What are the Voynich ciphers?

Additional material

[ Editor: The correspondence of Leonell C. Strong (1894-?), a Yale cancer
researcher and amateur cryptologist, about the Voynich manuscript,
1945-1977.  Strong claimed (Science, vol. 101, p. 608, June 15, 1945)
to have found the key, a "double system of arithmetical progressions of
multiple alphabets", and ascribed the manuscript to Anthony Ascham
(Askham), brother of Roger Ascham; he never published the method.  The
letters are from a typed transcript of unknown provenance; its own
notes (in square brackets, and words marked ?...?) are kept as they
are.  The editor has only separated the letters (* * *) and moved
letterheads that the transcript ran onto the preceding signature line;
spelling is as in the transcript.  The letters to and from William F.
Friedman, Anne M. Nill (for Mrs. Voynich), David Kahn and Jim Gillogly
are of most interest. ]

                       [written somewhere between Jan. 2 and Jan. 18, 1945]

Col. William F. Friedman
Cryptologist, War Department
Washington, D.C.

Dear Col. Friedman:

          Professor O'Neill of the Catholic University has
recently told me of your interest in the Voynich Manuscript.
With the placing of the manuscript in the period that I am
interested in it occurred to me that if possible, I ought to
spend time in trying to decode it.  I have been interested in the
codes used in the 16th and 17th centuries for nearly twenty five
years.  It seems to me that if you have made any progress on this
manuscript that it probably would not be worth my while to go
into this extensively.  Would you be so kind as to tell me
whether the problem is now adequately handled.

          Remembering your old interest in Genetics I am taking
the liberty of sending you a reprint of my latest work in this
field.  The Genetics of Cancer Research is my vocation but
Cryptology is my avocation.  I also note in the American Men of
Science that you are interested in communications.  Perhaps you
already know my brother-in-law, Lt. Col. Guy C. Bittner in the
office of communications in the air corp.  He had ben with the A.
T. and T. and the New York Telephone Company a number of years
before going to Washington.  He already knows much of my interest
in the code writing of the 16th century.

          I would appreciate very much any courtesy on your part
in relation to information on the Voynich manuscript.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                    The Catholic University of America
                             Washington, D.C.
                            Langlois Herbarium

Hugh O'Neill, Curator                                          Jan. 2, 1945

Prof. Leonell C. Strong,
Sterling Hall of Medicine,
333 Cedar St,.
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Prof. Strong:

          Replying to your letter of Dec. 31, I am sending you
herewith a reprint of my note on the Voynich MS.  If you wish any
further information regarding the MS, I will be glad to send you
what I can.  Mr. Friedman (now Colonel, I believe) of the Naval
Intelligence is devoting considerable research to this cipher.

          Regarding Prof. Newbold's work on this cipher, I can
only say that, after careful study of his work published
posthumously by his friend, Prof. Kent, I have reached the same
conclusion reached by a number of other students, viz, that it is
a remarkable case of subjectivism.  To me, the Greek shorthand
symbols which make up the characters of the cipher appear to be
nothing more than the natural result of the pen-point traveling
over the grain of the velum.  I did not think it pertinent to my
note to refer to Prof. Newbold's work.  Prof. Kent gives in the
opening chapters of Newbold's work an interesting account of the
history of the MS.

          I have a number of pages of notes and conclusions based
on the none too certain identifications of the numerous plants
figured in the MS.  Considerable additional work will be
necessary before any of this is in shape for publication.

          I note with interest that you are engaged in Cancer
Research and wish you all success in this field.

               Sincerely yours,

               Hugh O'Neill

                                * * *

                            Army Service Forces
                          Signal Security Agency
                             Washington, D.C.

                                                            18 January 1945

Mr. Leonell C. Strong
Yale University School of Medicine
333 Cedar Street
New Haven, Connecticut

Dear Mr. Strong:

     Thank you very much for your letter of recent date
forwarding a reprint of your paper in Genetics. In view of my
former work in that field, I shall find your paper of
considerable interest.

     Last May, I came to the conclusion that it was high time
that a serious attempt were made to solve the mystery of the
Voynich Manuscript.  Accordingly, I brought together a small
group of students who might be interested in an extra-curricular
activity of this sort and we discussed various ways of attacking
the problem.  During the summer, all work was suspended on
account of the well-known Washington heat, but recently we
resumed our weekly meetings which take approximately 1 hour.
Some of the basic material is being processed by mechanical
statistical aids, and I hope to have the data available shortly.
A general theory as to the nature of the writing has been
proposed and looks hopeful.  That is about all i can tell you at
the moment and this much I request that you keep confidential as
I do not want any word of our investigation to find its way to
the press or periodic literature.  When and if we do arrive at
any definite conclusions, then will be time enough for such a
statement.

     I note your interest in 16th and 17th centuries cryptography
and it may be that your are quite well-equipped to continue your
studies on the Voynich Manuscript regardless of what we may be
doing.  I should, however, tell you that I think you may be up
against a very difficult problem.

     I do indeed know your brother-in-law, Colonel Bittner, and
the day after your letter arrived, happened to have some business
with him.

     If you are ever in Washington, I hope you will give me the
opportunity to make your acquaintance.

     With cordial greetings, I am,
                              Sincerely yours,

                              William F. Friedman
                              Director of Communications Research

                                * * *

                                                           January 22, 1945

Colonel William F. Friedman
Army Service Forces
Signal Security Agency
Washington, 25, D.C.

Dear Col. Friedman:

          I have your very kind letter of January 18th at hand.
I am glad to know you are interested in the Voynich manuscript.
You have undoubtedly much more equipment to do this code than do
I, but even then I may be able to contribute something to the
final solution.  you may be interested in knowing that I am
already familiar with a companion work that was published
apparently only a short time after the Voynich manuscript was
written.  Whether the same cyphers are used in both, I would like
to determine.  The Voynich manuscript was probably not printed
due to the death of the author, who I believe may be known to me.
If I can verify this finding, the information will be sent to you
confidentially.

          The fact that I have been doing cypher work for twenty
five years without a word of my investigation getting into the
press or periodic literature should be evidence that I shall keep
your confidences in this work inviolate.

          i have written Prof. O'Neill asking him to try to
locate for me an original photostatic copy so that the characters
used in the Voynich manuscript can be more definitely
ascertained.  To date I have not heard from Prof. O'Neill and
would like to ask you the possibility of obtaining such an
original photostat for the use of one.

          i was interested to hear that you already knew Bittner.
He probably has already told you of my interest in the
Elizabethian Period.  He is one of the best press agents I have,
consequently i cannot even tell him the whole story.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                           January 25, 1945

Dr. Joseph Martin Feely
295 Maplewood Avenue
Rochester, New York

Dear Dr. Feely:

          I assume from reading the title page of your recent
brochure on Roger Bacon's cypher that the article was published
privately.  I am interested in the problem and if available I
would appreciate receiving a copy.  It is my intention to
reimburse you for the same.

          I hope you are going on with your investigation.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                    The Catholic University of America
                             Washington, D.C.
                            Langlois Herbarium

Hugh O'Neill, Curator                                         Jan. 25, 1945

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Yale University School of Medicine,
New Haven, Conn.

Dear D. Strong:

          In reply to your letter of January 22, I would suggest
that you write to

          Miss Ann Nill,
          care of Mrs. E. L. Voynich,
          450 W. 24th St.,
          New York City

          The original MS belongs to Mrs. Voynich who, I am told,
keeps it in the vault of a bank in New York.  On account of Mrs.
Voynich advanced age, I think Miss Nill, her adopted daughter
takes care of her correspondence.  Before last Christmas, Mrs.
Voynich was seriously ill.  I believe they will give you
facilities for your work.  They are quite anxious to have the MS
decoded and have welcomed anyone competent who wished to work on
it.

          Indeed I am very much interested to know that you are
familiar with a companion work of the Voynich MS.  If you have
published anything on it, I would appreciate a reprint of your
work.  If you should happen to be in Washington, I hope you will
call on me.  I would like to show you some of the conclusions I
have reached on the basis of the plants figured in the Voynich
MS.  All of my results are vague but still may be of some help.
My colleague, Dr. Petersen, has not worked on the MS for some
time.  He is the cryptographer.  My work is solely from the
botanical side.

          Sincerely yours,

          Hugh O'Neill

                                * * *

                    Yale University School of Medicine
                333 Cedar Street - New Haven - Connecticut
                  Affiliated With The New Haven Hospital

Department of Anatomy
Sterling Hall of Medicine

                                                           January 29, 1945

Miss Ann Nill
c/o Mrs. E. L. Voynich
450 West 24th Street
New York City

Dear Miss Nill:

          I have recently become interested in the problem of
decyphering the Voynich manuscript.  My attention to this work
was stimulated by Professor O'Neill's published note on two of
the plants contained in this manuscript.  Prof. O'Neill suggested
that I communicate with you in trying to get a photostatic copy
of the same.  The only reprints I have access to are those
already published and this reproduction makes it impossible to
classify the original symbols of the manuscript.  I understand
Mr. Voynich had the manuscript photostated and I am wondering if
a copy is available.

          For the past twenty five years I have been interested
in cypher of the 16th and 17th centuries as a hobby and this
placing of the manuscript into this period by the work of
Professor O'Neill intrigues me very much.  I suppose you realize
that considering the negative results already obtained by many
scholars in attempting to decode this manuscript, I cannot
guarantee any positive results but even the past experience of
others does not deter me any.

          My vocation is Cancer Research but my main avocation is
in cypher.

                                   Very sincerely yours,

                                   Leonell C. Strong, Ph.D.

                                * * *

                            Army Service Forces
                          Signal Security Agency
                             Washington, D.C.

                                                           January 31, 1945

Mr. Leonell C. Strong
Yale University School of Medicine
333 Cedar Street
New Haven, Connecticut

Dear Mr. Strong:

     Absence from the city has occasioned the delay in replying
to your interesting letter of January 22nd.

     I have no doubt that you will be able to contribute to the
final solution of the Voynich Manuscript.  I am indeed interested
to know that you are already familiar with a companion work that
was published apparently only a short time after the Voynich
Manuscript was written.  This statement implies that you are
fairly certain of the approximate date of the latter, which is
more than can be said on the evidence presented heretofore by
others, taking in consideration even the brief note published by
Father O'Neill some months ago.  Your belief that you know the
author of the Voynich Manuscript is also extremely interesting
and I am sure that our group will be very glad to have any
information which you feel able to let us have.

     We have, through the courtesy of the owners of the
Manuscript, Miss Voynich and Miss Nill, a complete photostatic
copy thereof, but unfortunately I am not in a position to send it
to you without special permission from the two ladies mentioned.
However, if all you want to do is to compare the characters in
the Voynich  Manuscript with those of some other manuscript, I
see no reason why I should not let you have a photostatic copy of
such pages as have been published in Professor Newbold's book.
If this will be satisfactory, please let me know.

     i had not even the faintest idea of bringing into question
your ability [to] keep confidential your efforts in regard to
this work.  If there is anything in my previous letter from which
such an inference might be drawn, by all means disregard it,
because nothing of the sort was intended.  I merely wanted to
indicate that so far as the general public is concerned, we did
not want any newshawks to get wind of what we are trying to do
and then come around for a story.

     With cordial greetings, I am,

                              Sincerely yours,

                              William F. Friedman
                              Director of Communications Research

                                * * *

                                                           February 1, 1945

Mr. Joseph M. Feely
295 Maplewood Avenue
Rochester, 13, New York.

Dear Mr. Feely:

     Enclosed find my personal check for $2 to cover the cost of
your book, "Roger Bacon's Cypher".  I am interested as a hobby in
cryptography and desire to have it for that purpose.  However, my
interest in Biology has intrigued me in going further in the
analysis of this manuscript.  I know that you have given up the
idea that the manuscript was the work of Roger Bacon.

     I am enclosing a recent reprint of mine dealing with certain
phases of general biology.  Perhaps I can look you up sometime on
my trips to rochester.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                           February 3, 1945

Col. William F. Friedman
Office of the Chief Signal Officer
Washington, D.C.

Dear Col. Friedman:

          Thanks very much for your letter of January 31st,
including your offer of photostatic copies of the pages already
published in Prof. Newbold's book.  I already own a copy of this
book which I purchased ten or more years ago.  What I had in mind
was o compare copies as near the original as possible since in
continued reproduction some clarity of symbols is lost and it
would be impossible to make a final frequency distribution used
in Prof. Newbold's book.

          As you know I also asked Father O'Neill for a copy of
the original photostat made by Mr. Voynich.  He gave me the name
of Miss Nill who he said may be interested in sending me an
original photostat.  I have written Miss Nill a letter requesting
one but so far I have received no word from her.  The way I feel
now I probably will do no more without the approval of Miss Nill.
There are more important problems of the period under
consideration that I am interested in.

          So until I hear from Miss Nill no more work on the
manuscript will be done.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                           February 6, 1945

The Keeper of the Sloane Manuscripts
British Museum
London, England

Dear Sir:

          I would like to get, if possible, a film or preferably
photostats of Sloane Manuscript, No. 3191.  This I believe is by
Dr. John Dee and is entitled "Claves Angelicae".  If you would be
so kind as to enclose the bill with this work I shall send the
payment by return mail.

          If you desire a London reference for me you can get in
touch with Dr. E. L. Kennaway, Director of the Chester Beatty
Research Institute, The Royal Cancer Hospital, London.

                         Very truly yours,

                         Dr. Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                              Feb. 14, 1945

                                             London Terrace
                                             450 West 24th St.
                                             New York 11

Dear Dr. Strong:

     This is to apologize for the delay in replying to your
letter o Jan. 29.  It caught us when we were very busy, and since
then Mrs. Voynich has been ill - grippe - so that I have not had
an opportunity to discuss the matter with her.  As soon as she is
quite recovered I shall do so and write to you then.

                              Yours Sincerely

                              Anne M. Nill

                                * * *

                                                          February 15, 1945

Prof. John M. Manly
Department of English
University of Chicago
Chicago, Ill.

Dear Prof. Manly:

          If still available I would appreciate very much your
two articles bearing upon the Voynich Manuscript, one appeared in
Volume 6 of Speculum and the other in Harper's Magazine, July
1921.

          I am greatly interested in the Voynich Manuscript and
hope to be able to do something with it.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                          February 15, 1945

Mediaeval Academy of America
Cambridge, Mass.

Dear Sirs:

          I would like to obtain, if available, that issue of
Speculum, Vol. 6 containing the pages 345-391 relative to the
article by Dr. John M. Manly "Roger Bacon and the Voynich
Manuscript".

          Kindly enclose bill with same.

                              Very truly yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                          February 15, 1945

Miss Anne M. Nill
London Terrace
450 West 24th Street
New York 11, New York

Dear Miss Nill,

          Thanks very much for your card, consequently I am still
hopeful that you will bring my request to the attention of Mrs.
Voynich as soon as she recovers.  Seeing many of the references
in the literature to the effect that Mr. Voynich was so
enthusiastic about getting scholars to work on this manuscript
that I hope Mrs. Voynich harbors some of the same ideas.  If my
presence would help in presenting this matter to Mrs. Voynich I
would be willing to come down to New York at any time.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                          February 15, 1945

Harper and Brothers Publishers
New York City

Dear Sirs:

          I would like to obtain, if available a copy of the July
1921 issue of Harper's Magazine, Vol. 143, No. 854.  Kindly
enclose bill with same.

                              Very truly yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                         The University of Chicago
                           Department of English

                                                              March 1, 1945

Mr. Leonell C. Strong
Department of Anatomy
333 Cedar Street
New Haven, Connecticut

Dear Mr. Strong:

          Since Professor Manly is deceased, I know of no way in
which reprints of the articles to which you refer can be found.

                                   Yours sincerely,

                                   J. R. Hulbert
                                   Secretary of the Department

                                * * *

                                                                   K. H. P.

                                                              March 1, 1945

                                        563 West Central Street
                                        Franklin, Massachusetts

Dr. L. C. Strong
P.O. Box 2988
Amity Road
Woodbridge, Conn.

Katherine asked me to send the 'Selenus' to her at Vassar and she
would have the pages photostated for you.  From what I took down
there are only 9 pages.  I have just heard that Miss Herrick has
broken her hip, am so distressed.  All is well here and the
excitement of your visit didn't disturb me.  I did enjoy every
minute.  Hope you found all well at home.  Much love to K -

                              As ever sincerely,

                              K. H. P.

                                * * *

                             John Howell Books
                   434 Post Street : : San Francisco, 2
                       (Opposite St. Francis Hotel)

                                                              March 5, 1945

Mr. Leonell C. Strong
Yale University School of Medicine
333 Cedar Street
New Haven, Connecticut

Dear Mr. Strong:

Your letter of March 1st has just arrived.  I am glad to know you
have continued your interest in Bacon.

I did not know Mrs. Prescott had not been well - I had a card
from her at Christmas time.

I do happen to have one copy for sale of the facsimile I made of
the Learned Pig several years ago.  I am sending it to you on
approval.  You may have it at the original price of $50.

I have nothing of any consequence on Napa or Lake County at this
time, but will let you know when I secure books on the subject.
One I have in mind is the History of Napa and Lake County, a
rather large volume, which is interesting and not expensive.

Hoping to hear from you soon, with kindest regards, I am

                              Sincerely yours,

                              John Howell

                                * * *

                                                             March 14, 1945

Prof. Roland Grubb Kent
324 Aubrey Road
Wynnewood, Penna.

Dear Prof. Kent:

     I have been interested for some time in decoding the Voynich
Manuscript.  At the present time I believe I have the proper key
and have decoded a consistent message bearing upon Mediaeval
Science even though all I have to work with are the plates
published in your and Prof. Newbold's book.  If you would be at
all interested I would like to talk this problem over with you.
I expect to be in Philadelphia on March 29th to April 2nd and
would like very much to call on you during this time if you will
be available.

                                   Very sincerely yours,

                                   Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                             March 14, 1945

Prof. Hugh O'Neill
Langlois Herbarium
Washington, D.C.

