The Voynich manuscript is preserved with an accompanying letter, dated 19 August 1665, from Johannes Marcus Marci to Athanasius Kircher giving information about its provenance. It is part of a long correspondence between the two men which I reproduce here, together with the letters of Georgius Barschius and Godefridus Aloysius Kinner which are also thought to mention the manuscript.
Rene Zandbergen's Voynich site gives a full account of these men and their place in the history of the manuscript. Athanasius Kircher (1602-80) was a famous Jesuit with a worldwide network of scholarly correspondents including Johannes Marcus Marci (1595-1667), the Rector of the University of Prague, and his friends Kinner and Barschius. Many of their letters to Kircher are preserved in the Carteggio Kircheriana at the Gregorian University in Rome: I have used the digitised version of this archive , which I gladly acknowledge. The Marci letters are discussed by John Fletcher in his article Johann Marcus Marci Writes to Athanasius Kircher (Janus, Leiden, LIX (1972) pp. 97-118). I follow Fletcher's numbering of the letters.
The background to the correspondence is the Thirty Years War, originally a religious conflict between Reformation and Counter-Reformation, but by now a power struggle setting France and Sweden against imperial Austria. Marci met Kircher in Rome in 1639 or 1640 and began writing to him shortly thereafter.
To download the entire correspondence as a text file click here .
My translations of the relevant letters are here .
* | Prague, 27 April 1639 | PUG 557 f. 353r f. 353v |
| Barschius has previously sent Kircher transcripts of a cipher manuscript. Can Kircher read it? | ||
1 | Regensburg, 3 August 1640 | PUG 557 f. 124r |
| Marci arranges an imperial pension for Kircher and invites him to court. | ||
2 | Prague 12 September 1640 | PUG 557 f. 127r |
| Barschius recommended. Plans for a Coptic-Arabic dictionary. | ||
3 | Prague 12 January 1641 | PUG 557 f. 64r |
| Plans for Kircher's visit. Barschius mentioned. A request for books. | ||
4 | Prague 2 March 1641 | PUG 557 f. 92r |
| The Swedes invade Bohemia. A captured cipher letter of General Banner. | ||
5 | Prague 5 October 1641 | PUG 557 f. 65r |
| Marci's progress in Arabic. His difficulties with unpointed texts. | ||
5a | Prague 25 January 1642 | PUG 557 f. 82r f. 82v |
| A theory about the moon and the tides. | ||
6 | Prague 15 March 1642 | PUG 557 f. 71r |
| A discussion of Jesuit missionary literature. A request for Arabic books. | ||
7 | Prague 10 May 1642 | PUG 557 f. 69r |
| The invitation to court renewed. Observation of a lunar eclipse. | ||
8 | Prague 6 December 1642 | PUG 557 f. 86r |
| Difficulties of Arabic: some sentences written in Arabic. A request for information about Arabic books. | ||
9 | Prague 28 March 1643 | PUG 557 f. 88r |
| The Arabic books gratefully received. New hopes for the Coptic-Arabic lexicon. | ||
10 | Prague 19 September 1643 | PUG 557 f. 107r |
| A copy of an Egyptian vase. A route through Russia to China. | ||
11 | Prague 7 November 1643 | PUG 557 f. 90r |
| Study of Arabic. Forthcoming eclipses. The route to China. A mention of Emperor Rudolf and Dionysius Misseroni. | ||
12 | Prague 28 November 1643 | PUG 557 f. 102r |
| Astronomical observations. The Coptic book still not available. Arabic studies. | ||
13 | Prague 13 February 1644 | PUG 557 f. 105r |
| Father Reita's dubious claim to see new satellites of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. | ||
14 | Prague 13 February 1644 | PUG 557 f. 104r |
| The Coptic-Arabic dictionary. The war flares up. | ||
15 | Prague 3 September 1644 | PUG 557 f. 113r |
| More doubts about Reita. | ||
16 | Prague 29 October 1644 | PUG 557 f. 115r |
| A new pope elected. The Coptic-Arabic dictionary. | ||
17 | Prague 25 February 1645 | PUG 557 f. 111r |
| Father Mersenne. Marci's book on the rainbow. Emperor Rudolph's glowing jewel - a myth. Arabic books. | ||
18 | Prague 10 June 1645 | PUG 557 f. 116r |
| Wartime isolation. Promotion of the Archduke. Peace with Turkey. | ||
18A | Prague 2 January 1646 | PUG 557 f. 424r |
| Not in Fletcher. Not signed but in Marci's handwriting. Arabic studies. Glauber's chemical furnace. Preparations for a siege. | ||
19 | Prague 10 March 1646 | PUG 557 f. 120r |
| A request for missionary literature. A change of dynasty in China? | ||
20 | Hornhaus 8 September 1646 | PUG 557 f. 117r f. 117v f. 100r 100v |
|
An imperial visit to Hornhaus: the new curative wells there. Pilgrims, Marci's poor eyesight,
Spartan conditions, the risks of wartime travel.
