Until such time as the sun burns out and/or the Kardashians are no longer celebrities, the Internet will continue to be littered by clickbait gosh-wow pages claiming to list the top [insert number here] cipher mysteries. And of the unsolved ciphers these typically include, probably the least known is the Rohonc Codex.
And so I decided a few days ago to go looking for a definitive book on the Rohonc Codex. After all the years the Rohonc Codex has spent under the world wide web’s spotlight, one such book must surely have come out by now, right?
Well… wrong, actually. But regardless, I thought I ought to flag two of the books I did find, purely as some kind of blogtastic public service…
The second worst Rohonc Codex book ever
In this digital printing age, it turns out that there are a number of groups of people who rip articles out of Wikipedia (often by the hundred or even thousand) and market them as ebooks and/or POD (“print on demand” books). In the case of BetaScript Publishing, their Rohonc Codex book is entitled (unsurprisingly) “Rohonc Codex”; is 120 pages long (though my guess is that most of those are generic filler); is one of some 5000+ titles churned out by the company; and is priced at a splutter-worthy 28.99 euros.
In the absence of any clear scenario where parasitic non-books like this are genuinely a good idea for someone somewhere (and not just a scam), all I can do is advise you that rubbish this bad really does exist, in the hope that you don’t buy it.
Besides, if you do have money burning a hole in your pocket that you’re desperate almost beyond measure to spend on something utterly pointless and yet marginally Rohonc Codex-related, there is another book out there that arguably offers less value than this…
The worst Rohonc Codex book ever
As you doubtless know, digital publishing platforms have allowed a vast number of completely baseless and zero-merit theories about cipher mysteries to emerge into the sunlight of Amazon.com’s virtual repository. All the same, I must confess that even I wasn’t quite ready for the 156-page “Rohonc Codex: English Translation Paperback” (2011), courtesy of Linnaeus Hoffmann Publishing and “Mr Dicky Maloney (Author), Mr Kenneth Grahame (Author), Mr Bernie Douglas (Introduction)”. Yes, the very same “Mr Kenneth Grahame” who died in 1932.
For it turns out that:
The Rohonc Codex is a Twelfth Century Hungarian text, written in a language, that until this very day, has not been translated by anyone else. Not a single word. And then Dicky Maloney painstakingly translated this text, word for word. As it turns out, by pure coincidence, it is Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, word for word.
And here’s the cover, which is in the same general vein:
Now OK, it’s obviously just a joke: and Linnaeus Hoffman Publishing’s other book (also from 2011) was “The Stickwick Staplers”, a marginally satirical opus from which you can read a small chunk (which probably is as much as is safe for anyone not wearing a hazmat suit and ten-layer blindfold to digest) courtesy of Amazon’s Look Inside (Before Sticking Your Fingers Down Your Throat) feature. I’d normally say “Enjoy!” here, but on this occasion I’m not sure I can bring myself to. 🙁
However, I was kind of impressed by the way that (the now-defunct) www.linnaeushoffman.com website had only a single entry in the Wayback Machine (from January 2013), a snapshot which contained not even a single webpage: this would seem to have been a successful attempt to construct an entirely unseen corner of the Internet.
It is of course conceivable that “Rohonc Codex: English Translation Paperback” will turn out to be a book industry ‘sleeper’, an unbelievably splendiferous secret hit so beloved by Those Opinion-Makers Who Know (And Indeed Define) What Is Hip And Cool that it has been continuously optioned by every major Hollywood film producer since 2011, whose attempts to bring it to the silver screen have been thwarted solely by the book’s unfilmable brio. But I suspect the odds are somewhat against that scenario. 🙁
Then again, it’s not widely known that Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” received terrible reviews when it first appeared blinking into the hostile light of day in 1908. It was only unexpected plaudits from US President Theodore Roosevelt that helped make it popular: almost nobody else at the time saw its merits. So who am I to judge a book that I can’t buy or even download (and which I expect was never actually printed)?
Of course there’s not much interest in the Rohonc. It’s the word itself.
“Voynich” is mysterious. One thinks of spies, mysterious book dealers, history.
But the word “Rohonc” is dull. It sounds like a brand of flatirons that went out of business in 1919.
You see the problem then.
What is needed is some improvement.
Don’t know how to do this, I never hung with the marketing crowd in my software writing days.
Perhaps calling it the ROHON-C (as though there was a version “A” and “B”, now lost). Or misspelling it as the “ROHANK” (giving it a mysterious touch).
Etc. Etc…
Now get back to the good stuff, the Voynich.