Dear Prof. O'Neill:

I had a talk with Miss Nill.. Either she is unwilling to let me
have access to a photostatic copy of the Voynich or she is too
busy to talk the matter over further with me or due to the
unsettled condition of the Voynich estate, a photostatic copy of
the Voynich will not or cannot be made available to me.  I do not
know which one of the three excuses is a valid one since all
three was presented one after another.  I cannot understand this
attitude especially after I had told her that I had work[ed] out
the correct solution of the code and that I had obtained a
consistent story bearing on Mediaeval Science and that I would be
willing to demonstrate to her the solution I had worked out.  It
may interest you that all I have available to work with are the
plates in Newbold's book and the two plates you published in
Speculum.  Miss Nill also indicated to me that is was not to be
assumed that Dr. Petersen had the exclusive monopoly of trying to
decode this very valuable manuscript on Mediaeval Science.  I
have already spent some five hundred hours on this manuscript.

     In view of the apparent noncooperation of the owners of the
manuscript, there appears to be only one solution.  I intend to
write a manuscript demonstrating the solution to the cypher and
to submit it for confidential storage to the National Research
Council or some other learned society.  The reason why I am
writing you is to ask whether you would be interested in a
confidential demonstration of my solution before my manuscript is
sealed for some future publication.  So far you have been the
only one that has shown any spirit of cooperation and I would
like very much to show my appreciation in this manner.

     Miss Nill inferred that I though Francis Bacon was the
author of the manuscript.  Where she got this idea I am at a loss
to know.  It is my honest opinion that the manuscript was
actually written before Francis Bacon was born.

     I expect to be in Washington sometime early in the summer to
attend a meeting at Bethesda of the New England Cancer Society.
My manuscript may not be in finished form by that time but may I
suggest a meeting with you then.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                             British Museum
                                             London W.C.I

                                                             16 March, 1945

Dr. Leonell C. Strong

Dear Sir

In answer to your letter of 6 February, I am very sorry to have
to inform you that all our MSS. have been removed out of London
for safety and will not be available for photography or any other
purpose for, I fear, some months after the end of the war.

                         With many regards,
                         Faithfully yours

                         Eric G. Millar
                         Keeper of MSS.

                                * * *

                                17 North Main Street
                                Southampton
                                Long Island
                                 New York

                                                             March 16, 1945

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, Connecticut

Dear Dr. Strong,

     The story of finding the Andros Island cave is typed,
together with many other cipher discoveries of my own, which grew
out of it later.  If it is ever published it will hitch right on
to your own research, as in I now have given your directions by
which we found the cave due credit, and in a foot note below said
that I had not yet been able to ascertain your sources.  I cannot
yet decide about my library, as some of my own young people are
not yet launched on their future careers.  I think, however, if
you see Mr. Jackson who is now at the head of the new Harvard
Harvard Measure Building, he would be glad to show you anything
you wanted to see and interested in all you had to tell.  It was
only the intransigent attitude of Dr. Kittredge that kept the
investigation of cipher and cryptic illustrations from being
pursued -  it was generally understood that it was because of
this stubbornness that he was asked to resign.  my own research
was interrupted by the war and I have not been able as yet to
continue - but the graduate dean of Radcliffe and the former
President-Comstock knew all about it and were much interested.
It will be six months, probably before I can walk though.  I hope
to get around my room on crutches - most of the time am on my
back with leg on a pillow, pin in the broken hip, and thank God!
no cast.  Please forgive this scrawl as writing under present
conditions is difficult.  Someday I hope we may meet again and
have a good talk.

                              Sincerely yours,

                              Margaret F. Herrick

                                * * *

                    The Catholic University of America
                             Washington, D.C.
                            Langlois Herbarium

                                                             March 17, 1945

Dr. Leonell Strong,
Yale School of Medicine,
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Dr. Strong:

          Replying to your letter of March 14, I will be very
glad if you will call to see us whenever you happen to be in
Washington.  I see no reason why you cannot publish your findings
based upon the pages of the Voynich MS which have been reproduced
in print.  I do not know Mrs. Voynich nor do I know Miss Nill so
that I cannot comment upon the course of action they have taken.

                                   Very truly yours,

                                   Hugh O'Neill

                                * * *

                               University of Pennsylvania
                               Philadelphia
                 The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
                         Indo-European Linguistics

                                                             March 17, 1945

Dear Dr. Strong:

          I must say frankly that I edited the book on Newbold's
researches on the cipher manuscript of Roger Bacon, only because
I was asked to do so by virtue of the fact that as Newbold's most
intimate friend I had heard more of the details of his studies
than any other surviving person.  It was not because I had any
special capability in ciphers.  This being the case, I did my
task in a sympathetic way out of my great friendship for Newbold.
After the book was finished I really had no further interest in
the subject, since my own fields of work are quite different.

     I should be glad however to see you when you are in
Philadelphia, if we can agree upon a time.  I shall not be
available on March 30 and 31, nor on April 1; but if you are here
early enough on Thursday, March 29, I can meet you at my office,
111 Bennett Hall, southeast corner 34th and Walnut Streets, at
any hour which you designate.  Otherwise my free time is limited
to Monday, April , when I have 2.00 to 3.30 P.M. free; the rest
of my time is taken up with teaching.  Unfortunately I have no
additional photographs or other materials which might be of
assistance to you.

     I deeply regret that I have to make this rather discouraging
reply to you, and beg of you not to consider it a discourtesy.
It is only the effect of previous commitments.

     Looking forward to your reply,

                              Yours very sincerely,

                              Roland G. Kent

                                * * *

                                                             March 19, 1945

Dr. Roland G. Kent
Prof. of Linguistics
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia

Dear Prof. Kent:

     I knew of your connection with the publication of Prof.
Newbold's researches since I have read his book several times.
My reasons for asking to see you, however, were two fold, in the
first place since the almost scathing attack especially by Prof.
Manly of Chicago on the scholarship of Prof. Newbold, I thought
you as a friend may be interested in the recent work that is so
intimately associated with Prof. Newbold.  In the second place,
the Voynich manuscript is certainly in the field of Philology and
should be of interest to you aside from the Newbold
investigation.  I note your change in Philology to Linguistics
and I as a Biologist, interested in the history of science cannot
draw this fine distinction.  Certainly all scholars interested in
the love of learning should be interested.  I believe that the
love of learning is essentially the same as that intellectual
capacity that we in pure science foster.

     if you would like to see what I have decoded from the
Voynich Manuscript without boring you of the details of
cryptography I shall be at your office at 2 P.M. on Monday, April
2nd.  Within a few minutes time we ought to be able to decide
whether any mutual interests would be forthcoming.  I will await
your reply.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                             March 19, 1945

My dear Miss Herrick:

     It was very nice of you to answer my letter so promptly
especially under the trying conditions you are experiencing at
the present time.  Apparently you are benefiting from the new
treatment without the use of a cast.

I do not know Mr. Jackson but hope from the standpoint of true
scholarship that all sources of information be made available to
all scholars irrespective of predilections.  My own problem has
been handicapped considerably, that I have to make a living at
cancer research, and the only time I have available for Baconian
cypher is in the evenings occasionally and the Yale Library,
among others, will not permit these books to be taken home.  The
little library that I have been able to develop myself is all too
meager for the task at hand.  However, many more advances have
been made in the past ten years and it would be a delight indeed
to talk them over with you at some time.  Andros Island is
apparently a very important key point and much of the future
investigation will be centered here.

     The Duke of Brunswick is a central figure for the
continental part of the period, also Emperor Rudolph the Third
[ Editor: the emperor associated with the Voynich manuscript is
Rudolf II, see the entry above ]
was somehow or other interested.  I believe many of the funds
necessary came from him.  I have also found that the period of
15?? was very important in preparing the field for Francis Bacon
later.

     Whenever you feel like talking about Baconian matters I
would be happy to come to see you.  I frequently visit my
brother-in-law in Manhasset.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                             March 19, 1945

Sec. College of Physicians
Philadelphia, Penna.

Dear Sir:

     If available I would like to obtain the Appendix for your
proceedings for the year 1921.  I am interested in obtaining two
articles on the Voynich Manuscript and I believe this is the only
way of me obtaining them, since both authors have been dead for
some time.  Kindly enclose bill for same.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                             March 20, 1945

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Sterling Hall of Medicine
333 Cedar Street
New Haven, Connecticut

Dear Dr. Strong:

          I shall be very happy to see you at my office, 111
Bennett hall, 34th and Walnut Sts., on Monday, April 2, the time
at which we are both free.  I shall be very happy if I can in any
way help you in your work on the Voynich manuscript.  As for
Manly's article, I can tell you something about that!

                                   Yours sincerely,

                                   R. G. Kent

                                * * *

                           Library of the
                           College of Physicians
                              of Philadelphia

                           19 South 22nd Street
                         Philadelphia, Pa. zone 3

                                                             March 27, 1945

Leonell C. Strong, Ph.D.
Yale University
The School of Medicine
Sterling Hall of Medicine
333 Cedar Street
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Dr. Strong:

     I am sorry that your letter of the 19th regarding the
appendix to the 1921 volume of our Transactions (containing the
articles on the Voynich ms.) has not been answered before this.

     Both the Voynich and Newbold article were reprinted, but we
have not succeeded in turning up any duplicate copies of the
reprints.  Consequently all we can do is send you a copy of the
whole volume, which we are doing.

     You are aware, I am sure, that the material of these
articles reappears, with slight alterations, in Newbold's
posthumous "The Cipher of Roger Bacon", University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1928.

                              Yours sincerely,

                              W. B. McDaniel, 2d
                              Librarian

Enclosure.

                                * * *

                                                            April 4th, 1945

Prof. R. G. Kent
Bennett Hall
University of Penna.
Philadelphia

Dear Professor Kent:

          I would like to thank you for your kindness in talking
over with m some of my recent work on the decoding of the Voynich
manuscript.  The interview was very successful to me and cleared
up several points for me.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery
                         San Marino 15, California

                                                              April 4, 1945

Leonell C. Strong
Yale University School of Medicine
333 Cedar St., New Haven, Conn.

Dear Mr. Strong:  We do not have the 1550 edition of Askham's A
little Herball of the properties of Herbes; the only copy
recorded in the Short Title Catalog (no. 856) is that of the
Wellcome Hist.Med.Museum.  We have the [1561?] edition, STC 857;
if you wish a microfilm of our edition we can send it in a few
days after you let us know.

                              Sincerely yours,

                              Herman R. Mead, Bibliographer

                                * * *

                                                                May 2, 1945

Recorder of Vital Statistics
Renova, Penna.

Dear Sir:

     If available will you kindly send me a copy of my birth
certificate--a son born to Clarence A. and Ella Mead Strong,
January 19, 1894.  Kindly enclose bill.

                              Very truly yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                                May 2, 1945

Prof. Hugh O'Neill
Catholic University
Washington, D.C.

Dear Professor O'Neill:

     I regret very much to say that our Cancer meetings were
shifted from Washington to Boston, consequently I do not expect
to be in Washington this spring.  If you would like to know what
I have done with the sunflower folio I would like very much to
meet you if you happen to be in this vicinity or even in New
York.

               With kindest personal regards.

                              Respectfully,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

Department of Pharmacology
333 Cedar Street
New Haven, Conn.

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Yale University
School of Medicine
333 Cedar St.
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Dr. Strong,

     I should greatly appreciate it if you would send me a
reprint of your paper entitled:  Anthony Askham....Manuscript
which appeared in Science 101: 608, 1945.

                              Yours sincerely,

                              W. T. Salter

                                * * *

                               Michigan State College
                               East Lansing

                           School of Agriculture
                        Department of Horticulture

                                                              June 20, 1945
Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Yale University
School of Medicine
333 Cedar St.
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Sir:

     I should greatly appreciate 2 reprints of your paper Anthony
Askham, the author of the Voynich manuscript, from the Science
101: 608 if you have copies available for distribution.

                              Yours very truly,

                              E. H. Lucas

                                * * *

                        Brooklyn College
                        Bedford Avenue and Avenue H
                            Brooklyn 10, N. Y.

Department of Chemistry                                       June 20, 1945

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, Conn.

My dear Dr. Long:

          Your article in the current issue of Science is most
interesting.  I happen to be a member of the New York Cipher
Society and the American Cryptogram Association, and at the last
meeting of the N.Y.C.S. on Monday, I called attention to your
article.  Many of the members expressed much interest, and they
should like to hear more about your methods etc. in deciphering
the Voynich Manuscript.

     Do you ever get to New York, and would you care to speak
before the New York Cipher Society?

     As far as I know, there are no serious objections in
publishing analytical articles dealing with ciphers.  Recently
the Bifid was discussed in The cryptogram, the official journal
of the A.C.A., and so I believe that publication of your methods
in an appropriate place would not be criticized by any government
agency.  Of course, I am merely expressing my own opinion.

At this time please accept my congratulations.

                                   Sincerely yours,

                                   Louis Sattler
                                   Associate Professor

In writing to me, please use my home address:

               600 West 116th Street
               New York City 27
               N.Y.

                                * * *

                                                        Hester Bussel Lotker
                                                        35-20 190 Street
                                                        Flushing, New York.
                                                        June 22, 1945

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Yale University
School of Medicine
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Dr. Strong,

          As the Secretary of the New York Cipher Society of
which Mr. Rosario Candela is President, I have been asked to
write you in appreciation of your article on the Voynich
manuscript in the June 15th issue of Science.

          Our meetings are held throughout the year on the third
Monday of the month at the Hotel Imperial, 32 Street and
Broadway.  It would be a great privilege to our membership if you
could arrange to visit us.  In the even that this is impractical
or impossible, we would be pleased to present to the group any
details that you see fit to send us.

                              Cordially yours,

                              Hester B. Lotker
                              Secretary
                              New York Cipher Society

                                * * *

                    The American Cryptogram Association

Editor-in-Chief - Sherlac
Charles Sedenger
3835 N. Darien St.
Philadelphia 40, Pa.

                                                              June 23, 1945

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Yale University
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Doctor Strong:

          In introducing myself, as you can see from the left
hand column, I am the Editor of the Cryptogram, and your article,
dealing with "The Voynich Cipher", was sent to me by Dr. Louis
Sattler, of Brooklyn College, who is a member of our Association.

          This particular manuscript has been mentioned by many
writers on Cryptography, notably Mr. Fletcher Pratt, in "Secret
and Urgent", he also is a member of the A.C.A.

          Many of our members have corresponded with me
concerning the possibility of securing more data on this
intriguing subject.

          I assume that you are familiar with the research of
Professor Wm. R. Newbold, late of the University of Pennsylvania,
but on the off chance that you have not seen his book; "The
Cipher of Roger Bacon", I have a copy in my library, which I
would be glad to lend you for examination, it is profusely
illustrated and contains many comprehensive Tables of Values.

          Awaiting your pleasure and with best wishes, Cordially
Yours,

                              Charles Sedenger
                              SHERLAC

                                * * *

                                                              June 25, 1945

Dr. Louis Sattler
600 West 116 Street
New York 27, N.Y.

Dear Dr. Sattler:

     I appreciate very much your expressed congratulations on the
published article appearing in Science, as well as your
invitation to speak before the New York Cipher Society.
Unfortunately during the hot summer months this pleasure cannot
be satisfied.  Also an active life in cancer research and the
spending of long hours on my hobby of cipher interferes
considerably with other things I would like to do, however if
things ease up so that I can accept your kind invitation to speak
before the New York Cipher Society, I will get in touch with you
then.

     Kindly accept my thanks for your kindness in writing to me.

                                   Very sincerely yours,

                                   Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                              June 25, 1945

Mrs. A. Lotker
Secretary N.Y. Cipher Society
35-20 190 Street
Flushing, N.Y.

Dear Mrs. Lotker:

     In reply to your letter of June 22nd, may I through you
extend my sincerest thanks to your President Mr. Rosario Candela
for his expressed appreciation of my recent article published in
Science.

     During the hot summer months it will be quite impossible for
me to accept your invitation to visit the meetings of the N.Y.
Cipher Society.  Perhaps sometime in the future would be more
convenient.  an active life in cancer research and a hobby of the
cryptography of the 16th and 17th centuries does not permit much
freedom.

     I intend to publish the details of my decipherment of the
Voynich manuscript in book form sometime in the future.  When
available I shall be pleased to call it to your attention.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                              June 25, 1945

Mr. Charles Sedenger
3835 N. Darien Street
Philadelphia 40, Penna.

Dear Mr. Sedenger:

     In reply to your letter of June 23rd, I would like to say
that I have in my library nearly a complete collection of
articles bearing upon the Voynich manuscript including Prof.
Newbold's book which I purchased many years ago.  I do not happen
to have the article by Mr. Fletcher Pratt.  I assume that you
imply that this article appeared in the Cryptogram.  The only set
of the Cryptogram that I could locate near at hand is the one in
the New York Public Library.  They discontinued their
subscription in January 194_.  If you would give me the exact
reference I shall see that it will be included in the
bibliography of the book I intend to write.

     I note with interest your particular reference to Prof.
Newbold's book.  In view of the scathing criticism of this work
by Prof. John M. Manly of the University of Chicago in Harper's
Magazine, as well as in Speculum, it seems to me that perhaps the
book should not have been published in the first place.

     When more of the cipher story is available I shall be all
too pleased to call it to your attention.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                    The American Cryptogram Association

Editor-in-Chief - Sherlac
Charles Sedenger
3835 N. Darien St.
Philadelphia 40, Pa.

                                                              June 26, 1945

Dear Dr. Strong:

          Thanks for your letter of June 25, concerning the
"Voynich Manuscript", as I am not competent to discuss the pros
and cons of the value of Prof. Newbold's Book, I'll say nothing
about it.

          The reference by Mr. Fletcher Pratt did not appear in
the Cryptogram, but makes u the contents of Chapter II, in his
book "Secret and Urgent" published in 1939 by Bobbs-Merrill Co.
The chapter is titled "The Element of Doubt".  No doubt you can
secure a copy of this book from a nearby library.

     Thank you for your offer to keep me informed on any progress
that may be made, our more advanced members are keenly interested
in this subject and would be happy to receive any additional
information relating to it.

                              With Best Wishes,
                              Sincerely yours
                              Sherlac

                                * * *

                                                              July 12, 1945

Miss Anne M. Nill
London Terrace
450 West 24th Street
New York 11

Dear Miss Nill:

     I am enclosing two copies of my recent article which
appeared in Science.  I thrust that you will [give] one to Mrs.
Voynich and retain one for yourself.

