Secretum Secretorum - notes

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Notes:

I will try and keep these as brief as possible. I first heard about the
Voynich manuscript on an episode of "Ancient Mysteries," on the Discovery
Channel, more or less as Richie heard it. The history of the manuscript is
as mysterious as the script in which it was written. I have remained as true
to the traceable history as possible, although I have used a popular, yet
discounted theory, that it was written by Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth
century. Part of the argument is that the document we have was clearly
composed in the middle fifteenth century, at the very earliest. However, the
neat appearance of the manuscript, lacking any cross-outs or other
corrections, leads most scholars to believe that this document is a copy,
not the original.

For information on the Voynich Manuscript, see:


http://www.sevenbridgespress.com/lf/9904/grossman.html

http://home.att.net/~oko/v-cipher.htm

http://www.crystalinks.com/voynich.html

http://hum.amu.edu.pl/~rafalp/HERM/VMS/vms.htm

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/2260/voynich.html

http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~stolfi/voynich/

http://www.research.att.com/~reeds/voynich.html

http://www.voynich.nu/aes.html

http://www.voynich.nu

http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/decipher.htm


For pictures of the pages of the manuscript, see

http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~stolfi/voynich/98-03-29-enhanced-gallery/


For a simplified chronology of the manuscript's ownership, see

http://hum.amu.edu.pl/~rafalp/HERM/VMS/chrono.gif


Roger Bacon was a fascinating individual, a man clearly ahead of his time,
both theologically, and in his ideas concerning higher education.
Unfortunately, many important facts concerning his life are not well known,
For example, we do not have definitive dates for his birth, entry into the
Franciscans, or incarceration in Paris. We do, however, have a body of his
writing. The following quote is illustrative of several salient features of
his belief system:

"The third consideration from effects is taken by comparing our state with
that of the ancient Philosophers; who, though they were without that
quickening grace which makes man worthy of eternal life, and where into we
enter at baptism, yet lived beyond all comparison better than we, both in
all decency and in contempt of the world, with all its delights and riches
and honors; as all men may read in the works of Aristotle Seneca, Tully,
Avicenna, Alfarabius, Plato, Socrates, and others; and so it was that they
attained to the secrets of wisdom and found out all knowledge. But we
Christians have discovered nothing worthy of those philosophers, nor can we
even understand their wisdom; which ignorance of ours springs from this
cause, that our morals are worse than theirs. For it is impossible that
wisdom should coexist with sin, but she requires perfect virtue, as I will
show later on. But certain it is that, if there were so much wisdom in the
world as men think, these evils would not be committed...and therefore, when
we see everywhere (and especially among the clergy) such corruption of life,
then their studies must needs be corrupt. Many wise men -- considering this,
and pondering on God's wisdom and the learning of the saints and the truth
of histories, and not only the prophecies of Holy Scripture but also such
salutary predictions as those of the Sibyls and Merlin and Aquila and Festo
and many other wise men --have reckoned that the times of Antichrist are at
hand in these days of ours. Wherefore wickedness must needs be uprooted, and
the Elect of God must appear; or else one most blessed Pope will first come,
who shall remove all corruptions from University and Church and elsewhere,
that the world may be renewed, and the fullness of the Gentiles may enter
in, and the remnants of Israel be converted to the faith. . . God indeed, in
His infinite goodness and long-suffering of wisdom, does not at once punish
mankind, but delays His vengeance until the iniquity be fulfilled, so that
it may not and should not be longer endured.... But now seeing that the
measure of man's wickedness is full, it must needs be that some most
virtuous Pope and most virtuous Emperor shall arise to purge the Church with
the double sword of the spirit and the flesh; or else that such purgation
shall take place through Antichrist; or, thirdly, through some other
tribulation, as the discord of Christian princes, or the Tartars and
Saracens and other kings of the East, as divers scriptures and manifold
prophecies tell us. For there is no doubt whatever among wise men, but that
the Church must be purged: yet whether in the first fashion, or the second,
or the third, they are not agreed, nor is there any certain definition on
this head." (Compendium Studii Philosophiae).


The Britannica article (see below) summarizes his later life:

"Sometime between 1277 and 1279, Bacon was condemned to prison by his fellow
Franciscans because of certain "suspected novelties" in his teaching. The
condemnation was probably issued because of his bitter attacks on the
theologians and scholars of his day, his excessive credulity in alchemy and
astrology, and his penchant for millenarianism under the influence of the
prophecies of Abbot Joachim of Fiore, a mystical philosopher of history. How
long he was imprisoned is unknown. His last work (1292), incomplete as so
many others, shows him as aggressive as ever."


For more info on Roger Bacon, see

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Bacon.html

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/rbacon2.html

http://www.chem.mtu.edu/pcharles/SCIHISTORY/Bacon.html

http://britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/3/0%2C5716%2C11803+1%2C00.html

http://www.acusd.edu/~macy/Roger%20Bacon.html

http://www.thehistorynet.com/BritishHeritage/articles/1999/05992_text.htm

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/bacon1.html

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/rbacon.html

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/mirror.html

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/timelin2.html

E. Westacott (1953) Roger Bacon in Life and Legend (London: Rockliff)


This is a strange little website I found amusing:

http://members.nbci.com/chalice156/immortality_contents.html


For information on the Joachimites (also called Spiritual Franciscans, or
Fraticelli), see

http://www.kenyon.edu/projects/margin/joachim.htm

http://www.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/bonavent.htm

http://www.fwkc.com/encyclopedia/low/articles/f/f008001371f.html

http://listserv.american.edu/catholic/franciscan/intro/ofm.intro.html

http://fuzzy.snakeden.org/alchemy/monks.html

In the time period of this story, the stone bridge mentioned at Oxford was
known as "Friar's Bridge." It is said that Bacon lived in a small room in
the Tower shortly before his death. For a picture of Folly Bridge, see

http://www.cs.rdg.ac.uk/museum/thames/Thames/FollyBR.html

http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/lane/gdj83/bridge_20.html

http://www.oldprints.co.uk/prints/eh/images/eh095.htm


For information on Pierre (Peter) de Maricourt, see

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12079e.htm

http://www.brittanica.net/bcom/eb/article/5/0%2C5716%2C60695+1%2C00.html

He was, apparently, a shadowy figure, himself wrapped in mystery. His
singular claim to fame was a paper on magnetism, published in 1269. Nothing
is known of his death. Most of what we *do* know about him is what Bacon
says -- all of it is laudatory. According to Westacott (1953:19) "This
mysterious personage taught Bacon languages, astronomy, mathematics, and
above all experimental science."

The title of this story comes from an arcane work, The Secrets of Secrets,
which was translated from Arabic into Latin in 1243. According to several
sources (see Westacott:113, for example) Bacon was deeply influenced by this
compendium of arcane facts, alchemical recipes, and astrological musings.
Bacon apparently wrote a commentary on this influential work.


For more info on Jacobus Horczicky de Tepenec, see:

http://www.voynich.nu/curricula.html#sinapius


Here is a partial Enkidu timeline for events mentioned in the story:

1242 Enkidu finds Isaac in Gerona, and becomes his teacher ("The
Hierophant")

1244 Enkidu, Isaac, and Methos help Mariah in the ill-fated defense of the
Cathars at Montsegur. ("The Hierophant") Coincidentally, one of the theories
concerning the Voynich manuscript is that it is a Cathar document.

1440 Enkidu is involved with the Inquisition in France ("Baphomet")

1453 Methos studies medicine at Heidelberg (series canon)



Finally, if you don't remember the famous experiment with the frogs' legs
from high school biology class, see

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/Frank/People/galvani.html

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