James R. Pannozzi: for what it’s worth, it’s actually pronounced “Rohonts”. But perhaps a bumper sticker saying “ROHONC IF YOU (heart) MYSTERIES” would be a helpful marketing tool. 😉
“Rohonts” ?? Even worse !
Perhaps it could be spiffed up a bit by putting one of those cute little curlicue thingies (sorry, forgot the proper name for it) under the “C” as the clever Portuguese and, I think, Turks do in their languages.
Nick,
In my opinion, the reason for that not a huge crowd of intellectuals and hobbyists study and make discussions about the Rohonci Codex and its mysterious writing system, is that the book and its surrounding backstories (that are way not that extensive and not that interesting as the ones that come along with the V. Ms.) make people instantly associate to a language and a cultural context that is considered way too exotic for the western public to ignite the flame of in-depth investigations – this language is Hungarian (of which I am really proud to be a native speaker of).
As a matter of fact, those who grow up in an English-speaking environment for example, find the language reportedly difficult to learn and speak correctly. In addition, Hungary does not have a significant economical influence on the west either, so the future studies about the manuscript will be mostly targeted towards cryptography-enthusiasts who are native speakers of Hungarian (yes, those who are making up the smallest existing intellectual subculture in the entire universe.)
I have read several official studies on the Codex recently that have been published in my language, and besides a lamentable half dozen papers about roman numerals and faint abbreviations, not too much information can be obtained from the Internet by the native speaker, either.
There is also an option that the language and the cultural context of the Rohonci Codex is not even related to Hungary in any way. Both German and Latin were widespread among Hungarian scholars in the 16th to the early 20th century, and there is still a rather significant minority of Romanians and other nations in the country, to whom the origin of the Codex might be (also) related. And it is also possible that the manuscript has been purchased by the Batthyany family from somewhere abroad, and that would be an entirely different story.
In any way, it is really embarrassing that the Rohonci Ms. has never gained such popular interest that even a single person would upload a proper high definition PDF of the manuscript’s pages. Some time ago, the enthusiasts could either manually download the pages from a gappy series of ~400 low quality JPGs uploaded to a Romanian site (dacia.org) or could ask for permission to get access to the actual manuscript in the national library.
I believe that the ciphertext and the imagery of the Rohonci Codex can still be a potential field of study for both the highly educated professionals and free-time cryptography-dabblers like me, for example. It also has detailed illustrations with a much more simply structured writing system than that of the Voynich Manuscript. It makes me wonder how shamelessly people ignore our real cultural heritages from the Middle Ages while being completely submerged in the world of corny and highly overrated RPGs and Tv-series, like that of Game of Thrones.
In any way, I am looking forward to read some more relevant and interesting articles about the Rohonci Codex and its possible historical background.
Best regards,
N. V.
Whoa ! I think I’ll stick to my “CHRONO” interpretation. If I even try to pronounce ‘Rohonc’, I have to blow my nose.
Fun, Nick !
To Norbert Váradi,
you are undoubtedly correct about the hurdle that is posed by the Hungarian language, which I am sure has very few foreign learners.
Furthermore, had the Voynich MS ended up in the Vatican library as intended, I am sure it would not have been anywhere near as popular as it is now.
I recently ran into the accessibility of Hungarian material myself, looking for a very rare publication by what seems a reasonably well-known historian, Floris Romer. I quickly ran out of options when Google searches couldn’t help.
So, in a very opportunistic manner, I would be happy if you could contact me on this topic.
Norbert Váradi: the situation around the Rohonc Codex is perhaps not quite as bad as you paint it – though arguably my post here isn’t yet much of a help, beyond warning people away from stuff they didn’t really need warning about. To be honest, I was rather more interested in weaving in the sad (but true) story of author Kenneth Grahame, which is something hardly anyone knows about. :-/
But as you suspect, I do indeed have some more Rohonc Codex posts lined up, and hope to include a number of aspects of it that even you may not have heard of. 😉
For the record, I’ve been to Hungary twice (though some years ago) and didn’t find tourist Hungarian scary at all. In fact, the worst part was ordering a sajtburger. 😉
There’s an ASCII transcription of the Rohonc Codex at http://quint.us/Roho/
A scan of the Rohonc Codex is available at https://www.holybooks.com/rohonc-codex/
Another script no one’s been able to crack is Rongorongo. There’s plenty of text carved on pieces of wood and only one language worth considering (Rapa Nui).
Nick wrote: “However, I was kind of impressed by the way that (the now-defunct) http://www.linnaeushoffman.com website had only a single entry in the Wayback Machine (from January 2013), a snapshot which contained not even a single webpage: this would seem to have been a successful attempt to construct an entirely unseen corner of the Internet.”