     In the spirit of true scholarship I sincerely hope that you
like the article.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                              July 12, 1945

Col. William F. Friedman
Office of the Chief
Signal Officer
Washington, D.C.

Dear Col. Friedman:

     I am enclosing a recent article of mine which appeared in
Science.  I trust that you will like it.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                              July 12, 1945

Dr. Howard Blakeslee
Science Editor
Associated Press
New York City.

Dear Dr. Blakeslee:

     Under separate cover I am sending a small box of cigars in
appreciation for your kindness in handling the recent article in
Science.

     Apparently I gave you a wrong lead in saying that the
article together with my photograph would appear in "Time".
After four telephone conversations with Mr. Hewlett and a trip to
New York leaving with him nearly a complete collection of papers
dealing with the Voynich manuscript, the most recent report is
that the Editor would not publish the article unless it included
a photograph of me indicating on a folio of the Voynich
manuscript where I had decoded the name of Anthony Askham.  The
owners of the manuscript, according to the report given me, would
not give the release of copyright.  Consequently the article will
probably not appear in "Time".  I had hoped that with this
increased publication a demand would be stimulated whereby the
owners would be willing to let me study the photostatic copy
further.  This so far has not materialized.

     For the time being I am back in Cancer Research.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                              July 12, 1945

Prof. Hugh O'Neill
Langlois Herbarium
Catholic University
Washington, D.C.

Dear Prof. O'Neill:

     I am enclosing a short note of mine which appeared in
Science.  I trust you like it.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                            Army Service Forces
                          Signal Security Agency
                            Washington 25, D.C.

SPSIS-3                                                       July 14, 1945

Mr. Leonell C. Strong
Department of Anatomy
Yale University School of Medicine
333 Cedar Street
New Haven, Connecticut

Dear Mr. Strong:

     Your letter of July 12, 1945, addressed to Col. Friedman has
arrived during his absence from the city.  He will be gone for
several months, so I am acknowledging the letter for him.  I know
he will appreciate your sending the copy of the recent article in
Science.

                              Very truly yours,

                              Mark Rhoads
                              Captain, U.S.A., Retired
                              Asst. to Mr. Friedman

                                * * *

Time                                                   Time & Life Building
The Weekly Newsmagazine                                  Rockefeller Center
                                                              New York

                                                         Editorial Offices

                                                            July 17, [1945]

Dear Dr. and Mrs. Strong,

               We regret that were unable to run the story on the
Voynich manuscript and sadly return the wealth of material that
you so kindly lent us.

     We felt unable to use this story because of the lack of
cooperation on the part of the manuscript's owners.  Naturally,
our editors felt the subject too contentious to discuss without a
fuller view of all its aspects.

     Both Mr. Hewlett and I appreciate Dr. Strong's clarification
on may technical difficulties and his whole-hearted help, we were
extremely disappointed at not having the story appear in the
magazine.

               Again, many thanks indeed for your kindness, and
or the loan of Dr. Strong's research.

                         Yours faithfully,

                         Essie A. Lee (Books Dept.)

I have sent your books by Express mail.

                                * * *

                                                         Hudson View Gardens
                                                           New York City 33

                                                              July 17, 1945

Dr. Leonell Strong
Yale University
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Dr. Strong,

          No doubt your publication in "Science" of your
discovery of a key to the Voynich cipher MS has let loose a
torrent of correspondence.  May I be excused for adding to the
flood on two considerations?  Wilfred Voynich was one of my
closest friends (we met in 1898 in Italy), I was present at the
Newbold lecture in Philadelphia and received a copy of the
Newbold-Kent volume inscribed in Mr. Voynich's hand.  The address
he delivered on the history of the MS appeared in pamphlet form -
unfortunately my copy remained in Europe with other books when I
came home in 1941.

     The second consideration is that I wrote my thesis for the
doctorate (Heidelberg) on an Old English theme.  That was long
ago and even then I had small acquaintance with middle English
dialects.  And now I come to the point of my inquiry.  How have
Old English scholars dated the language of the cipher as you have
decoded it?  Despite the conservative character of the
Northumbrian dialect, the discrepancy between the passage quoted
and the language of Roger Ascham's Scholemaster seems very great
indeed.  The quality of the drawings also suggests an earlier
date.  the "Wolkenband" ([snaky line drawn here]) shown on Plate
XXI appears over and over again in Italian XV century
manuscripts.  I believe it came down from the north, but I am
unable to say when.

     I shall look forward with the greatest interest to your
future publications on the subject.

                         Sincerely,

                         Erla Rodakiewicz

                                * * *

                                                              July 18, 1945

Dr. Erla Rodakiewicz
Hudson View Gardens
New York City 33, N.Y.

Dear Dr. Rodakiewicz:

     I appreciate very much your kind letter of the 17th inst.
bearing upon the publication in Science of a note on my key to
the Voynich Manuscript.  Kindly accept the two reprints of same
enclosed.

     It is a great joy to ascertain some friend of the late
Wilfred Voynich who knows something of this very interesting
manuscript.  One of the reasons for my publication was to open up
some such contacts as yours since the immediate family has seen
fit to ignore my appeal to them dated January 29th for access to
the use of a photostatic copy.

     Your suggestion concerning the dialect used must be settled
by someone else other than me since I know very little of the
dialects of Mediaeval English.  My training has been a Doctorate
in Biology, twenty-five years of association in Schools of
Medicine and an interest as a hobby of 16th and 17th [century]
cryptography for the same period of time.  I became interested in
the Voynich manuscript as a biologist knowing something of the
cyphers used in the century under consideration.  My analysis of
the data by which I arrived at the conclusion that the manuscript
was in English is in manuscript only, the disposition of which is
entirely unsettled.

     I note you suggest that the dialect used as decoded material
does not coincide with the language used by Roger Askham in his
Scholmaster.  Please do not confuse Roger with Anthony.  I may
also say that the dialect does not coincide with that used by
Anthony Askham in the Little Herbal, a microfilm of the
Huntington copy of which I own.  It is also very doubtful whether
Anthony Askham ever wrote the Little Herbal.  I am still not
convinced that Dr. John Dee may have more to do with the origin
of the Voynich manuscript than mere ownership.  Perhaps there may
have been more relationship between Anthony Askham and Dr. John
Dee than appears on the surface, similar to the relationship
existing between Billingsley and Dr. John Dee in the writing of
the mathematical books.  You no doubt know that Dr. John Dee
wrote in several English dialects, Welsh, Anglo-Saxon, Greek,
Latin, German, and several others, he also had an interest in
cypher writing, was an astrologer, which the author of the
Voynich manuscript obviously was, and had all the characteristics
presented herein.  Someday if I get the opportunity I shall
continue this investigation further but am convinced now that the
only place that this can be done is in the British Museum.  A
recent letter from them states that for the duration their
original manuscripts have been removed from London and are not
available for study.  I trust that you keep this information
concerning Dr. John Dee confidential for the time being as I am
not willing to publish this idea now.

     the description of the birth of the child and all other
material from the Voynich manuscript were decoded according to
mathematical rules and the whole passage covering several pages
makes continued sense.  It must of necessity therefore be
correct.  I have not read anything into the passage that was not
put there in cypher by the original author.

     Kindly feel free to communicate with me at any time.

                         Very sincerely yours,

                         Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                      London Terrace
                                                      450 West 24th Street,
                                                      New York (11)

                                                              July 20, 1945

Professor Leonell C. Strong,
Department of Anatomy, Yale University School of Medicine,
333 Cedar Street, New Haven, Conn.

Dear Professor Strong:

     Mrs. Voynich and I wish to thank you for the offprint of
your article in Science of June 15th.

     I will file it for reference with the other material
concerning the Voynich cipher manuscript, which has been
accumulating for many years.

                              Yours sincerely,

                              Anne M. Nill

                                * * *

                              Yale University

Memorandum                                    Dept. Obstetrics & Gynecology

To:  Dr. Leonell C. Strong                                    July 25, 1945
C303 Sterling Hall of Medicine

Dear Leon:

          Thank you indeed for your reprint on the Voynich
manuscript.  It is a fine piece of work and I do hope it
stimulates the owners to let you have the rest of it.

                                   Sincerely yours,

                                   (signature illegible)

                                * * *

                                                         Hudson View Gardens
                                                                N. Y. C. 33

                                                              July 31, 1945

Dear Dr. Strong,

     Before the turn of the month overtakes me, I want to thank
you for your courtesy in sending me the reprints of your article
in "Science".

     First off all let me assure you that I shall treat your
reference to John Dee as confidential and await further
elaboration of your hypothesis with interest.

     I did not "confuse" Roger with Anthony Ascham, but merely
assumed that they would speak the same language, being brothers.
That is why I checked through the 1" edition of the Scholemaster
in the Morgan Library.  I am wondering if the same forms of Early
English in the other sections of the cipher MS.?  The XV and XVI
centuries were the age of the Compendium of this MS might present
a collection of varied material from many authors, living at
different times, might it not?  Of course, it is very puzzling
that Prof. Newbold should have had his readings confirmed
independently by astronomers and chemists.  Have you checked with
the Yale 'Anglist'?

     I wish I could help you gain access to the photostatic copy,
but I am in a rather peculiar position myself in connection with
another Voynich MS. - the De re militari of Roberto Valturio of
Riemini (+1475).  Miss Nill, co-owner with Mrs. Voynich, objected
strongly to my mention of the MS. in an article in the 1940 issue
of "Maso Fuigerra", published in Milan, by Prof. Donali of the
Vatican Library.  The irony of the situation is that my article
was intended to promote interest in the MS. and was dedicated to
the memory of my old friend.

     Mrs. Voynich is in her 82" year and after last winter's
attack of double pneumonia, has been charged by her physician to
avoid fatigue and emotional excitement.  This may explain her
silence.

     Again thanking you,

                    r.s.g. Erla Rodakiewicz

                                * * *

                Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery
                          San Marino, California

                                                            August 18, 1945

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Yale University School of Medicine
Department of Anatomy
333 Cedar Street
New Haven, Connecticut

Dear Dr. Strong:

     The Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery acknowledges
with sincere thanks the gift noted below.

                                   Leslie E. Bliss
                                   Librarian

Strong, L.C.
...Anthony Askham, the author of the Voynich manuscript
[1945]

                                * * *

                                The
                                NEW YORKER
                          No. 23 West 43rd Street

                                                              Nov. 10, 1945

Dear Dr. Strong:

It may be several days before I can get to the material you left
with me, and I'd like to know if it will be all right for me to
keep the books for a week or two.  I can return them to you by
mail if you are not planning to be in New York at the time.

Thanks very much for coming to see me.  I realize now that I kept
you from your lunch--I usually do without mine, and I sometimes
forget that others do not.  My best to Mrs. Strong.

                              Sincerely,

                              Lillian E. Ross

                                * * *

                                                          November 13, 1945

Miss Lillian E. Ross
The New Yorker
25 West 43rd Street
New York City

Dear Miss Ross:

     It will be all right for you to keep the books another week,
however, it will not be wise to have your proposed article
postponed too long.  A few days ago another Magazine contacted me
for a story and I told them, without the name of your periodical,
that I had given out the story and could not agree on any further
commitment until I have definite word from you whether the New
Yorker will run the story.

     I expect to be down to New York on November 23rd at which
time you ought to have definite word for me.

     It was very nice for Mrs. Strong and myself of visiting with
you.  The luncheon we missed was not the first one I have missed.
This happens every time I start to talk on cryptography.  I have
been known to talk till three o'clock in the morning.  I trust
the date of Nov. 23rd will be agreeable to you.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                The
                                NEW YORKER
                          No. 23 West 43rd Street

                                                              Nov. 15, 1945

Dear Dr. Strong:

I've started reading the material you left with me, and I surely
will be finished with it by next Friday.  I plan to be in the
office most of the day on Nov. 23rd, but if something urgent
comes up and I have to leave, I will leave the material for you
with our receptionist.

When you get to New York, will you telephone and let me know what
time you plan to come to the office?  Thanks very much.

                              Sincerely,

                              Lillian Ross

                                * * *

                                  The Saturday
                                  Evening
                                   Post

                                                            January 2, 1946

Dear Mr. Strong:

Mr. Kohler has passed along to the editorial department your
query of December 19.  We regret very much that the
cryptographical story that you propose fails to strike us as a
good possibility for the Post.

                              Very truly yours,

                              Arthur W. Baum
                              Associate Editor

                                * * *

                                   Life
                           Time & Life Building
                            Rockefeller Center
                                New York 20

                                                           January 16, 1946

Dear Dr. Strong:

Your letter to Mr. Coughlan about "The Secret Language of War"
has been referred to this office.

Our statement that the Voynich Manuscript is undecipherable was
based on the fact that the American Cryptogram Association does
not recognize any theory as to its breaking.  Because it is so
obscure,this Manuscript can be changed to read a number of
different ways.

We placed the Manuscript in the 13th century because it is
generally attributed to Bacon.  Since no one is certain of the
origin, Professor Manly is equally entitled to his opinion, of
course.

                         Sincerely yours,

                         Ruth Mehrtens
                         for the Editors

                                * * *

                                                           January 20, 1946

D. Ruth Mehrtens
Editorial Offices
Rockefeller Center
New York 20, New York

Dear Dr. Mehrtens:

     I have your letter of January 16th at hand.  I quite agree with
Professor Manly that the Voynich Manuscript was not written by Roger
Bacon.  If Professor Manly were still alive I would demonstrate for
him the key to the cypher that I have discovered.  This also applies
to any professional cryptologist for cryptographer in the business of
recognized repute.  As you know my statement of the description of the
cypher system used in the Voynich Manuscript wa accepted for
publication in the official journal of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science.

     I would like to inquire upon what grounds the American Cryptogram
Association sets themselves up as a final authority on cryptography,
especially on something they have never seen.  After spending several
weeks investigation their organization and finally locating their
official publication in the New York Public Library, their
subscription for which in recent times has apparently lapsed, I am
quite convinced that the true cypher contained in the Voynich
Manuscript is much beyond the appreciation of the adepts of cross word
puzzles.  This organization as you can verify is not recognized by
"Scientific and Technical Societies and Institutions of the United
States and Canada", 4th edition, 1942, published by the National
Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.  My
authority in cryptography of the 15th and 16th centuries are (1)
Trithemius and J. B. Porta.  Some of their cyphers are discussed by
Gustavus Selenus, 1624, a copy of which is in my hand at the present
time.

     Your statement that the manuscript is "so obscure, etc." does not
apply to me as I can read it with the true cypher like an open book,
that is, all the manuscript that has been made available to me.  The
only reason why I have not published more of my decoded material is
because I have been advised by a newspaper man, and A. P. editor, that
the true contents is so frank it could not be published at the present
time, even after DeKruif published his book on the male sex hormone.
If your editors question any of these statements I should be delighted
to demonstrate, in person, before them the true cypher of the Voynich
Manuscript.

                              Sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

P.S. I am enclosing a reprint of my article from Science since there
     is no evidence in your letter that you have read it.

                                * * *

                                   Life
                           Time & Life Building
                            Rockefeller Center
                                New York 20

                                                           21 February 1946

Dear Dr. Strong:

I am sorry to have been delayed in answering your letter to me of
January 20th.

We appreciate your further discussion of the Voynich Manuscript,
and thank you for writing again.  I did read your article from
"Science" when you first wrote and regret that you thought I had
not done so.

                                   Sincerely yours,

                                   Ruth Mehrtens
                                   for the Editors

                                * * *

                             Victor O. Freeburg
                             16 East 71 Street
                           New York 21, New York

                                                              July 19, 1946

Prof. Leonell C. Strong
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Professor Strong:  Your work on the Voynich manuscript as
reported in Science, June 15, 1945, interests me very much as I
am writing a paper on "Ciphers and Literary Men" to be presented
in September before a meeting of the English Institute at
Columbia University.  I have read through the book by the late
Professor William Romaine Newbold entitled "The Cipher of Roger
Bacon", and the devastating review of it by the late Professor
John M. Manly.  I have also read "Roger Bacon's Cypher: The Right
Key Found" by Joseph Martin Feely of Rochester, N.Y. and I must
say that your article gave me a sense of relief. Naturally I
should like to bring the matter up to date.  Were you able to
continue the deciphering of the manuscript?  If you have
published any recent articles on the subject won't you please
give me the references so that I can look them up.

                                   Sincerely yours,

                                   Victor O. Freeburg

                                * * *

                                                              July 22, 1946

Dr. Victor O. Freeburg
16 East 71 Street
New York 21, New York

Dear Dr. Freeburg:

     I have your kind letter of July 19th at hand.  I also felt a
sense of relief when I found that the Voynich Cipher was not
nearly as involved as either Newbold or Feely tried to make out.
Unfortunately the owners of the manuscript were unwilling to
cooperate to the extent of furnishing me with a photostatic copy
so that the work could go on.

     Due to the nature of the cipher it was futile of me trying
to decipher only the isolated charts of the manuscript that have
already been published.  The cipher is apparently a string cipher
beginning at the first and continuing to the end.  Consequently I
have not published any more nor do I have the intention of doing
so until the owners are more cooperative.

     I envy you the opportunity of discussing "Ciphers and
Literary Men" before the English Institute of Columbia
University.  Quite aside from the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy
there is as you know a wealth of material in the English
language.  May I inquire whether you have looked into the cipher
activities of Roger Ascham, the brother of the deciphered author
of the Voynich manuscript?  Also the cipher knowledge of Dr. John
Dee has intrigued me considerable.  In fact for a long while, I
thought that Dr. John Dee was the author of the Voynich
manuscript.  As a matter of fact, I still believe his influence
was tremendous on the real author, either as an author or friend.
His book on Demonology should be reinvestigated from the
statement by the distinguished biologist, Robert Hooke.

     I have recently been fortunate enough to purchase a very
fine copy of Gustavus Selenus.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                             Victor O. Freeburg
                             16 East 71 Street
                           New York 21, New York

                                                              July 30, 1946

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
355 Cedar Street
New Haven 11, Conn.

     Dear Dr. Strong:  Thank you for your interesting letter of
July 22.  It is just too bad that the owners of the Voynich
manuscript have not furnished complete photostatic copies of it.
Your decipherment, besides being a feat of analysis and
interesting as such, would, I am sure, be a contribution to
knowledge.  Congratulations on obtaining a fine copy of Gustavus
Selenus.  That certainly is a fascinating compendium of cipher
lore.

