype title for posterity. Perhaps it deserves the equivalent of the ‘gong’ award, for being the most OTT video/tv title ever?
LES CHEVALIERS de BAPHOMET : Le Manuscrit de Voynich [da-da-da-daaaa!]
Nick, is there any way the location for this event could be a little closer to the Beinecke Library? Especially if someone at Yale could arrange for a conference room/area for attendees? Maybe, if the conference were to be held during “Spring Break”, there might even be lodging/hostels in the immediate area.
If something like that could occur, I, me, myself, and mine (husband) might even be able to attend. We would be coming “to town” by train.
Just a thought (or wistful dream?)
(ps: my new neighbor is Dutch. Currently she and her husband are vacationing at their New Zealand property. She has travelled all over the world. She might even enjoy an event like this. I think they are returning in mid-March.
Really, I guess I should switch to using “…” instead of parenthesis — ) No, these aren’t smileys — just my lopsided use of parentheses. ….
Nick, Diane, and all:
I know I seem obsessed with the idea that many of the charts, drawings of women in various “bathing” modes, women waving “flags”, potions recipes…..ALL seem to lead to harem activities. Specifically, the extremely fraught, competitive lives of the women in the Ottoman emperor’s seraglio. I’d like to refer y’all to this well-laid out website:
http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/632917
I hope the link goes through.
Why Frascati? Why not Prague or vicinity? Prague Castle? Karlstejn Castle? Either location would certainly be more convenient for Rene, and maybe Esther Molen? Probably more accessible to other Continental (local)historian-cipher-folk also.
I finally found one web page that shows handwriting script development of the 15th century. There are several examples, only, that clarify the statement: “Mind your P’s and Q’s”. Compare and enjoy. (I put the link on your “other” page.
A tout a l’heure!
I just answered my question (#13 above).
See my last entry on your Alternative V page.
Alban Lake and the Pope’s palace just five or ten miles away?
Have a great time!
Nick – judging from some of the stats info to my blog, you’ve got an Italian journalist boning up for the coming Conference! (see you on skychannel, perhaps)