Many sites do not get recorded at all the on the Wayback Machine. Unless it’s a major site, often someone needs to request a page for it to get on their radar and even then, they don’t necessarily snapshot pages other than what was requested. The reason some (of the minor sites) have more records than others is because they may have a small fan base requesting them.
I do find the idea of trying to construct an unseen corner of the Internet rather interesting, though. I wonder how difficult that would be. All the pages would have to be set to negative for the search bots, but that wouldn’t stop the data-harvesting bots from searching them—they have no scruples.
Donald, thanks for the links. I did not know that there was a digitised transcription. Who did the work, do you know?
Somehow Rohonc is not the Sword in the Stone. What if he actually had deciphered it? “The second most mysterious manuscript in the world, the Glass Slipper of historical cryptography has been solved at last. Nonentity Dickie Maloney…”
I must give it a go.
Donald: thanks very much for that, I have (at least) three more posts on the Rohonc Codex lined up and this is an excellent resource I shall be sharing there. 🙂
To Rene Zandbergen,
I have also heard about the works of Romer Floris and it might be a good starting point to browse through and know some more of his works. However, as far as I know, there are much more recent and up-to-date studies regarding the Middle ages in Hungary, but I’m not really into professional archeology, either.
Other than that, even if one can find some minor references to the exact date and place where the Rohonci Codex was written, it will be hell of a trouble to go into further details, for several different things that play important role helping us describing the content of the codex:
1. The language. The Hungarian language has gone through a series of extensive lexical and grammatical changes over time. The result of this is that the rest of those (otherwise unenciphered) 15th- and 16th- century Hungarian letters and manuscripts require a ton of research to be interpreted correctly by the ordinary reader. In addition, for a long time, the language did not have very exactly defined grammatical standards, so the way how a word is written could have shown incredible differences depending on where the scribe was grown up inside Hungary (that resembles to the concept of Italian dialects, just a tiny bit more diverse.)
2. The imagery: The drawings are highly stylized and rather childish, and there are those biblical scenes that are depicted in such a manner that was extremely uncommon in the context of the visual art style applied to books and manuscripts from those times. Some less known rural art influcence could be present, that would be my guess, but here we meet the next obstacle, that is:
3. Considering that the manuscript is from the early 1500s (based on the study of the pages indicating Venetian origin from ca. 1530), it is important to know that countless historical artifacts were destroyed at that time by the barbaric Ottoman invaders, who also burned up many cities and villages in wars with Eastern European countries, including those in Hungary. My suspicion of that the manuscript is still in a reasonable condition is based on some of the illustrations depicting Muslim and paganic religious symbols, suggesting that the Turks were somewhat merciful with those artifacts that contained familiar symbolism such as the star and crescent, etc.
I hope I could provide you and the fellow readers some new pieces of information that can outline the obstacles and possible starting point for the future researches.
Cheers,
N. V.
Thanks! I was trying to find a copy of this publication:
Rómer Flóris. Díszlapok a római könyvtárakban őrzött négy Corvincodex-ból. Lefényképeztette a vaticani zsinaton jelen volt magyarországi püspöki kar. 16 fényképp. (Iv. 13 l.) Pest, 1871. Athenaeum ny.
This includes a number of photographs taken of manuscripts in the Collegium Romanum library, *before* the confiscation by the state, i.e. before they were hidden. These are specifically two MSS of Matthias Corvinus, that Voynich bought, and were later sold to the Morgan library.
I’m sure someone else has noticed that the first series of images is a life of Christ, and repetition of those and other scenes in later folios suggests a brieviary or similar handbook. One seems to show the Dormition of the Theotokos, or ‘Assumption of the Blessed Virgin’ as it is known in the Latin church today. The same theme is found in early but non-canonical Coptic Christian works but the story isn’t in the accepted texts of the Christian testament, letters or Acts, so the content is unlikely to predate the fifth century AD. On other grounds, I’d suggest as first option a period around the time when Hungary was converted (or re-converted) under Stephen I.
As it happens I had reason to quote (at voynichimagery) the edict which was issued by Stephen so have the translation handy:
“Upon the council of Pope Sylvester II we have decided that the antique runic characters and that the pagan method of writing which proceeds from right to left, used in Hungary by the people and clerics/clerks of the Szekler and Kun* provinces, shall henceforth be forbidden and suppressed …. superceded by Latin writing ….all manuscripts, inscriptions and books [in that script or scripts: it is possible that ‘runic’ and the ‘pagan script’ were distinct systems] in the possession of priests shall be burned [and ‘destroyed by fire and sword’] and replaced by Latin books [or: books in Latin script]..
the translation is by Badiny. Anyone curious about why I should have mentioned it in connection with the Vms can find the blogpost by searching “Badiny”
Needs a heavy metal umlaut: Röhönc 🙂
Rene,
the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien has a copy of the book you are looking for.
http://data.onb.ac.at/rec/AC09815061
You should be abler to get it by way of Auslandsfernleihe
Greg: you Rö(hön)c! 🙂
Many thanks Helmut!