     I appreciate your tips about Roger Ascham and Dr. John Dee.
I have found about Dee's interest in cipher, but I am ashamed to
admit that I am still in the dark about Roger Ascham.

                              Sincerely yours,

                              Victor O. Freeburg

                                * * *

                    Yale University School of Medicine
               333 Cedar Street - New Haven 11 - Connecticut

Laboratory of Physiology                                     April 24, 1947

Dr. L. C. Strong
Department of Anatomy

Dear Dr. Strong:

     I have your letter of the 23rd enclosing an account of the
Voynich manuscript.  I don't think that this could be properly
inserted at the beginning of your paper because it is rather too
long and detracts from the point of the paper itself.  My
suggestion would be that you put in a parenthesis after the first
sentence saying 'see appendix' and use the account, which is
really excellent, as an appendix to the paper.  This would
prevent people losing the thread of the story.  It would point up
the importance of your title, and the reader would not lose the
thread in bibliophilic detail.

          With best wishes,

                         Very sincerely yours,

                         J. F. Fulton, M.D.

cc:  Dr. E. L. McCawley

                                * * *

                                                             April 26, 1947

Dr. John F. Fulton
Yale University

Dear Dr. Fulton:

          The manuscript has been retyped and the introductory
remark has been placed in an appendix as you suggest.  Also the
two bibliographies have been combined into one in alphabetical
sequence.  If you have any further suggestions I would appreciate
very much having them.  If not, would you be so kind as to send
the manuscript to Dr. Sigerist for consideration for publication
in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine.

          I greatly appreciate your interest in this paper.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                              Yale University

Memorandum                                                 Dept. Physiology

To:  Dr. L. C. Strong                                          May 12, 1947

Dear Dr. Strong:

          Herewith a letter from Dr. Genevieve Miller about your
paper.  Will you show it to McCawley and ask him to return it?

                                   Yours sincerely,

                                   J. F. Fulton, M.D.

                                * * *

                                                          November 28, 1947

Sir Henry Thomas
British Museum
London
England

Dear Sir Thomas:

     I expect to be in London in June 1948 and would like very
much to spend some time in the British Museum.  I am particularly
interested in looking up all references that you may have to Dr.
Anthony Ascham who lived in the middle of the 16th century.  I am
enclosing a short reprint indicating my interest in him.

     Professor John Fulton suggested that I write to you in order
to ascertain whether or not it would be possible for you to have
these references assembled now so that they would be available to
me at the Museum in June so as to save as much of my time as
possible.  I would be interested not only in his published works
but also manuscript material, personal letters, etc.  Some of the
material that would be of interest to me may be listed under his
more famous brother, Roger.

     May I have a reply at your earliest convenience.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

Universiteit Van Amsterdam
Anatomisch-Embryologisch
Laboratorium

Amsterdam (0)
Mauritskade 61
                                                            January 2, 1948

Dr. Strong,
Department of Anatomy,
Yale University, Medical School,
333 Cedar Street
New Haven - Conn.

Dear Dr. Strong,

               One of these days I showed your publication on the
Voynick Manuscript to the associate professor of skandinavian
languages in Amsterdam.  She told me that she did not see any
resemblance between some of the mysterious words of this
manuscript and skandinavian languages but that of course it might
be possible to see some more resemblance if she could see more of
the text of this manuscript.  So I would suggest that you write
to her personally and give her some more informations.  Her
addres is:  Mrs. P.M. Boer den Hoed, Corn. Kruseman - straat 8,
Amsterdam-Z.  I hope that Mrs. Strong and you are doing well and
should be glad if you would remember me to Mrs. Strong.
                              With my kind regards,

                              Prof. Dr. M. W. Woerdeman

                                * * *

                       Department of Printed Books
                       British Museum, London, W.C.1

                                                            January 5, 1948

Mr. Leonell C. Strong,
Yale University,
Sterling Hall of Medicine,
Department of Anatomy,
333 Cedar Street,
New Haven II., Conn.
U. S. A.

Dear Sir,

     I have to acknowledge your letter of 28th November addressed
to Sir Henry Thomas.  Sir Henry retired on 31st December and I
have now succeeded him as Principal Keeper.

     I am afraid you have been expecting to find more material
here relating to Dr. Anthony Ascham than we in fact possess.  All
that we have in this Department is: -

     A litle Herball of the properties of Herbes.
                    [1550]    Press-mark:C.31.b.21.

     An Almanacke and Prognostication ... M.V.C.L.V.
                              Press-mark: 1880.d.9.(1)

     These will be ready for your consultation at any time.

     I asked the Keeper of Manuscripts to inform me of any
relevant material to be found in his Department, but he tells me
that there are no MSS. of Anthony Ascham there, and that such
MSS. of Roger Ascham as are in the Department do not appear to
relate to Anthony.

                              Yours sincerely,

                              C. B. Oldman
                              Principal Keeper

                                * * *

                              The Athenaeum
                              Pall Mall S.W.1

                                                            January 6, 1948

                                                           45 Gordon Square
                                                                 Bloomsbury
                                                               London W.C.1

Dear Dr. Strong,

     I was naturally interested to hear of your work on the
Voynich MS and the possible relation of the Anthony Askham
mystery.

     Such Gaelic experts as I have been able to consult give no
encouragement to the theory that the "language" in question has
ever been used in any part of England, but if, before your
arrival in June, I can get any more positive opinion, I will
certainly let you know.

     It so happens that I have the Bosanquet copies of STC 410
(858 is 1548) which are suffered to be unique, and even if I am
away from London when you are here I can arrange for you to see
them.  In case I am called away, ring London 1472 (11 AM to 5 pm
except Saturdays) and ask for the Assistant-Director of the
Orthological Institute, Miss L.W. Lockhart who will know where I
am.

               The "Herball" is in the Wellcome Museum.

               I shall be curious to learn whether you have been
able to see the original MS.

                         Yours sincerely,

                         C.K. Ogden

My regards to Professor Fulton.

                                * * *

                                                     11, Fitzwilliam Place,
                                                                     Dublin

                                                           January 13, 1948

Dear Mr. Strong,

     I have to thank you for your letter, and for your
interesting reprint of the paper on the Voynich Ms.  I fear I am
not able to help you with the Gaelic, much as I would like to be
able to do so, but I suggest that you write to

               Miss E. Knott, M.A.
               Royal Irish Academy House,
               Dawson Street, Dublin.

     She is one of the best of our Gaelic scholars, and is at
present working at the Gaelic Dictionary for the Academy.  I feel
sure that if she should not be able to resolve your difficulties
herself she could refer you to some source of reliable
information.

                         Yours very truly

                         J. Puy C. Kirkpatrick

                                * * *

                                                           January 23, 1948

Prof. Dr. M.W. Woerdeman
University of Amsterdam
Anatomy Department
Amsterdam (0)
The Netherlands

Dear Prof. Woerdeman:

     thanks a million for your letter of January 2.  Your contact
with the specialist of the opposite sex has posed a very
embarrassing problem in my mind.  Most of the manuscript that I
have decoded is an extremely frank auto-biographical sexual
history of the author and I would be much embarrassed to consult
the lady about it.  However, I shall have a copy of my decoded
material with me in Amsterdam and I shall let you read it and to
use your judgment whether further consultation with Mrs. Boer den
Hoed is desirable.  We shall be in Amsterdam between May 15-21.

                         Very sincerely yours,

                         Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                           January 23, 1948

Sir C.B. Oldman
Principal Keeper
Department of Printed Books
British Museum
London, W.C. 1
England

Dear Sir:

     I appreciate your letter January 5th relative to the books
by Dr. Anthony Ascham.  I shall be in London between June 1-20th
and would like at that time to study them.

     My reference to possible manuscripts of Roger Ascham was
initiated by the idea that perhaps some of the letters of Roger
Ascham may have been addressed to or from his brother Anthony.
Since the brother Roger was the more famous of the two brothers
that more items may have been filed under Roger.  I can find very
little information on Anthony in this country and it is my
desire, while in England, to try to locate some personal
memorabilia of Anthony Ascham.  Would it be possible for you to
turn this inquiry over to your Keeper of Manuscripts with the
hopes that perhaps he may be able to aid me in this search in
England.

                         Very sincerely yours,

                         Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                       Department of Printed Books
                       British Museum, London, W.C.1

                                                           February 3, 1948

Mr. Leonard C. Strong,
Yale University,
Sterling Hall of Medicine,
Department of Anatomy,
333 Cedar Street,
New Haven 11,
Connecticut, U.S.A.

Dear Sir,

     Thank you for your letter of 23rd January.  I have
communicated its contents to the Keeper of Manuscripts, who
assures me that the MSS. of Roger Ascham will be available for
you to consult at any time.  The officer in charge of the MSS.
Students' Room will gladly give you any further assistance that
you may need.

     I hope that I shall have the pleasure of making your
acquaintance when you come to England in June.

                              Yours sincerely,

                              C. B. Oldman,
                              Principal Keeper.

                                * * *

                                                           February 9, 1948

Miss E. Knott, M.A.
Royal Irish Academy House
Dawson Street
Dublin, Ireland

Dear Miss Knott:

     A recent letter from Dr. Kirkpatrick indicates that perhaps
you may be able to help me in the analysis of the language used
in the Voynich Manuscript according to the enclosed reprint.  The
opinion has been expressed by Mag. art. Chr. Westergaard-Nielsen,
University of Copenhagen and by Professor Hammerich that "they do
believe the phrases to be Gaelic but they are afraid that there
are some misunderstandings as well in the transcription as in
your translation".

     I would appreciate very much if [you] would give me an
opinion whether you consider this sentence as Gaelic either from
the words used or the grammatical construction.  I realize the
extreme difficulty of passing judgment on such a short quotation
but I would like to do the best with the material available.  I
intend to go on someday with decoding the rest of the manuscript
so that if I knew now the exact dialect used it would aid me
considerable.

     I would appreciate very much your kindness of any aid you
may give me on this problem.

                         Very sincerely yours,

                         Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                           University of Dublin

                                                            Trinity College
                                                       2 Sallymount Terrace
                                                                     Dublin

                                                          February 16, 1948

Dear Dr. Strong,

     The sentence "when ... crawknot" in the offprint you sent
(returned herewith) is not Irish Gaelic in vocabulary or syntax.
It is true that there is in modern Irish a demonstrative adj.
spell seo but that makes no sense in this context, where seo may
be quite another word.  I cannot see any grounds for supposing
the sentence to be Gaelic.

     I hope you will succeed in decoding the whole of the MS.

                              Yours sincerely,

                              Eleanor Knott

                                * * *

                 The University of Texas - Medical Branch
                                 Galveston

                                                              March 8, 1948

Dr. L. C. Strong
Department of Anatomy
Yale Medical School
333 Cedar Street
New Haven, Connecticut

Dear Doctor Strong:

     Now you and Elton McCawley have done it!  You've got us all
excited about the decoding of the Voynich manuscript.  Your
article in the December issue of the Bulletin of the History of
Medicine is delightful.  It is one of the few instances where an
ancient prescription has been put to the practical test.  It is
amazing how accurately peoples in the past have observed the
effects by experience of various materials in their environment
which might be used for medical purposes.  Your contribution is a
most important one, and it is very stimulating indeed.

     We will all look forward with much interest to the other
material what you find form the Voynich manuscript.  Are you
investigating anymore prescriptions?  We will put you on the
Ebers and Hearst prescriptions next!

     The two of you will have much pleasure developing your
historical interest.  I hope that you work together frequently.
You will have a lot that you can contribute in the field of the
history of medicine, and I hope that your satisfaction will be as
great as the pleasure you are giving your readers.

          With best wishes,

                              Sincerely yours,

                              Chauncey D. Leake
                              Vice-President

                                * * *

                                                             March 19, 1948

Dr. Chauncey D. Leake
University of Texas
Medical Branch
Galveston
Texas

Dear Dr. Leake:

     It was very kind of you to take the time of discussing our
recent paper in the bulletin on the History of Medicine.  It
gives me a great deal of pleasure to be able [to] decypher some
of these old manuscripts.  It is still a mystery why so much
cypher was resorted to but of course there probably were several
reasons.

     I have also wondered considerably why the prescriptions and
formulae of the past have not been more carefully investigated in
the modern scientific laboratory.  Certainly in the period of
description and classification in the history of science many
valid observations were made.  However when modern science threw
out the peculiar philosophical attempts to explain observations,
apparently the observations were also thrown out for no
legitimate reason.

     I wish we could spend some time on the Ebers and Hearst
prescriptions, but my time has been considerably taken up with an
active career in cancer research and I do not even have the time
to spend much on the continuation of the Voynich manuscript.
Somehow or rather the idea that the Voynich manuscript cypher has
been cracked opens up the possibility of branching out into
another "undecypherable code".

     Not all observations are in cypher.  Shortly after Drs.
Minot and Murphy received the Nobel Prize for the treatment of
pernicious anemia with liver, I showed Dr. Minot a reference to
the treatment of emaciating diseases with liver in the Sylva
Sylvarum of Francis Bacon, and this reference was published in
the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, November, 1927.

     I also believe that the symbolism of the mediaeval alchemist
also contain much that should be of interest to modern science.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                              June 14, 1948

Reverend Todd
Waterstock
Oxfordshire
England

Dear Reverend Todd:

     I was visiting the Bodleian Library today and Dr. Hassall
suggested that perhaps you would be a good man to contact for a
particular problem that I am interested in.  In the November-
December 1947 issue of the Bulletin of History of Medicine there
is an article by me on Dr. Anthony Ascham, a man who took an M.D.
degree at Cambridge in 1550, became a Vicar and settled in
Yorkshire.  I can find very little information on this man, he
being shadowed by his more famous brother, Roger.  It occurred to
me that perhaps in your reading you may have found some
information that may be of interest to me.  I would appreciate
very much if you do have a few references that may aid me in this
investigation.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

c/o Dr. Bonser
Dept. of Pathology
University of Leeds
Leeds, England

                                * * *

                                                            Oxford, England
                                                              June 14, 1948

Mr. C. T. Clay
Librarian of the House of Lords
London, England

Dear Sir:

     I have just visited the Bodleian Library of Oxford
University and Dr. Hassall suggested that perhaps you may be in a
position to help on a problem that confronts me at the present
time.  Dr. Hassall told me that you were an authority on
Yorkshire.  For some time I have been interested in a man who
lived in Burneston, Yorkshire during the latter part of the 16th
century, Dr. Anthony Ascham, a brother of Roger Ascham.  I can
find very little information on this man and I am writing you to
inquire whether you may have information that I desire or if not,
whether you could put me in touch with some other specialist who
may help, not only in finding material on the man, but also in
studying the Yorkshire dialect of this particular district during
the 16th century.

     In the November-December 1947 issue of the Bulletin of the
History of Medicine, there is an article of mine which discusses
Anthony Ascham.  Next week I am going to Yorkshire for the
purpose of trying to further my research and I would appreciate
very much your kindness in helping me in this matter.  Between
June 19-22 I can be reached by letter in care of Dr. Bonser,
Dept. of Pathology, University of Leeds, Leeds, England.  I shall
be greatly in your favor for any suggestions you may have.

     Dr. Hassall asked me to send his respects to you.

                                   Very sincerely yours,

                                   Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                             The Royal Society
                             Burlington House
                                London W.1

                                                              June 16, 1948

Dear Sir,

     Thank you for your letter of 14 June addressed to Mr.
Robinson.  Mr. Robinson has now retired and has asked me to
answer your query.

     I can only give you the sort of information about Ascham
that, no doubt, you have already obtained from the standard works
of reference.  I take it that you have consulted all the
references given in the Dictionary of National Biography at the
end of the article on Anthony Ascham.

     Mr. W.J. Bishop, the Librarian of the Wellcome Historical
Medical Museum, 183-193 Euston Road, London N.W.1., may be able
to assist you.  He told me he would be glad to give you any
information he has on Ascham.

                              Yours faithfully,

                              D. C. Martin
                              Assistant Secretary

L.C. Strong, Esq.,
c/o Dr. Bonser,
Department of Pathology,
University of Leeds.

                                * * *

                          House of Lords Library

                                                              June 16, 1948

Dear Sir

     In reply to your letter I should be very glad to help you in
any way I could, but, I am afraid that I have not information
available about Dr. Anthony Ascham.

     I should like, however, to make the suggestion that you
should call at the Library of the Yorkshire Archeological Society
(a society with which I am closely connected) at 10 Park Place,
Leeds.  There you will find Mrs. Hebdilck, our Librarian, who I
know will give you any help she can.  I do not of course know
whether she can throw any useful light on Dr. Ascham, but I am
sending your letter on to her so that she can be prepared for a
visit should you have time to call there.

                              Yours sincerely,

                              Charles Clay

Mr. Leonell C. Strong

I see that the account in Dict. Nat. Biog. makes him the
incumbent of Burneston, not as having been born there.

                                * * *

                                 Waterstock Rectory,
                                 Wheatley,
                                  Oxford.

                                                              June 17, 1948

Dear Dr. Strong,

          I have no information about Dr. Anthony ascham beyond
what is contained in the short article on him in the Dictionary
of National Biography which you have, no doubt, already
consulted.

     He was not a member of the Royal College of Physicians as
his name does not occur in Munk's "Roll of the Royal College of
Physicians 1518-1825".  He is mentioned in Venn's "Alumni
Cantabrigenses" as taking his M.B. <not M.D.> 1539-1540, after
eight years at Cambridge.  Melhlay, where he became Rector in
1552, is close to Leeds.  It would be worthwhile asking to see
the Parish Register, - if it is still in existence - to see
whether there is the entry of his death in it.

     I am sorry that I cannot add more, but if at any time, I
stumble across any fact which bears on his life, I shall
certainly let you know.

                              Yours sincerely

                              John Todd

                                * * *

                          University Press Oxford

                                                         September 22, 1948

Dr. L. C. Strong,
Yale University,
School of Medicine,
New Haven,
Connecticut,
U.S.A.

Dear Sir,

     Under separate cover and by registered post I am sending to
you microfilms from the whole of MS. Bodley 68., in the Bodleian
Library.

