Scientific or magical text in an unidentified language, in cipher, apparently based on Roman minuscule characters; the text is believed by some scholars to be the work of Roger Bacon since the themes of the illustrations seem to represent topics known to have interested Bacon (see also Provenance below.) A history of the numerous attempts to decipher the manuscript can be found in a volume edited by R. S. Brumbaugh, The Most Mysterious Manuscript: The Voynich "Roger Bacon" Cipher Manuscript (Carbondale, Illinois, 1978). Although several scholars have claimed decipherments of the manuscript, for the most part the text remains an unsolved puzzle
Alternative Title:
Voynich manuscript
Description:
In unidentified cipher., Decoration: Almost every page contains botanical and scientific drawings, many full-page, of a provincial but lively character, in ink with washes in various shades of green, brown, yellow, blue and red., and Binding: Modern (18th-19th centuries).
George Aust papers concerning the Secret Service, 1794-1800
Container / Volume:
Folder 1
Image Count:
1
Abstract:
This collection, with its painstaking accounts and administrative receipts, shows the daily complexities of managing a secret service.
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain --History --George III, 1760-1820
Subject (Name):
Aust, George, 1749-1829, Great Britain. Foreign Office --Officials and employees, Grenville, William Wyndham Grenville, Baron, 1759-1834, Thomas Coutts & Co, and Wickham, William, 1761-1840
Subject (Topic):
Ciphers, Cryptography --Great Britain, and Intelligence service --Great Britain
Manuscript on paper of Elias Cortonensis O.F.M., Lumen luminum, said according to this copy to have been composed in 1315, an erroneous date, and drawn from Saracen and Hebrew sources, translated into Latin. With a cryptic text, ascribed to a church figure, with a cipher code; and miscellaneous recipes in Italian
Description:
In Latin, with Italian prologue., Watermark: a circle containing an unidentified design element, with a six-pointed star on a shaft above, not identified., Script: Written in an italic hand and partly in cipher., and Binding: Original, North Italian. Dark leather, the sides ruled with triple bordering lines to form a rectangle within a rectangle, the smaller rectangle with a roll tool of vinelike foliage impressed in blind, a smaller interior rectangle formed by the panel of roll tooling with gold-stamped ivy leaves at the corners and a circular stamp incorporating the "yhs" monogram in the center framed by a lozenge of tooling with the same roll already mentioned; back with five raised bands; modern gold-stamped title label pasted onto second compartment from top. Backstrip and corners extensively repaired; gilt edges stamped with a herringbone knotwork pattern.
George Aust papers concerning the Secret Service, 1794-1800
Container / Volume:
Folder 2
Image Count:
19
Abstract:
This collection, with its painstaking accounts and administrative receipts, shows the daily complexities of managing a secret service.
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain --History --George III, 1760-1820
Subject (Name):
Aust, George, 1749-1829, Great Britain. Foreign Office --Officials and employees, Grenville, William Wyndham Grenville, Baron, 1759-1834, Thomas Coutts & Co, and Wickham, William, 1761-1840
Subject (Topic):
Ciphers, Cryptography --Great Britain, and Intelligence service --Great Britain
George Aust papers concerning the Secret Service, 1794-1800
Container / Volume:
Folder 4
Image Count:
10
Abstract:
This collection, with its painstaking accounts and administrative receipts, shows the daily complexities of managing a secret service.
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain --History --George III, 1760-1820
Subject (Name):
Aust, George, 1749-1829, Great Britain. Foreign Office --Officials and employees, Grenville, William Wyndham Grenville, Baron, 1759-1834, Thomas Coutts & Co, and Wickham, William, 1761-1840
Subject (Topic):
Ciphers, Cryptography --Great Britain, and Intelligence service --Great Britain
George Aust papers concerning the Secret Service, 1794-1800
Container / Volume:
Folder 5
Image Count:
3
Abstract:
This collection, with its painstaking accounts and administrative receipts, shows the daily complexities of managing a secret service.
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain --History --George III, 1760-1820
Subject (Name):
Aust, George, 1749-1829, Great Britain. Foreign Office --Officials and employees, Grenville, William Wyndham Grenville, Baron, 1759-1834, Thomas Coutts & Co, and Wickham, William, 1761-1840
Subject (Topic):
Ciphers, Cryptography --Great Britain, and Intelligence service --Great Britain
George Aust papers concerning the Secret Service, 1794-1800
Container / Volume:
Folder 3
Image Count:
6
Abstract:
This collection, with its painstaking accounts and administrative receipts, shows the daily complexities of managing a secret service.
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain --History --George III, 1760-1820
Subject (Name):
Aust, George, 1749-1829, Great Britain. Foreign Office --Officials and employees, Grenville, William Wyndham Grenville, Baron, 1759-1834, Thomas Coutts & Co, and Wickham, William, 1761-1840
Subject (Topic):
Ciphers, Cryptography --Great Britain, and Intelligence service --Great Britain