And apologies to all for the OT.
To René Zandbergen,
I have searched for further details on the things you are looking for but I strongly doubt that any digitized version of these material is available on the Internet. At least you have to pay to see them. Perhaps the actual codices are only accessible in their physical location, that is some library in Hungary. And I cannot say too much because I live in Denmark and I rarely visit the Homeland, and is usually not for research purposes about medieval manuscripts, but I will see if I have time for that.
May I ask what did raise your interest about these photographs? Are you sure there could be any connection between these codices and the Rohonci Ms.? I am looking forward to see your replying.
Best regards,
N. V.
To Norbert: many thanks. From the message of Helmut Winkler it appears that there is a copy of this (short) document in Vienna. I will try to either get a scan of it, or to loan it for a few weeks.
My interest for this is not related to the Rohonc codex, but is a ‘side issue’ for the history of the Voynich MS, one I have been researching for many years now. Hungarian historians have been studying the dispersion of the library of Matthias Corvinus, and their investigations have shed some light into what happened with the Jesuit libraries in Rome in 1870. The fate of these manuscripts is very closely related with that of the Voynich MS.
A better scan: http://real-ms.mtak.hu/80/
An attempt at decipherment: http://rohoncbyoancea.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/1-introduction.html
Some more links: http://ixoloxi.com/rohonc/index.html
I remember reading an exciting ‘Corvinus’ tale, written in very vivid prose in 2008.
I was disappointed that it seemed little more than a film-script, and have hunted for a decade to discover how the notion first attracted attention. Was it the conclusion gained by someone who studied the script, identified the language or offered informed commentary on the imagery or codicology.. or all the above?
Any practical details of the propounder and his/her line of thought would be much appreciated.
– not relevant to Nick’s post, but every comment is read along with the post, and I can hardly be the only one of Nick’s readers who’d like to know the basis for the ‘Corvinus’ idea.
Nick: It looks like there could be an opportunity for you to write your next book:
“The Curse of the Rohonc”
Thanks to the tip of Helmut, I now have a copy of the Romer book.
The text turns out to be more interesting than expected, but what is not unexpected is that Google translate makes a big mess of it (probably combined with OCR issues).
I should be getting some local help here, but may need more, and if Norbert would be interested, I would welcome an E-mail.
Many thanks in advance!
So, has anyone, yet, been able to find the origin of the “Rohonc/Rohonci ?
Go with the pictures (of the man stapled to the cross. Go with the depiction of the ‘whirligig’. Go with the pictures of men using sticks to move the notches on that giant piece of clockwork.
I’ll be focused on “clockwork” for a while longer. Is there a protocol in place for approaching the Vatican and its huge archive ?
bd
I refer you all to the First and Second Books of Chronicles King James Version.
bd
@ Nick: A ‘sidebar question” for you : I have a book at my elbow which, I am sure, you would like some feedback : “The Habsburg Empire 1815 – 1918 ” .
When you published ‘access to history’ were you aware of the ‘problem genetics’ which appeared in nearly every generation of the Habsberg/Hapsburg Empire ?
(Also including Rudolph — who would eat fruit and vegetables only.)
bd
bdid1dr: actually, “Access To History: The Habsburg Empire, 1815-1918” is a 1996 book by a different Nick Pelling, i.e. someone who is not me. 🙁
bdid1dr: In yet another remarkable Ciphermystery coincidence. I too recently had cause to be interested in the Habsburgs for some reason or other, also assuming that slick Nick was the author. I know that the well heeled family suffered from more than their fair share of physical and mental afflictions. Being attributable to their aristocratically motivated un-natural selection and resultant inbreeding over many generations, they can’t blame anyone but themselves. How about something like good old Duchenne muscular distrophy syndrome; does that one come up in the book by any chance. I can’t find reference to a connection in my limited research material, so would appreciate your checking for me.
The entire “Rohonc” mystery is nothing more than excerpts from the “Holy Roman Bible”. The cronology/chronicles of the persecution and death of Jesus Christ (by being having his legs broken — and then nailed to a very large “T-shaped” cross.