     I enclose my account for this work.

                         Yours faithfully,
                         Charles Batey
                         Printer to the University

Encl:

                                * * *

                                                         September 29, 1948

Keeper of Manuscripts
Bodleian Library
Oxford University
Oxford, England

Dear Sir:

     While at the Bodleian Library last June, 1948, I sent in a
request to have a microfilm made for one of your manuscripts by
Anthony Askham.  I am particularly interested in getting this
microfilm this fall as I have more time for study during the
winter months.  I would appreciate very much if you could
personally look up my application and to decide whether my
application was reasonably presented so that I may have this
microfilm for study soon.  Kindly enclose bill for reproduction
and I shall send a money order upon receipt.

                         Very respectfully yours,

                         Leonell C. Strong
                         Prof. of Anatomy

                                * * *

                                                      Department of Western MSS.
                                                      Bodleian Library
The Keeper of Western MSS.                                  Oxford

                                                            October 5, 1948

Dear Sir,

     The University Press photographer informs me that your
microfilm was sent to you on September 22.

                              Yours truly,

                              R. W. Hunt
                              Keeper of Western Manuscripts

                                * * *

                                                            Central Library
                                                                  Leeds

                                                           October 25, 1948

Dear Mr. Strong,

     I was pleased to learn from your letter that you are
satisfied with the information and photostats which Mr. Bonser
had sent you.

     There is not charge for the photostats, my Committee taking
the view that if it is its duty to serve scholarship, then it
must carry out that duty without restrictions.

     I am happy to have been of service to you.

                              Yours sincerely,

                              F. G. B. Hutchings
                              City Librarian.

                                * * *

                                                        Genevieve Miller
                                                        Box 32
                                                        South Lansing, N.Y.

                                                          December 14, 1948

Professor L. C. Strong
Department of Anatomy
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Professor Strong:

     Last year when I was associated with the Johns Hopkins
Institute of the History of Medicine as Associate Editor of the
Bulletin of the History of Medicine I recall that we published an
article by you and Professor McCawley on the Voynich manuscript.

     Now I am doing graduate work in the history of science at
Cornell University, and by coincidence have been assigned the
task of discussing this manuscript in a medieval history seminar
devoted to historical myths.  You mentioned in the appendix to
your article that the details of decoding the Voynich manuscript
would be made available later, and I am therefore writing to ask
you whether you have succeeded in decoding the entire manuscript.
I should be interested in knowing a little more about your method
of decoding and how you ascertained that the manuscript was
written by Anthony Askham.  Incidentally, I am not a
cryptographer, and any information which you give me will not be
used to anticipate any of your own work and future publications.

     If you have an extra reprint of the article you published in
the Bulletin (November-December, 1947 issue) I should like very
much to have one to present to the Cornell Library.

                              Yours very sincerely,

                              Genevieve Miller

                                * * *

                                                          December 22, 1948

Miss Genevieve Miller
South Lansing
Box 32
New York

Dear Miss Miller:

     Your letter of December 14th was received while we were on a
California trip.  Hence the delay.

     I have been interested in cryptography as a hobby for nearly
thirty years.  I have been interested mostly in the 16th and 17th
centuries, since these were the centuries in which cyphers
received their greatest development.  When Professor Newbold's
book on the Voynich Manuscript was published, I purchased the
book and read it merely as a book on cypher.  I did not try to
analyze nor criticize the work since I did not have the time to
go back to the 13th century.  However later when the botanical
specimens were emphasized I started to apply my methods of
decypherment since the manuscript was then placed in the century
in which I was interested.  My first publication in Science was
published with the primary purpose of trying to get the owners of
the manuscript interested in my work.  As you perhaps know,
photostating of the entire manuscript and secretarial help would
be too great for my means at my disposal.  Instead of becoming
interested in my cypher work, the owners seemed to resent any
work on it.  I was told by one of the legatees mentioned in Mr.
Voynich's will that as an undecypherable manuscript it would be
worth more than it would be with the cypher known, when then it
becomes another manuscript in the history of medicine.  Whether
the owners still have this opinion I do not know and I would not
like to be quoted on the matter.

     The second article in the History of Medicine with Professor
McCawley was again for the purpose of trying to stimulate the
owners interest.  This has been to no avail.  Whether I shall
ever publish any more depends upon the future.  I have been asked
by the editor of Speculum, the official organ of the Mediaeval
Academy of America, of which I am a member, to write a lengthy
article on my work of decoding the Voynich Manuscript.  I am
still undecided whether I can ever get the time to do this.

     The key to the code can be found in Porta and Trithemius.
It is also discussed in the Cryptomenes of Gustavus Selenus, a
copy of which I own.  This is all I can say on the method.
Frankly there is a personal matter involved here.  I feel that
since I determined the method of the code that I should be given
the opportunity of decyphering the entire manuscript or at least
that part which appeals to me.

     My recent work on this matter has been the accumulation of
all the evidence I can find on Anthony Askam and I can say now
that this information is very meager.  There is one manuscript
supposedly in the hand writing in the Bodliean Library, a
microfilm of which I now have.  When enlargements of this
microfilm have been made I propose to compare this hand writing
in the Voynich manuscript.  During my recent visit to England
last June I also found that Anthony Askam was Rector of two
parishes in Yorkshire.  It was customary in those days for
Rectors to record births, marriages and deaths.  I have
photostats of these two parishes during Anthony Askam's tenure of
office.  I also intend to compare these with the hand writing in
the Voynich manuscript.

     I am extremely interested to hear of your interest in this
manuscript.  May I hope that after your seminar you may have
additional time to investigate the problem.  I feel that the
Voynich manuscript is a very important one in the history of
medicine, perhaps not containing any great contributions in the
art of medicine, but perhaps an attempt has been made to
rationalize on medical lore possessed by the English peasant of
the early 16th century, also on the reinterpretation of astrology
and the influence on the stars of human disease and an evaluation
of a man's life (particularly sex physiology) in relation to the
community.

     I am enclosing the two reprints already published.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong

                                * * *

                                                        Genevieve Miller
                                                        Box 32
                                                        South Lansing, N.Y.

                                                           January 11, 1949

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Department of Anatomy
Yale University School of Medicine
333 Cedar St.
New Haven 11, Conn.

Dear Dr. Strong:

     Thank you very much for your kind letter of December 22.  I
apologize for my delay in acknowledging it; as a matter of fact I
have been so busy preparing the Roger Bacon paper which is due
this Friday, that I have had to drop everything else.

     I was very interested in your remarks about the Voynich Ms,
and I fully appreciate your desire to reserve the details of your
decoding method until you have had an opportunity to decipher the
entire manuscript.  If you cannot obtain access to the manuscript
in any other way, it is possible that you could obtain microfilm
of the set of photostats in the British Museum (mentioned at the
conclusion of Manly's article in Speculum).  What puzzles me, is
why Askham would put such a work in cipher, where it is so
inaccessible that no one before you has been able to read it?  I
have not studied the 16th century in any detail and therefore
have no judgment except my own curiosity on the subject, but
since so many popular treatises on medicine and medicinal
remedies were being written and published at the time, I simply
wonder why he should have felt any necessity to conceal the
contents of his book.  However, you are undoubtedly familiar with
the cryptological literature of the day and may know of other
instances of scientific treatises being thus enciphered.
Astrology, for example, was openly accepted and written about,
and there was also a considerable gynecological literature.
Therefore, why the cipher?  Was it an intellectual game?

     I very much appreciated your sending the reprints of your
articles, and I hope that you will find it possible to continue
your work on the manuscript.

                              Yours very sincerely,

                              Genevieve Miller

                                * * *

                                                        Hudson View Gardens
                                                          New York 33, N.Y.

                                                             March 14, 1949

Dear Dr. Strong,

     Since I had the pleasure of hearing from you in 1945*, I
have often thought of your researches in the authorship of the
Voynich cipher MS and wondered if you were able to continue them
in London, as you had hoped to do.  As I am quite out of touch
with my old friends, the owners, I never learned if eventually
they granted you access to the photostatic copy in the N.Y.
Public Library.

     Then, the other day, I picked up rather idly a number (Nov.
'48) of Isis and of course my glance was arrested by the sight of
the name of Athanasius Kircher.  I read the article and, noting
the omission of a reference to your reading of the cipher as it
appeared in Science, I called the author's attention to the fact.
(I hope this was not taking liberties, for I suggested his
getting in touch with you.)

     In his reply thanking me Dr. McCracken uses the plural:
"articles", so I am writing now to ask if you have published
anything on the subject since your first note in Science, with
its attribution to Dr. Anthony Ascham, brother of Roger.

     And what about Dr. John Dee?

                              Sincerely yours,

                              Erla Rodakiewicz

* July 18

                                * * *

               Doctor Strong's response to the above letter
                         is missing as of 7/30/92

      (Carried as letter number 94 in the Letters index-the following
excerpt was transcribed from the letter in 1987)

To:  Erla Rodakiewicz
From: L. C. Strong

                                                             March 16, 1949

"There is a gradual approach to the distribution obtained by
passing backward through the classical writers of the 17th and
16th centuries in English.  The nearest approach was found to be
in some early writing of John Dee at it was this characteristic
which originally led me to believe that John Dee had something to
do with its construction."..."If you will look on the last page
of John Dee's Actions with Spirits which was published in 1659
you will find a very interesting page.  By dividing the page into
two parts you will find that one half has exactly the same
frequency distribution of word size that is found in the Voynich
manuscript.  If anybody be interested in working out this cypher,
you will find the identical cypher which I determined in the
Voynich manuscript.  The only difference being in the number of
alphabets used and the difference in the arithmetical
progressions."

                                * * *

                                                        Hudson View Gardens

                                                                May 1, 1949

Dear Dr. Strong,

     The date of your letter is a mute reproach.  Please believe
that I appreciate both letter and the copies of your article, but
I have reached the age when Time becomes a swift unbroken
current.  In addition to the infirmities of my years, everything
seems to happen at once with me.

     In late March our Renaissance Club made a pilgrimage to
Princeton for the last meeting of the season.  I mentioned - with
due discretion - your work in cryptography to Professor George
Parks of Queens College, so do not be surprised someday to
receive an inquiry from him if you would have time and the
inclination to speak before the Club.  By the way are you
acquainted with a quarterly publication: Renaissance hows
(Dartmouth, for the American Council of Learned Societies).
Studies in progress on especially the listed acquisitions in
Britain and in the U.S.A. offer useful information in research.
No doubt this "newsletter" may be found in your Yale Library.
     Your contributions to the knowledge of the Voynich MS.
should, in my opinion, make it doubly attractive to the New York
Academy of Medicine, which many years ago considered purchasing
it.  (Perhaps this should be held confidential, in the interest
of the owners).  Has the Academy shown interest in your readings
of the text?  Your suggestion that the cypher was used by a group
of scholars certainly opens may vistas.  I am too unfamiliar with
the subject and the period to be aware of the existence of
corroborative evidence.  Who knows what uncatalogued treasures
the British and perhaps continental libraries may still hold and
which the publication planned by you may lure into the light?

                         Again with my thanks,

                         Very sincerely yours,

                         Erla Rodakiewicz

                                * * *

                                                       Windsor Gate
                                                       Great Neck, New York

                                                             August 8, 1951

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Amity Road
Woodbridge
New Haven, Connecticut

My dear Dr. Strong,

     It was with a great deal of interest that I read your
article in Science in 1945 concerning your decypherment of the
Voynich manuscript.  I have long been interested in this
manuscript and its several "solutions", but yours is the only one
I've seen that shows any signs of plausibility.  You said in the
article that you could not divulge the method of encipherment at
the time of publication because of security reasons.  I wonder if
you would mind now telling me briefly what the method of
encipherment is and what results you've obtained from your
reading of the manuscript.

                              Very truly yours,

                              David Kahn

                                * * *

                                                             August 9, 1951

Mr. David Kahn
Windsor Gate
Great Neck
New York

Dear Mr. Kahn:

     It was a pleasure to have your letter of August 8th relative
to my decipherment of the Voynich Manuscript.  When I published
the article the method of decypherment was not given due to the
fact that articles on cypher are not very popular during war
years.  I have full confidence that with this publication an
interest would be aroused by which my cypher research could be
continued.  However I have been entirely unsuccessful in
interesting or even contacting the owners of the manuscript.  I
requested the opportunity of studying a photostatic copy and this
was denied me.  Life Magazine wanted to publish a feature article
on my work and I had several interviews with their Editors.
However I understand the owners of the manuscript would not give
permission for this article to appear in Life and in order to
avoid a controversy the Life article was not published.  I do
know that there are several photostatic copies of the manuscript
in existence, one of which was used by Col. Friedman of
Washington.  I have had a very interesting correspondence with
the Colonel among which is his statement that he wanted me to
publish nothing but to submit all my decypherment to him.
Without the entire manuscript and more time than I can spare from
a career in cancer research no further progress can be made.  I
have decyphered all the charts available to me, the ones that
appear [in] "the Cypher of Roger Bacon" by Newbold.

     I admit that I do not have the complete multiple alphabet,
but I have enough to convince me that I am on the right track.
If I would publish what I do have somebody, especially in
Washington, with all the modern machinery for decypherment, could
take my system and complete the entire manuscript and destroy
what little fun I have had in solving the "most mysterious
manuscript in the world".

     You may be interested to know that the New Yorker
interviewed me about publishing an article in their magazine and
when I had finished they agreed with me that it would be
inappropriate to publish it at the present time.  A good deal of
the manuscript deals with sex physiology and relations in the
middle ages.

                              Very sincerely yours,

                                * * *

                                                       Windsor Gate
                                                       Great Neck, New York

                                                            August 15, 1951

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Amity Road
Woodbridge
New Haven, Connecticut

Dear Dr. Strong:

     It was a pleasure to hear from you so promptly.  I must say
that you certainly have had your problems with the manuscript.

     Just to see what would happen, I called Mrs. Voynich on the
telephone today.  Her secretary answered and we had a five-minute
talk.  I told her that I was working on the manuscript but needed
a complete photostatic copy to complete my decryptment.  She
replied that no more copies were being given out, and indicated
that the reason was that a plethora of copies would lower the
ultimate selling price of the manuscript itself.  It has not yet
been sold, and no price has been fixed.  The secretary even
declined to give the names of those who have copies, but she did
mention one Father Peterson, formerly of Washington, D.C., who
has been working on the manuscript for many years.  The
Archdiocese of Washington might know him and his whereabouts.

     You may be interested to know that there is a group in New
York which meets once a month to discuss our hobby of
cryptography.  Nearly all of them know of the manuscript, and I
feel sure that a talk by you concerning your solution and the
method of decypherment would be of intense interest to all.
Would you like to address this group?  I should be more than
pleased to get in touch with the president for you.  We might
even get Mrs. Voynich to attend!

                              Sincerely yours,

                              David Kahn

                                * * *

                                                    310 Second Street, S.E.
                                                    Washington 3, D. C.

                                                           October 20, 1954

Miss Pauline Holmes
50 Bates Road
Watertown, Massachusetts

Dear Miss Holmes:

     About a half dozen years ago we exchanged some
correspondence in connection with your studies in the field of
Baconian ciphers.  I have recently reviewed the correspondence
and note that at the time of your writing you obviously had in
your temporary possession certain work sheets and notebooks of
Mrs. Gallup's on the biliteral cipher.  These were referred to as
the property of Mr. Sloman.  I am wondering whether by any chance
you still have these work sheets and notebooks, or whether you
returned them to Mr. Sloman.  Whatever you can tell me about
these will be much appreciated.

     Hoping this letter will find you well, I am,

                              Sincerely,

                              William F. Friedman

                                * * *

                                                 Boston Home For Incurables
                                                 2049-2061 Dorchester Ave.
                                                 Boston, Mass.

                                                           November 3, 1954

William F. Friedman
310 Second Street, S.E.
Washington 3, D.C.

Dear Mr. Friedman:

     Your recent letter was forwarded to the above address where
I have been living for the last year.  Yes, I recall very vividly
my correspondence with you several years ago.

     I returned to Mr. Edmund M. Sloman, a year or more before
his death, the Dr. Owen wheel and all the Owen and Gallup papers
which Mr. Sloman had loaned me.  His widow (85 Eason Ave.,
Highland Park, Michigan) has since written me that she planned to
give the wheel to the Detroit Public Library.  I enclose a list
of the papers.  This collection does not include Mrs. Gallup's
work sheets for the biliteral cipher.  I have never been able to
locate these.

     Under separate cover I am sending you the following:
     1.   Mrs. Prescott's book.  Read pages 36-53.
     2.   Baconiana, New Year issue, 1949, containing my article
          on the discovery of the Morgan Coleman manuscript.
          Read notes on pages 33-35.
     3.   Baconiana, Spring 1949.  Article by Edward D. Johnson

     You may know that George B. Curtis and Samuel B. Haskell
have both died within the last few years.  I suggest that you
write to Mrs. Curtis, Moravian College for Women, Bethlehem,
Penn.

     It is pleasant to resume correspondence with you.

                              Cordially yours,

                              [Miss Pauline Holmes]

                                * * *

                               Mayo Clinic
                           Rochester, Minnesota

Section of Biophysics

                                                             March 23, 1961

Dr. Leonell C. Strong
Director, Biological Station
Roswell Park Memorial Institute
Springville, New York

Dear Doctor Strong:

     I have had occasion recently to look up the life history of
Roger Bacon, and of course came across the Voynich Cipher
Manuscript and the publications regarding this manuscript which
appeared in the Transactions of the College of Physicians in
1921.  Just the other day I saw your communication to Science of
June, 1945, as well as a note in the Transactions of the College
of Physicians, June, 1945.

     I am writing to you to inquire if there is any additional
information available concerning the translation of the Voynich
manuscript.  I have been unable to find anything in the
literature since June, 1945, and would appreciate it very much if
you could inform me of any recent references.

                         Very sincerely yours,

                         E. J. Baldes

                                * * *

                                                             March 27, 1961

Dr. E. J. Baldes
Section of Biophysics
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, Minnesota

Dear Dr. Baldes:

     I assume from your letter of March 23rd that you are more
interested in Roger Bacon rather than in the Voynich manuscript.
It was a very great mistake to have the two as mixed up as they
seem to be even though the mistake goes back to Professor Newbold
who was unquestionably a fine gentleman and a scholar.