Note: f. 117 is a copy of a lost original and f. 100 is a copy of f. 117. | ||
21 | Prague 29 December 1646 | PUG 557 f. 128r |
| Some books gratefully received. The book on the rainbow to be published. Death of the monk who used to deliver Marci's letters. | ||
22 | Prague 15 August 1647 | PUG 557 f. 109r |
| A certain Carmelite recommended as a new messenger. War news. Events in China. | ||
23 | Prague 11 July 1648 | PUG 557 f. 84r |
| A treatise on the recent purple rain. The wedding of the Emperor. | ||
24 | Prague 19 March 1649 | PUG 557 f. 118r |
| Hopes of peace. A Spanish method of determining longitude. | ||
25 | Prague 23 July 1650 | PUG 557 f. 122r |
| Peace with Sweden. The death by drowning of Marci's son Philip. | ||
26 | Prague 5 August 1650 | PUG 557 f. 130r |
| Some books gone astray. A recommendation of Sigismund Gref. | ||
27 | Prague 10 December 1650 | PUG 557 f. 123r |
| Not available. | ||
28 | Prague 8 March 1653 | PUG 557 f. 126r |
| An enquiry about Oedipus Aegyptiacus. Father Colerus becomes Marci's financial agent in Rome. A request for missionary books. | ||
29 | Prague 9 July 1655 | PUG 557 f. 97r |
| Financial arrangements for book buying. More doubts about Reita. | ||
30 | Prague 7 August 1655 | PUG 557 f. 94r |
| Marci sends a book of his. A snake created in a test tube. | ||
31 | Prague October 1655 | PUG 557 f. 95r |
| Marci's son George sent to Rome and entrusted to Kircher. Swedish depredations. | ||
32 | Prague 11 December 1655 | PUG 557 f. 96r |
| Oedipus Aegyptiacus arrives at last. Alchemical experiments old and new: a mention of Emperor Rudolph and Edward Kelley. | ||
33 | Nuremberg 19 August 1658 | PUG 557 f. 99r |
| The election and coronation of Emperor Leopold. Troubles of Father Caramuel Lobkowitz. | ||
34 | Prague 23 February 1659 | PUG 557 f. 62r |
| A recommendation of the Countess of Thun. Union of the Clementine and Caroline universities in Prague. | ||
35 | Prague 10 September 1665 | PUG 562 f. 114r |
|
A request for missionary books. Arrangements for payment.
Note: this letter is signed by Marci but not in his handwriting. The handwriting is the same as in the Beinecke letter. | ||
* | Prague 19 August 1665 | Beinecke 408A |
| Marci sends an enciphered manuscript to Kircher. Can Kircher read it? | ||
* | Prague 4 January 1666 | PUG 562 f. 138r f. 138v |
| Kinner's ill health. Mundus Subterraneus. Kircher has read Marci's Philosophia, but what about that arcane book he sent him? Thoughts on the Royal Society and Francis Bacon. | ||
* | Prague 5 January 1667 | PUG 562 f. 151r f. 151v |
| The decay of mathematics in Bohemia: Father Schott dead and Marci ailing. Can Kircher read the book Marci sent him? | ||