     To me the Voynich manuscript was not written until the 16th
century.  I have published two papers on this idea which are
enclosed in this letter.  You have already referred to the one in
Science.  I have much more of the Voynich manuscript deciphered
but shall probably never publish anything further on it due to
the fact that the original manuscript and the photostatic copies
are in as deep freeze as any section of Zeta which is a
characteristic of some of our educational institutions.

     It was even suggested by one of our top cryptographers in
Washington that since they had the mechanical machine to do the
entire decipherment all they needed was my system of decoding
which I had obtained by hard work.  This I was loath to do and so
the matter rests.  As a matter of fact even if further
decipherment of the Voynich manuscript could be made available it
probably could not be published at the present time.  To me the
Voynich manuscript is merely another manuscript in the history of
medicine.

     If there is any further service I may be to you kindly feel
free to call upon me at any time.

                              Sincerely yours,

                              Leonell C. Strong, Ph.D.
                              Director

                                * * *

                                 Western Union
                                 Telegram

                                                              June 18, 1962

850P EDT JUN 18 62 SYB517
SPE251 SSB722 SY HEA576 PD GARDEN CITY NY 18 819P EDT
DR LEONELL STRONG, PHONE LY 2 7032
SPRINGVILLE NY BIOLOGICAL STATION SPRINGVILLE NY
(RTE SPRINGVILLE AGCY VIA BFLO CTA)

NEWYORK TIMES PUBLISHED TODAY STORY ON VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT OFFERED
FOR $160,000 MENTIONING NEITHER YOU NOR NEWBOLD NOR FEELY.
AS A REPORTER ON THE LONG ISLAND DAILY, NEWSDAY, I AM WRITING
A FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATED PIECE ON THE MANUSCRIPT, AND WOULD
LIKE TO INCLUDE SOME DETAILS OF YOUR WORK IN ADDITION TO YOUR
TWO ARTICLES. I WILL TELEPHONE YOU SOMETIME TUESDAY AND WILL
BE MOST GRATEFUL IF YOU CAN HELP ME OUT.  YOU MAY REMEMBER THAT
I WROTE YOU A DECADE AGO AS A YOUNGSTER INTERESTED IN CRYPTOLOGY
AND THAT YOU REPLIED TO ME VERY KINDLY I'M STILL INTERESTED,
INCIDENTLY

                         [David Kahn](note attached to letter- call
David Kahn collect at Pioneer 1-1234 up until 1:30, from 3:00 on call
Hunter 73964 collect)

                                * * *

                                                              June 21, 1962

Mr. David Kahn
The Long Island Daily, Newsday
Garden City, New York

Dear Mr. Kahn:

     your telegram was delivered to us late in the evening on
June 18.  We were expecting a call from you on Tuesday.  Not
hearing from you, I could only conclude that you probably run
into as much difficulty as I had experienced on at least two
occasions following my original publication in Science Magazine.
I was approached by both Time magazine and The New Yorker to
present more information on my decipherment of the Voynich
Manuscript.  Unfortunately, in both cases in order to avoid an
argument, the owner of the Voynich Manuscript was expected to
okay these two news releases.  This okay apparently never did
materialize because I heard nothing further from either
manuscript.

     If the manuscript is undecipherable it may be worth all the
owners expect to get for it.  If the ciphering were known, and I
certainly did decipher it, the manuscript would only be another
in the history of medicine.  It is my firm conviction that some
of the material in the manuscript could not be published now, it
could even be called a Kinsey report from the 17th century.
However, news is news and you know that field a lot more than I
do.

     I have a dim memory of contacting you many years ago.  Were
you not the boy who corresponded with Miss Pauline Holmes?  If
so, you may know that she died several years ago.

     Here's luck to you in your search for truth no matter where
it can be found.

                         Sincerely yours,

                         Leonell C. Strong, Ph.D.

                                * * *

My present address is:
     Pfc. Donald R. Tumasonis
     RA 11639481
     B Btry, 5th Bn, 7th Arty
     Franklin Lakes, New Jersey
                         07417

                                                          November 21, 1967

Sir:

     I humbly beg your forgiveness for this intrusion upon the
privacy of one who is most certainly engaged in matters of
greater import, but I am relying upon your gracious help for the
solution of a question to which otherwise I feel I could find no
answer.

     Two years ago, I first came across the enigma of the Voynich
manuscript.  At the present time, I believe that I am either in
possession of, or have access to all published commentary on that
most curious book.  In the June 15 issue of Science, 1945, an
article appeared under your name, pertaining to a solution of the
cipher.

     Since that time, I have been unable to discover further
reference to your findings on this problem.  I also believe that
most are unaware of your research on the Voynich manuscript,
since the most recent writings on it (Altick, Ashbrook) make no
mention of your work, treating the cipher as still unsolved.

     My question, sir, is this:  did you publish any further
research concerning the manuscript, and if so, where?  If, sir,
you did no further writing, may I humbly ask, why?

     Your answer would be an immense aid towards settling a
question that has perplexed me for the past two years.  If you
would graciously deign to answer my request, my gratitude would
be boundless.  I am,

                         Most Obediently Yours,

                         Donald Tumasonis

                                * * *

                                                    Rand Corporation
                                                    1700 Main St.
                                                    Santa Monica, CA  90406

                                                            August 14, 1975

Dear Dr. Strong,

     I recently was able to find your paper on the Voynich
Manuscript in Science (15 Jun 1945) from a citation in The
Codebreakers, by David Kahn.  The description of your results was
very interesting (but tantalizing) to me.  Have you published the
keys you used in the "double system of arithmetical progressions
of multiple alphabets"?  I have a copy of the microfilm from the
British Museum with the first 67 pages of the manuscript, but
have made no progress with it.

     I would be interested to see your method; I am particularly
mystified that a progressive multiple alphabet system could
produce situations like the three contiguous repetitions of the
work 40HC89 in the plate on p. 865 of The Codebreakers.  I hope
this request is not an imposition on your time.

                                   Sincerely yours,

                                   Jim Gillogly
                                   Information Sciences Dept.

                                * * *

                                                            August 16, 1975

Dr. Jim Gillogly
Information Sciences Dept.
Rand Corporation
1700 Main St.
Santa Monica, CA  90406

Dear Dr. Gillogly

     At one time, I had the intention of publishing the complete
analysis of the decoding of the Voynich manuscript.  But after
the insulting report of the early work by David Kahn, based upon
the sloppy work of Friedman, I decided never to publish further
on the research.  Neither Kahn nor Friedman have ever seen my
original analysis, including work sheets and for them to draw a
conclusion without knowing all the evidence is unsound science
and should be considered unethical practice in crypto-analysis.
Friedman, in his correspondence to me admitted he was unable to
decypher the Voynich MMS himself, and thus expressed a vane of
vanity which probably was part of the reason why he tried to
discredit me.  Some build up a reputation by trying to destroy
everyone else.

     I was never able to find out whether Ascham ever had the
idea that his MMS would ever be decyphered.  But if Ascham waited
for four hundred years before his code system was discovered, I
can wait just as long for recognition in finding Ashcham's
reason.

     If you continue p. 865 you may find more repetitions of what
you call "the word 40HC89".  You may conclude that this
combination is not even a single word and the combination may
have different meanings.  In other words it is not a unit of
words but a unit for the entire passage.  That is as far as I
will go in indicating my system.

     My description of the system of decoding used is clear.  But
even without this clear hint, any expert decoder should be a
master in his own field.

                                * * *

                                                 Information Sciences Dept.
                                                 Rand Corporation
                                                 1700 Main St.
                                                 Santa Monica, CA  90406

                                                            August 20, 1975

Dear Dr. Strong,

     Just a note to thank you for your speedy response to my
letter of 14 Aug. about the Voynich manuscript, and for your hint
about the problems I'm having with it.  I trust it will become
clearer to me as I study the manuscript further.  I respect your
position about not disseminating your solution and will not press
for further information.

     Thank you also for clarifying your position with respect to
Kahn and Friedman (who died several years ago, I believe).  I
certainly agree that Friedman's rejection of your solution was
sloppy and unscientific - a clear cryptographic method with few
degrees of freedom (unlike Newbold's attempt) would certainly
overshadow any linguistic objections.  The correct conclusion for
him to have drawn was merely that your solution was unproven,
since the essence of science is reproducibility of experiments.
I must respectfully disagree with your inclusion of Kahn in the
same category, however.  I didn't fee that his treatment of your
work was insulting, but that he had drawn the only conclusion
possible - that it was unproven (because unpublished).  He
reports Friedman's opinion as opinion, and does not express his
own opinion.  In his chapter about Friedman, by the way, he
echoes your comment about Friedman building his reputation by
tearing down others.

     Thanks again for your letter.  I trust you will one day
receive the recognition you deserve - and that you won't have to
wait four hundred years.

                         Sincerely,

                         Jim Gillogly
                         (Mr., not Dr. - M.S. in Computer Sci.)

                                * * *

                             Philip M. Arnold
                                 Box 1457
                       Bartlesville, Oklahoma 74003

                                                             April 19, 1977

Dr. L. C. Strong
10457 Roselle St.
San Diego, Cal.  92121

Dear Dr. Strong:

     In Science, Vol. 101, No. 2633, page 608 (June 15, 1945),
you reported that you had found the key to the Voynich
manuscript, but because of the war then going on you did not feel
it appropriate to publish your findings in full.  the manuscript
was then in the hands of Kraus, the New York book dealer, and you
apparently had seen only photocopies of certain pages of it.
However, as a result of your work, you ascribed it to Anthony
Ascham.

     Did you ever publish the key that you found to the
manuscript, and if so, where?  Did you ever have access to the
complete manuscript, and do you still think that your
decipherment, based on a limited sample, is valid?

     I would be grateful for any information that you can give me
on this subject.  In view of the long lapse of time, it may no
longer be of interest to you, but I can assure you that other
people are still interested.

                              Sincerely yours,

                              P. M. Arnold

                                * * *

                                                             April 22, 1977

Mr. P. M. Arnold
Box 1457
Bartlesville, Okla  74003

     It is a surprise to hear about some of my old work.  Yes, I
am interested in the manuscript even after I received some pretty
rough treatment with the custodian for the former owner, Mr.
Voynich.  As you may know there had been several copies made and
deposited in various libraries.  The one at the New York Library
could only be seen by the permission of the custodian.  She
denied my request.  Colonel Friedman of our USA code division
also had access to a copy.  With this, he had the audacity to ask
me for my system of decipherment since he had the wonderful
machines in Washington for decypherment.  Hence I then determined
that if the machines were as good as they were claimed to be, one
should determine what system had been employed and I would be
holding a ?climbing? throttle!  I shall never divulge the system
i used.  I carefully described it in the Science article.  you
can find the cypher in Trithemius.

     I am certain that Anthony Ascham was the author.

     I also have taken note that the manuscript is now at Yale
University - but several years after I had determined the nature
of the manuscript at the Medical School, Yale University where I
spent many hours in the wonderful Cushing Library.

     I wish you all the luck in your search.  I fondly remember
the hours of ?scout? work I did before the light broke.

                         Sincerely

[ Editor: the transcript ends here, without a signature. ]

[ Editor: the following is the text of Jim Reeds's Web page "Voynich
  Manuscript" (AT&T Research, last modified 25 August 1997), converted
  from HTML.  The page marked itself "under construction"; its links
  are given as URLs where they carried information, and many of the
  files it pointed to were stored in .Z compressed form. ]

So much has already been written about the Voynich Manuscript (or "VMS,"
for short) that I will keep this brief.  The executive summary:

    The mysterious VMS is still unread.

Printed information sources

These sources contain the highlights; their bibliographies point to more
than you will ever want to know.

  - Newbold, William Romaine.  The Cipher of Roger Bacon.  Edited with
    foreword and notes by Roland Grubb Kent.  Philadelphia: University
    of Pennsylvania Press, 1928.

  - Brumbaugh, Robert S.  The World's Most Mysterious Manuscript.
    Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978.  London:
    Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1977.

  - D'Imperio, M. E.  The Voynich Manuscript: An Elegant Enigma.  Fort
    George G. Meade, Maryland: National Security Agency, 1978.
    (Reprinted by Aegean Park Press, Laguna Hills, California, c. 1980.)

  - D'Imperio, M. E., editor.  New Research on the Voynich Manuscript:
    Proceedings of a Seminar, 30 November 1976.  Privately printed
    pamphlet, Washington, D.C., 1976.

  - Jacques Guy.  "Statistical Properties of Two Folios of the Voynich
    Manuscript."  Cryptologia XV, 1991.

  - Jim Reeds.  "William F. Friedman's Transcription of the Voynich
    Manuscript."  Cryptologia XIX, 1995.  (A Postscript draft, wff.ps, is
    available.)

I am compiling a bibliography of VMS references more recent than those
found in D'Imperio or Brumbaugh.  If you know of any, please let me know
by email.

Location of VMS; photographic copies

The VMS lives in New Haven, Connecticut, in Yale University's Beinecke
Rare Book Room and Library, under the name of MS 408; its catalog entry
can be viewed on the net.  Photocopies are available from Yale:

  - A B&W microfilm of the VMS costs about $40.
  - A wretched Xerox print of the microfilm costs about $40.
  - Higher quality, higher priced glossy photographs and slides can be
    made to order.

I have prepared a checklist of all printed VMS images you are likely to
find in print.

Electronic information sources

Jim Gillogly maintains a publicly accessible collection of Voynich
information (ftp://ftp.rand.org/pub/voynich), much of it taken from the
Voynich mailing list's traffic.  A copy of that information (accurate as
of 17 Jan 1997) is obtainable here.  There is the European VMS
Transcription project web site
(http://sun1.bham.ac.uk/G.Landini/evmt/evmt.htm).  I have a collection
of Voynich data at AT&T.

There is a very informal VMS electronic mailing list, voynich@rand.org,
run by Jim Gillogly, founded on 5 December 1991, with a fluctuating
level of activity; a must for anyone with an abiding interest in the
VMS.  To join, send Jim an email enrollment request
(voynich-request@rand.org).  There are several partial logs of past
traffic: a huge old one (file BIG.txt in the AT&T collection) and a
large recent one (file BIG2.txt) and a larger more recent one (file
BIG3.txt).  One member, Robert Firth, has been posting an occasional
numbered series of notes summarizing his thinking about the VMS.

Michael Roe has an extensive set of web pages
(http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/mrr/voynich/index.html) largely devoted
to an exposition of the material in D'Imperio's book and a summary of
some of the voynich@rand.org discussions.

Progress

What progress has been made since D'Imperio's book?

There is a Postscript Type 1 font (by J. S. Porter) and a Postscript
Type 3 font (by myself) for setting Voynich script.  Bruce Grant has
prepared a Metafont Voynich font; Martin McCarthy has made his own
version of this font available via WEB
(http://www.hermetica.com/marty/wip.html) and via FTP
(ftp://ftp.mcqueen.com/pub/crypto/voynich/fonts/marty).

Various transcriptions (using some conventional transcription alphabet)
have been located; some modest further transcription work has been
carried out:

  1. Petersen's hand transcription (made in the late 1930's) has been
     photocopied and distributed.

  2. Currier's partial transcription has been widely distributed; a
     somewhat corrected and enlarged revised version has been made by
     members of the Voynich mailing list.

  3. There are the First Study Group (FSG) transcriptions, made by
     Friedman and friends in the late 1940's, described in my
     Cryptologia paper.  (See files 1609.txt, 1613.txt, FSG.txt, and
     v2.txt.)

  4. J. H. Tiltman's transcription of a few pages, made in 1951, also
     uses the FSG transcription alphabet.

  5. There is the partial Second Study Group (SSG) transcription made by
     Friedman and friends in the early 1960's.

  6. G. Landini and R. Zandbergen are currently engaged in a long-term
     EVMT (European Voynich Manuscript Transcription) project which
     attempts to merge and rectify all previous transcriptions,
     proofread against Petersen's transcription.  The current state of
     their work, together with detailed explanations of the project, can
     be found at the EVMT web site.

The physical layout of the folios, the way the fold out pages work, how
the folios pair up into bifolia and nest to form quires, etc, has been
clarified.

Currier's discovery of two handwriting styles with corresponding textual
statistical differences has been popularized and verified.

And public awareness of the VMS has been furthered, as evidenced by the
proliferation of VMS web pages and by the appearance of the VMS in works
of fiction, for instance, in a recent Indiana Jones novel.

Remaining problems

We lack a good photocopy of the VMS.  Maybe Yale will allow someone to
prepare a CD-ROM edition.

A high-tech physical and chemical examination of the vellum, of the
inks, etc, has yet to be done.

We lack a clear agreement on the character set of the VMS.  On the one
hand we have Guy's highly analytic Frogguy transcription alphabet with
about 20 symbols, and on the other we have Currier's alphabet with 36,
augmented by my list of 50 or 100 rarely occurring "weirdo" symbols.
What is represented by one weirdo symbol might be represented by the 3
or 4 Frogguy symbols it is analyzed into.  The right choice for
transcription alphabet is at some unknown place on this
analytic/synthetic continuum.

We lack a reliable transcription, in part because it is hard to
proofread a transcription from a poor photocopy, and in part because of
our uncertainty about the transcription alphabet.

We also lack decisive tests for distinguishing between nonsense babble,
crafty cipher, and language.

And we lack a precise intellectual context in which to place the VMS.

Who are the Friends of the Voynich Manuscript?

Here are some of the living experts on the Voynich MS who are not
members of the electronic mailing list:

  - William Bennett, professor of applied physics at Yale
  - M. E. D'Imperio, author of one of the best books on the subject
  - J. P. Krischer, author of an important early paper on the VMS
  - David Kahn, honorary member because of the excellence of his book

And here are some of the more visible members of the electronic mailing
list:

  - John Baez, honorary founding member, but now inactive
  - Robert Firth
  - Jim Gillogly
  - Bruce Grant
  - Jacques Guy
  - Gabriel Landini
  - Jim Reeds
  - Michael Roe
  - Rene Zandbergen

AT&T Voynich files

The VMS-related files on the AT&T gateway machine www.research.att.com
are stored in directory ~reeds/voynich and can be obtained by using the
URL

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

Here are the files:

  1609.txt     Main First Study Group VMS transcription, item 1609 in
               Friedman Collection in Marshall Library.
  1613.txt     A few pages of subsidiary FSG transcription, item 1613 in
               the Friedman Collection.
  SSG.txt      Main Second Study Group VMS transcription, item 1609.4 in
               Friedman Collection in Marshall Library.
  22r.ps, 4v.ps, 51r.ps, 78v.ps
               Bulky interlinear versions of f22r, f4v, f51r and f78r
               [ Editor: so in the original, although the file is named
               78v.ps ] of Petersen hand transcription and FSG
               transcription.  [ Editor: four separate entries in the
               original, merged here. ]
  BIG.txt      Transcript of mailing list traffic before 4 July 1994.
               Warning: 1.1 Megabytes long, compressed.
  BIG2.txt     Transcript of mailing list traffic before 5 October 1995.
  BIG3.txt     Transcript of mailing list traffic before June 1996.
  FSG.txt
  V.ps         Postscript Type 3 font.
  VoySma.pfa   Postscript Type 1 font, by Julie S. Porter.
  voycur16.mf  Metafont Voynich font, by Bruce Grant.
  checklist.txt  Index of VMS images appearing in print.
  interlin.txt Interlinear comparison of Currier and FSG transcriptions,
               prepared by Gabriel Landini.
  tiltman.txt  Transcription of a few pages, prepared by J. H. Tiltman
               in 1951.
  v2.txt       A few pages of subsidiary FSG transcription, unnumbered
               item in the Friedman Collection.
  foldouts.txt, quires.txt
               Explanations of the physical arrangement of the folios in
               the VMS, by Reeds and Zandbergen.
  wff.ps       Draft version of my Jan. 1995 Cryptologia paper about the
               First Study Group transcriptions.

-- Jim Reeds <reeds@research.att.com>

[ Editor: the European Voynich Manuscript Transcription (EVMT) Project
home page by G. Landini and R. Zandbergen, last updated 16 October 1997
(copyright 1996 G. Landini), converted from HTML.  Images and download
links are omitted; links are given as URLs in parentheses. ]

The European Voynich Manuscript Transcription Project Home Page
by G. Landini and R. Zandbergen

Introduction

Welcome to the EVMT project home page.  Here you will find information
and data files relating to the EVMT initiative.  The aim of the project
is to produce a complete transcription of the Voynich manuscript in
machine readable format based on T. C. Petersen's hand transcription of
the manuscript and previous transcriptions available in digital format.
The Petersen hand transcription of the Voynich Manuscript is located in
the William & Elizebeth Friedman Collection, George C. Marshall Library
(http://www.GCMarshallfdn.org/archives.html), Lexington, Virginia.
The Marshall Library has granted permission to the EVMT team to
transcribe from their material and for which we are extremely grateful.
This project started on 5/9/96 and is being done in our free time, so no
certain dates of its possible completion are available.  You will also
find links to other sites concerning the manuscript.

What is the Voynich Manuscript?

In 1912, Wilfrid M. Voynich (a book collector) bought a medieval
manuscript (235 pages) written in an unknown script and what appears to
be an unknown language or a cipher from the Jesuit College at the Villa
Mondragone, Frascati, in Italy (near Rome).  Apparently, Voynich wanted
to have the mysterious manuscript deciphered and provided photographic
copies to a number of experts.  However, despite the efforts of many
well known cryptologists and scholars, the book remains unread.  There
are some claims of decipherment, but to date, none of these can be
substantiated with a complete translation.  The book was bought by H. P.
Kraus (a New York book antiquarian) in 1961 for the sum of $24,500.  He
later valued it at $160,000 but was unable to find a buyer.  Finally he
donated it to Yale University in 1969, where it remains to date at the
Beinecke Rare Book Library with catalogue number MS 408.

The best source of information on the manuscript is Mary E. D'Imperio's
book: The Voynich Manuscript - An Elegant Enigma.  Aegean Park Press
(http://www.halcyon.com/books/).  ISBN:0-98412-038-7.

[ Editor: Aegean Park Press ISBNs begin 0-89412, so the "98" here looks
transposed. ]

A bit of history

It is known (from a letter of Johannes Marcus Marci of Cronland to
Athanasius Kircher, dated 1666) that the manuscript was bought by
Emperor Rudolph II of Bohemia (1552-1612) for 600 ducats (an exorbitant
sum in those days).  The manuscript somehow passed to Jacobus de
Tepenecz, the director of Rudolph's botanical gardens (his signature is
present in folio 1r) and it is speculated that this must have happened
after 1608, when Jacobus Horcicki received his title "de Tepenecz".  He
died in 1622 and the manuscript passed to the possession of an
unidentified individual that left the book in his/her will to Marci.

Marci must have known about this manuscript before 1644, as the
information concerning the price that the Emperor paid came from Dr.
Raphael Missowski (1580-1644) (as mentioned in his letter).  Marci sent
the manuscript "as soon as it came into my possession" with the letter
to Athanasius Kircher (a Jesuit priest and scholar in Rome) in 1666 who
apparently also knew of it and had exchanged letters and transcribed
portions with the previous unidentified owner.  Between that time and
1912 (when Voynich discovered it) it is speculated that the manuscript
may have been stored or forgotten in some library (Rome?, Vatican?) and
finally moved to the Jesuit College at the Villa Mondragone.

Marci's letter to Kircher was still attached to the manuscript when
Voynich bought it.  In that letter, Marci mentioned the name of Roger
Bacon (1214-1292) as a possible author, although no conclusive evidence
of authorship is available.  A possible link between Rudolph and Bacon
is John Dee (an English mathematician and astrologer, collector of
Bacon's work) who visited Rudolph's court in 1582-86.

What does it say?

Nobody knows, but the many illustrations suggest some kind of alchemy
book, that somebody may have wanted to keep secret.  The manuscript has
several parts identified from the illustrations (although there is no
guarantee that these are the subject matter of the sections):

  - a Herbal section (mostly unidentified and fantastic plants),
  - an Astronomical section (with most zodiac symbols),
  - a Biological section (with some "anatomical" drawings and human
    figures),
  - a Cosmological section (with circles, stars and celestial spheres),
  - a Pharmaceutical section (with vases and parts of plants) and
  - a Recipes section (with many short paragraphs).

In addition there are:

  - pagination and gathering (signature) numbers,
  - several "key-like" sequences throughout the book,
  - some old German writing (most probably added later),
  - names of the months in the astronomical section (probably added
    later)
  - a few instances of extraneous writing (different from the rest of
    the manuscript)
  - text not in "Voynich script" in the last folio reading something
    like "michiton oladabas..." suggesting a key to decryption...

Where, when?

There is no solid evidence to locate the manuscript in any particular
region or date.  Most experts believe that it is European (based on the
drawings and a few depicted clothing styles), written sometime between
13th century AD (Roger Bacon's times) and 1608 (when the manuscript was
in possession of J. de Tepenecz).  The picture of a plant resembling a
sunflower (folio 93r) would indicate that part of the book should have
been written after 1492, when Columbus travelled to America, but there
is no absolute certainty that the plant is in effect a sunflower.

There is also the possibility of a hoax either from Rudolph's times to
get a great sum from the puzzled Emperor (in which case the Marci letter
could still be original) or a modern hoax.  In principle, radiocarbon
analysis may not be able to give a certain date.  According to an expert
in radioactive carbon dating (extracted from the Voynich mailing list,
Dec. 1991):

  "Radiocarbon dating using an accelerator mass spectrometer would be
  able to give you a date although you would have to destroy
  approximately 30 mg of vellum in the process.  This would date the
  death of the animal from which the skin was obtained to be made into
  vellum.  It would not give the time when the ink was applied onto the
  vellum.  Obviously the ink could not have been applied before the
  animal grew it's skin but the ink could (theoretically) have been
  applied ANYTIME afterwards.  Unfortunately radiocarbon dating, being a
  statistical technique, has a standard error term which at one sigma
  is about +/-60 radiocarbon years.  Because there is not a linear
  relationship between radiocarbon and calendar years it is necessary
  to calibrate the radiocarbon age to obtain a calendrical one.  The
  period AD c.1600-1950 is a very bad one in radiocarbon terms since
  production of 14C in the upper atmosphere kept pace with radioactive
  decay so that there is a "plateau".  This means that it is not
  possible to distinguish dates in the last few hundred years, only to
  say that an object must date to sometime within that period.  [After
  1950 the atomic bomb pulse makes accurate dating possible].  It would
  be easy to check whether the vellum dated to the 13th century AD or to
  the period c.1600-1950 but it would not be possible to check whether
  it belonged to 1600-1700 or to 1912.  If it is a forgery it is (just)
  possible that the forger wrote on "old" vellum in which case the
  radiocarbon date would tell you nothing about when it was written."

What does the script look like?

[ Editor: the page showed a computer generated sample of the 1st
paragraph of folio 1r, transcribed from Petersen's documents and set in
the EVA Hand A font, and a sample of folio 10r displayed with VMSVIEW in
the Currier and FSG alphabets. ]

Why decipher it?

It is possible that if deciphered, the manuscript would reveal no more
than the knowledge found in many other medieval herbals and alchemy
books.  However, if the document is real (i.e. it is not a hoax and
there is an underlying language), it means that at least the people
involved in the writing were able to read it.  The fact that it still
remains unread is a challenge in cryptological terms and provides an
excellent exercise to test and compare analytical approaches to the
problem.

Some basic and still unanswered questions are:

  - Can it be deciphered?
  - What language was it written in? (This is one of the key problems)
  - What encoding procedure or procedures were used?
  - Is the encoding reversible or ambiguous?
  - Was the book read in "real time"?
  - Are there any similarly coded documents?
  - Why write such a book?
  - Who wrote it and when?

Theories surrounding the manuscript

In analytic terms, there are a few particularities worth noting:

  - The text follows roughly the 1st. and 2nd. Zipf's laws of word
    frequencies.
  - The 2nd. order entropy is too low for an European language using a
    simple substitution cipher.
  - The word length distribution is different from Latin (words tend to
    be shorter than in Latin).
  - There is evidence for two different "languages" (investigated by
    Currier and D'Imperio) and more than one scribe, probably indicating
    an ambiguous coding scheme.
  - The text has no apparent corrections.

The contents and origin of the manuscript have been a matter of
continuous and stimulating debate.  To name some of the possibilities
that have been discussed in the Voynich mailing list forum (modified
from a posting by Karl Kluge):

There is an intelligible underlying text
  - in a natural language: Latin, abbreviated Latin; English; German;
    Greek; Sanskrit; Hebrew; Arabic; "pig Latin"
  - in a fake natural language: Lingua ignota; Enochian; Balaibalan
  - in a coded language: in cipher (single, multi substitution, etc.)
  - in an artificial language like: Arithmeticus nomenclator (anonymous
    Spanish Jesuit, 1653); Wilkins' (1641); Dalgarno's (1661); Beck's
    "Universal Character" (1657); Johnston's "Synthetic Language" (1641)

There is no intelligible underlying text
  - glossolalia
  - random: psychologically "random" strings; mechanically random
    strings

Some new numerical analysis of the manuscript

  - "Currier A and B: two different languages?" by R. Zandbergen
  - "Zipf's laws in the Voynich Manuscript" by G. Landini.
  - Guy JBM. The distribution of letters <c> and <o> in the Voynich
    Manuscript: Evidence for a real language?  Cryptologia, 1997 (Jan)
    Vol. XXI, No. 1, p 51-54.

What is a proof of decipherment?

This is a very delicate question.  Apparently there has never been a
decipherment of a document in which the method of encoding and the
original language were both unknown.  This is exactly the case with the
Voynich Manuscript!

"If the manuscript can be read" - type of argument would be a good
starting point, however this requirement is tricky.  The following are
some principles that I think should be satisfied before accepting any
solution (please let me know if you can think of any others):

  1. Most (or all) the manuscript must be read.  If the languages A and
     B in the manuscript involve different encoding procedures, then
     partial solutions should be consistent with the different
     languages/hands,
  2. The contents of the manuscript must have spatial (place) and
     temporal (date) consistency.  Unfortunately, for this manuscript
     "where" and "when" are not certain,
  3. Labels in the figures should reveal some meaning (i.e. stars and
     plants names),
  4. "Key-like" sequences should reveal some order or purpose,
  5. Unusual features in the text (scattered text, "signatures" at the
     end of paragraphs like in folio 1r) should reveal some meaning,
  6. The solution should be cryptologically sound (suggested by J.
     Gillogly [Editor: spelled "Guillogly" in the original]),
  7. The method should not allow for alternative solutions (i.e.
     relying on arbitrary choices).

At the present there are a number of claimed solutions.  All produced
different plain texts and none fulfils all the requirements above.

Files

[ Editor: the page offered for download: the principles of the EVMT
exercise; a list of folios/pages with a breakdown of information; the
interlinear file of all previous transcriptions (interln.evt v1.6,
138 KB); and software: BITRANS v.2, a transliteration tool by Jacques
Guy between the Currier, FSG (First Study Group), Basic Frogguy and EVA
(European Voynich Alphabet) alphabets; FQ (word-adjacent frequencies),
MONKEY (text entropy) and VFQ (Sukhotin's algorithm to find vowels and
consonants), all by Jacques Guy; the Voynich Hand A fonts and VMSVIEW
v.4 by Gabriel Landini; and VTT (Voynich Transcription Tool) by Rene
Zandbergen. ]

Links to related sites

Web sites:
  - Jim Gillogly's FTP site (ftp://ftp.rand.org/pub/voynich/) holds the
    original Currier-D'Imperio version of the manuscript, bibliography,
    and images of two folio.
  - Jim Reeds' [Editor: "Jim Reed's" in the original] site
    (http://www.research.att.com/~reeds/voynich.html) has an extensive
    bibliography, data, documents, and information on the Voynich
    Manuscript mailing list.
  - Michael Roe's site
    (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/mrr/voynich/index.html) has extensive
    information including research papers.
  - Jorge Stolfi's site (http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~stolfi/voynich/)
    holds AWK scripts and ongoing analysis results.
  - Risto Paasivirta's Crypto Chamber
    (http://www.jyu.fi/~paasivir/crypt/index.html) has five images of
    the manuscript.
  - Dr. L. C. Strong's letters relating to his work on the manuscript
    (http://www.ehabitat.demon.co.uk/Strong/letters.html).
  - Dennis Stallings' site
    (http://www2.micro-net.com/~ixohoxi/voy/voynich.htm) holds some
    historical precedents of the manuscript and a description of the EKT
    hypothesis.
  - 4oqpcc89's Hemsida
    (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/8389/index.htm) on language
    writing and decipherment has a table of correspondences between the
    most common alphabets related to the manuscript.
  - Takeshi Takahashi's site
    (http://www3.justnet.ne.jp/~ttakahashike/voynich/index.htm) (you
    need a web browser supporting Japanese language).
  - La pagina del Manuscrito Voynich (http://members.tripod.com/~msvoynich/)
    has a pointer to a Spanish-speaking e-mail group.

Linguistics and text analysis:
  - FTP archive on Linguistics at garbo.uwasa.fi
    (ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/linguistics/)
  - The Icon programming language (http://www.cs.arizona.edu/icon/www/)
  - Relationship between vocabulary, text length and Zipf's law by G.
    Turner (http://www.btinternet.com/~g.r.turner/ZipfDoc.htm)
  - Random texts exhibit Zipf's-law-like word frequency distribution by
    W. Li (http://linkage.rockefeller.edu/wli/me/ieeetit92.html)
  - TACT (text analysis software) (ftp://epas.utoronto.ca/pub/cch/tact/tact2.1/)

Herbals:
  - Botanical Illustration as an Instrument of Science
    (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekScience/Students/Robin/botanical.illustration.html)
  - Botanical rare books
    (http://www.lib.usf.edu/spccoll/guide/article/b33art.html)
  - Herbals (http://www.ehabitat.demon.co.uk/herbal.html) (has one image
    of the manuscript)
  - The Libellus, A book of Aztec Medicine
    (http://mlab-power3.uiah.fi/medialab/Lily/Simultaneous/Text/libellus.html)
  - Vatican exhibit (Botany)
    (http://sunsite.unc.edu/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/g-nature/Botany.html)
  - The Index of Medieval Medical Images
    (http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/biomed/his/vmherbal/graphimm.htm)

Libraries:
  - Beinecke Rare Book Library
    (http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/brblhome.htm)
  - Bodleian Library (http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/)
  - George C. Marshall Library (http://www.GCMarshallfdn.org/archives.html)
  - The British Library OPAC 97 (http://opac97.bl.uk/)
  - Wellcome Trust Collections (http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/wellcometext/w1.htm)

People:
  - Roger Bacon
    (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Bacon.html)
  - John Dee (http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/dee.html;
    http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Dee.html)
  - Martin de la Cruz (http://amanda.uams.edu/persons/net1dir/Cruz.html)
  - Athanasius Kircher
    (http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/kircher.html)
  - Johannes Marcus Marci
    (http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/marci.html)
  - John Wilkins
    (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Wilkins.html)

Other related links (text files in many languages, old manuscripts,
cryptology, etc.):
  - Alchemy (http://www.levity.com/alchemy/home.html)
  - An Essay on Paleography by Julian Brown
    (http://mlab-power3.uiah.fi/medialab/Lily/Simultaneous/Text/Paleography.html)
  - Atlas Catalan (http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/manuscrits/man6.htm)
  - Classic Ciphers (http://raphael.math.uic.edu/~jeremy/crypt/intro.html)
  - DScriptorium home page (http://www.byu.edu/~hurlbut/dscriptorium/)
  - Glossolalia (http://www.berkshire.net/~ifas/wa/glossolalia.html)
  - Interpreting Ancient Manuscripts
    (http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/mss/overview.html)
  - Lingua Ignota per simplicem hominem Hildegardem prolata
    (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5383/ignota.html)
  - Manuscripts, Paleography, Codicology
    (http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/subjects/mss/mss.html)
  - Medieval Manuscripts (http://wally.rit.edu/cary/manuscripts/index.html)
  - Medieval Texts (http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/medieval/medieval.texts.html)
  - Project Gutenberg (http://www.infinet.com/~taemmer/gutenberg.html)
  - sci.crypt Frequently Asked Questions
    (http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/internet/news/faq/sci.crypt.html)
  - Vulgate Latin Bible
    (http://humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/VULGATE.form.html)
  - Word lists in several languages (ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/wordlists/)

-- G. Landini <G.Landini@bham.ac.uk>

[ Editor: Jim Reeds' "Annotated Voynich Manuscript Bibliography", a web
page last modified 4 November 1997, converted from HTML to plain text.
The numbering of the entries is the editor's (the page used numbered
HTML lists). ]

Voynich Manuscript Bibliography
===============================

Jim Reeds <reeds@research.att.com>

This page is under construction.  If you have additions or corrections
to suggest, please send me email.

Many older items shamelessly taken from Brumbaugh, D'Imperio, Galland,
and Shulmans' bibliographies; more recent ones from traffic on the
voynich@rand.org mailing list and from personal communications from
Rene Zandbergen, Gabriel Landini, Dennis Stallings, and especially from
Brian Smith.

I include non-fiction works that directly refer to the Voynich MS or to
the life of W. M. Voynich, but exclude general works such as biographies
of John Dee, Roger Bacon, etc, and surveys of such topics as Renaissance
Hermeticism, paleography, etc.

Since this is largely a compilation of others' bibliographies I have not
seen all the items listed, and cannot vouch for their accuracy.  (The
comment ``not seen'' means ``not seen by me.'')

This bibliography is broken into two sections: Manuscripts, and Books
and Articles.

Manuscripts
-----------

Including samizdat items.  Items with WFF numbers are in the William F.
Friedman collection of the George Marshall Library in Lexington,
Virginia.

 1. ``The Voynich ``Roger Bacon'' Cipher Manuscript.''  Beinecke Rare
    Book Library, Yale University:  MS 408.  Supplementary material in
    folders and boxes labelled A - N.

 2. Positive photocopies of ff. 1-56 of Voynich MS.  British Library MS
    Facs 461.  [Not seen.]

 3. Positive photocopies of miscellaneous folios of Voynich MS.  (Seems
    to contain: 68r1/68r2, 65v/66r, 78v/79r, 107v/108r, 108v/111r,
    111v/112r, 112v/113r, 1r, and 116v.)  British Library MS Facs 439.
    [Not seen.]

 4. Brumbaugh, Robert S.  Letter to Louis Kruh, 17 October 1978.  In
    Kruh collection.

 5. Brumbaugh, Robert S.  ``Voynich Newsletter.''  Various issues:
    February 1978, 6 page typescript.  November 1978, 7 page typescript.
    January 1980, 7 page typescript.  [In Kruh collection.]

 6. Carter, Albert H.  ``Some Impressions of the Voynich Manuscript.''
    Unpublished notes, 10 September 1946.  WFF 1614.

 7. Carton, Raoul.  ``The Cipher of Roger Bacon.''  55 page typescript,
    translated from French by E. L. Voynich.  In N.Y. Academy of
    Medicine Library.  1930.  [Not seen.]

 8. Currier, Prescott.  ``Voynich MS Transcription Alphabet; Plans for
    Computer Studies; Transcribed text of herbal A and B Material; Notes
    and Observations.''  Unpublished communications to John H. Tiltman
    and M. D'Imperio.  Darimascotta, Maine.  [Not seen.]

 9. D'Imperio, M. E.  ``Structure of Voynich Text Groups: A Statistical
    Model.''  2 page typescript, 1978.

10. D'Imperio, M. E.  ``An Application of Cluster Analysis and Multiple
    Scaling to the Question of `Hands' and `Languages' in the Voynich
    Manuscript.''  [Confirms Currier's findings.]

11. D'Imperio, M. E.  ``Some Ideas on the Construction of the Voynich
    Script.''  3 page typescript, January 1992.

12. D'Imperio, M. E.  ``Odd Repetitions or Near Repetitions in the
    Text.''  January 1992.

13. Firth, Robert.  ``Notes on the Voynich Manuscript.''  Numbered
    series of essays: 1-24, 1991-1995.

14. Friedman, William F.  Two ``First Study Group'' transcription
    alphabet sheets.  WFF 1609.1.

15. Friedman, William F.  ``First Study Group'' transcription alphabet
    sheet.  WFF 1609.2.

16. Friedman, William F., et al.  Printout of transcription, onto 131
    printout sheets, ca. 1944-46.  WFF 1609.

17. Friedman, William F., et al.  Printout of partial transcription, ca.
    1944-46  Unnumbered item in Friedman Collection.

18. Friedman, William F., et al.  Printout of partial transcription, ca.
    1944-46.  Unnumbered item in NSA Historical Records Collection.

19. Friedman, William F., et al.  Printout of partial transcription,
    Second Study Group, ca. 1963. WFF 1609.3  [Close to illegible.]

20. Friedman, William F., et al.  Correspondence with RCA Corp. about
    activities of ``Second Study Group,'' 1963.  WFF 1609.4.

21. Guy, Jacques B. M.  ``The distribution of letters c and o in the
    Voynich Manuscript: Evidence for a real language?''  April 1994.

22. Krischer, Jeffrey P.  _The Voynich Manuscript_  Harvard University
    term paper, 1969.  [Once, but no longer, listed in Gordon McKay
    Library catalogue.]

23. Panofsky, Erwin.  ``Answers to Questions for Prof. E. Panofsky.''
    Letter to William F. Friedman, March 19, 1954.  Correspondence
    between Friedman, Panofsky, and J. v. Neumann.  Letters from Richard
    Salomon to Erwin Panofsky and Gertrud Bing.  WFF 1614.

24. Petersen, Theodore C.  ``Notes to Mr. Tiltman's [1951] Observations
    on the Voynich Cipher MS.''  Unpublished.  23 April 1953.

25. Petersen, Theodore C.  Hand Transcript and Concordance of the
    Voynich Manuscript and Other Working Papers.  In the Friedman
    Collection, George Marshall Library, Lexington, Virginia.

26. Puckett, Frances M.  Partial transcription of ff.111v-114r, in WFF
    1613.

27. Strong, Leonell C.  Collection of letters, notebook entries, and
    worksheets.  In a private collection.

28. Tiltman, John.  ``Interim Report on the Voynich MS.''  Personal
    communication to William F. Friedman, 5 May 1951.  2 page
    typescript.  In NSA Historical Records Collection.  Copy in WFF
    1615.13.

29. Tiltman, John.  Partial transcription, 1951.  In NSA Historical
    Records Collection.

30. Tiltman, John.  Biography of T. C. Petersen.  WFF 1615.

31. Tiltman, John.  ``The Voynich MS''  Script of an address presented
    at the Baltimore Bibliophiles.  4 March 1951.  [Not seen; date
    looks wrong.  Cited by D'Imperio.  Almost certainly the 1967
    Baltimore Bibliophiles address.]

32. Voynich, Wilfrid; Voynich, Ethel, and Nill, A. M.  Notes concerning
    the history of the cipher manuscript.  Voynich Archives, Library of
    the Grollier Club of New York, 1917-196?.  [Not seen, unless
    identical with Beinecke MS 408 B.]

Printed Books and Articles
--------------------------

 1. Altick, Richard D.  _The Scholar Adventurers._  New York: The Free
    Press, 1966.  [First ed. in 1950.  Has discussion of VMS and Manly's
    refutation on pp.200-206.]

 2. Ashbrook, Joseph.  ``Roger Bacon and the Voynich Manuscript''  _Sky
    and Telescope,_ April, 1966, pp.218-219.  [Debunks Newbold.]

 3. Barlow, Michael.  ``The Voynich Manuscript -- By Voynich?''
    _Cryptologia_ 10(October 1986) pp.210-216.

 4. Michael Barlow.  Review of Levitov.  _Cryptologia_ 12(1988).

 5. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.  _The Beinecke Rare Book
    and Manuscript Library: a guide to its collections._  New Haven:
    Yale University Library, 1994.  [Not seen.  Short description and
    picture of 39v.]

 6. Bennett, William Ralph  _Scientific and Engineering Problem Solving
    with the Computer_  Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1976.
    [Contains a chapter on VMS.]

 7. Bird, J. Malcom.  ``The Roger Bacon Manuscript: Investigation into
    its History, and the Efforts to Decipher it.''  _Scientific American
    Monthly_ 3(June 1921): 492-96.

 8. Blunt, Wilfrid and Sandra Raphael.  _The Illustrated Herbal_,
    London: Thames and Hudson, in association with the Metropolitan
    Museum of Art.  1979.  [Discussion of VMS, with several good
    illustrations of VMS leaves.]

 9. _Booklist._  Review of Brumbaugh's Most Mysterious Manuscript.  74
    (1 July 1978) p 1647.  [Single paragraph summary.  Not seen.]

10. _Boston Transcript._  Review of Newbold's Cipher of Roger Bacon.  30
    June 1928, p 2.  [Not seen, item taken from index.]

11. Brooke, Tucker.  ``Doctor mirabilis.''  _Yale Review_ 19 (1929)
    p.207-8.  [Review of Newbold.  Not seen.]

12. Brumbaugh, Robert S.  _The World's Most Mysterious Manuscript._
    Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978.  London:
    Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1977.  [Survey of scholarship; advances
    own theory of 16th century hoax.  Many wretched illustrations.]

13. Brumbaugh, R. S.  ``Botany and the Voynich `Roger Bacon' Manuscript
    Once More.''  _Speculum_ 49(1974), 546-48.

14. Brumbaugh, R. S.  ``The Solution of the Voynich `Roger Bacon'
    Cipher.''  _Yale Library Gazette_ 49(1975): 347-55.

15. Brumbaugh, R. S.  ``The Voynich `Roger Bacon' Cipher Manuscript:
    Deciphered Maps of Stars.''  _Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
    Institutes_ 39(1976): 139-50.

16. Carton, Raoul.  ``Le Chiffre de Roger Bacon.''  _Révue d'Histoire de
    la Philosophie_ 3 (1929): pp.31-66, 165-79.  [Not seen.]

17. Child, James R.  ``The Voynich Manuscript Revisited.''  _NSA
    Technical journal_ 21 (1976): pp.1-4.  [Norse.]

18. _Choice._  Review of Brumbaugh's Most Mysterious Manuscript.  15
    (October 1978): p.1080.  [Single paragraph summary.  Not seen.]

19. Cons, Louis.  ``Un manuscrit mystérieux.''  _L'Illustration_ 159 (4
    Feb 1922) p. 112.  [Not seen.]

20. Cons, Louis.  ``Newbold's Trail.''  [Review of Newbold.]  _Saturday
    Review of Literature_ 5 (Oct. 27, 1928), p.292.  [Not seen.]

21. ``Cipher Debunked but not Decoded.''  _New York Times,_ Tuesday, 6
    May 1975, sec 2, p.37, cols. 7-8.

22. Daiger, Michael.  ``The world's most unusual manuscript.''
    _Occult,_ Jan. 1976.  [Not seen.]

23. D'Imperio, M. E.  ``The Voynich Manuscript:  A Scholarly Mystery.''
    _Manuscripts._  29,2 (Spring 1977), pp.85-93.  29,3 (Summer 1977),
    pp.161-173.  30,1 (Winter 1978), pp.34-48.  [Not seen.  Three part
    article.  Parts about physical history of the manuscript, about
    attempts at decipherment, and about Brumbaugh's, Currier's, and
    Child's work, respectively.]

24. D'Imperio, M. E.  _The Voynich Manuscript--An Elegant Enigma._
    National Security Agency, 1978.  Aegean Park Press, 1978?

25. D'Imperio, M. E., editor.  _New Research on the Voynich Manuscript:
    Proceedings of a Seminar_  Washington, D.C.: Privately printed
    pamphlet, 30 November 1976.
    Partial contents:
      - James Child.  A Linguistic Approach to the Voynich Text.
      - Capt. Prescott Currier.  Some Important New Statistical
        Findings.
      - Dr. Sydney Fairbanks.  Suggestions Toward a Decipherment of the
        ``Key.''
      - M. E. D'Imperio.  The Solution Claim of Dr. Robert S.
        Brumbaugh.
      - Capt. Prescott Currier.  Further Details of New Statistical
        Findings.
      - Capt. Prescott Currier.  The Voynich Manuscript, Some Notes and
        Observations.
      - Stuart H. Buck.  What Constitutes Proof?

26. Drucker, Johanna.  _The Alphabetic Labyrinth_  New York: Thames and
    Hudson, 1995.

27. Ephron, H. (Pseud. ``DENDAI'')  ``A burning question in re the
    Voynich MS (slightly revised).''  _The Cryptogram._ 43(1977).
    March-April, pp.22,46-48; May-June,pp.49,51-52,72.  [Discussion;
    suggests G. Bruno is author.]

28. Feely, Joseph M.  _Roger Bacon's Cipher: The Right Key Found_
    Rochester, NY., 1943.  [Not seen.]

29. Friedman, W. F., and E. S. Friedman.  ``Acrostics, Anagrams, and
    Chaucer.''  _Philological Quarterly_ 38(1959), pp.1-20.  [Not seen.]

30. Friedman, Elizebeth S.  `` `The Most Mysterious Manuscript' Still an
    Enigma.''  _The Washington Post,_ 5 August 1962, sec. E, pp. 1,5.

31. Garland, Herbert.  ``The Mystery of the Roger Bacon Cipher MS.''
    _Bookman's Journal and Print Collector_ (London) 5, (October 1921),
    pp.11-16.  [Not seen.]

32. Garland, Herbert.  ``Notes on the Firm of W. M. Voynich.''  _Library
    World_.  34 (April 1932) pp.225-8.  [Mostly biography of Voynich but
    includes paragraph on VMS and picture of lower half of 78v.  Not
    seen.]

33. Garland, Herbert.  ``A Literary Puzzle Solved?''  _Illustrated
    London News_ 160, (20 May 1922), pp.740-742.  [Not seen.]

34. Gilson, Étienne.  (Review of Newbold's _The Cipher of Roger
    Bacon_.)  _Révue critique d'histoire et de littérature_ (Paris) 62
    (August 1928) pp.378-383.  [Not seen.]

35. Guy, J. B. M.  ``Voynich Revisited.''  Letter to the editor.
    _Cryptologia,_ 15(1991), pp.161-166.  [Rebuts Barlow's speculation
    that Voynich faked it.]

36. Guy, J. B. M.  Statistical Properties of Two Folios of the Voynich
    Manuscript.  _Cryptologia,_ 15(1991), pp.207-218.  [Applies
    Sukhotin's vowel-finding algorithm to VMS text.]

37. Guzman, Gregory S.  Review of Brumbaugh's ``Most Mysterious
    Manuscript.''  _Historian_ 42 (November 1979) p 120-1.  [Uncritical
    summary.  Not seen.]

38. Harnisch, Larry (Pseud. ``AR-MYR''), ``The Voynich Manuscript.''
    _The Cryptogram._ 43(1976) May-June,pp.45,62-63; July-August,
    pp.69,74-77.

39. Johnson, Charles.  Review of Newbold's ``Cipher of Roger Bacon.''
    _English Historical Review_ 44 (Oct 1929) pp. 677-8.  [Critical of
    Newbold, guesses 15c Italian source for VMS.  Not seen.]

40. Kahn, David.  ``The Secret Book.''  _Newsday._ 26 June 1962.

41. Kahn, David.  _The Codebreakers._  New York: Macmillan, 1967.
    [Discussion on pp.863-872, 1120-1121.]

42. Knox, Sanka.  ``700-Year-Old Book For Sale; Contents, In Code, Still
    Mystery.''  _New York Times,_ 18 July 1962, p 27, col 2.  [Kraus
    auction.  Includes picture of 85/86r4.  Not seen.]

43. Kraus, H. P.  _A rare book saga -- The autobiography of H. P.
    Kraus._  New York: Putnam's, 1978.

44. Kraus, H. P.  _Catalogue 100.  Thirty-five manuscripts: including
    the St. Blasien psalter, the Llangattock hours, the Gotha missal,
    the Roger Bacon (Voynich) cipher ms._  New York: H.P. Kraus, 1962.
    [Beautiful reproductions of several leaves of VMS.]

45. Kruml, Milan.  ``Voynicuv rukopis.''  _Mlady svet._ 1995, no. 35, 24
    August 1995.  Prague.  [Seen in electronic form:
    http://cech.cesnet.cz/htbin/encode/MS/texts/MS953500.html.  Odd
    survey in a childrens' magazine.]

46. Levitov, Leo.  _Solution of the Voynich Manuscript: A Liturgical
    Manual for the Endura Rite of the Cathari Heresy, the Cult of
    Isis._  Laguna Hills, California: Aegean Park Press, 1987.

47. Liebert, Herman W.  ``The Beinecke Library Accessions 1969.''  _Yale
    Library Gazette_, 44 (April 1970).  [Not seen.  Describes Kraus's
    gift of VMS on pp.192-3.]

48. ``Lovecraft and the Voynich Manuscript.''  _INFO Journal_, #48 [ca.
    1984].  [The International Fortean Organization's INFO Journal.  Not
    seen.]

49. Dr. R. Loeser.  ``Roger Bacons Chiffremanuskript.''  _Die Umschau._
    26 (1922), pp.115-117.

50. Manly, John M. [?].  ``Roger Bacon's Cypher manuscript.''
    _American[?] Review of Reviews_ 64 (July 1921) pp.105-6.  [Not
    seen.]

51. Manly, John M..  ``The Most Mysterous Manuscript in the World.''
    _Harper's Monthly Magazine_ 143(July?, 1921): 186-97.  [Not seen.
    Title uncertain.]

52. Manly, John M.  ``Roger Bacon and the Voynich Manuscript.''
    _Speculum_ 6 (July 1931): 345-91.  [Not seen.  Refutes Newbold.]

53. Massie, Mitford C.  _The Roger Bacon or R. R. Dee Chess-Code._
    Press of Fremont Payne, Inc, 1934.  [Not seen.  Not clear it's about
    the VMS.]

54. McKaig, Betty.  ``The Voynich Manuscript--Cipher of the Secret
    Book.''  (Interview with Leonell Strong).  _North County
    Independent,_ Oct. 7, 1970.  Reprinted courtesy Independent
    Newspapers, Inc., San Diego, California.  [Not seen.]

55. McKenna, Terence K.  _The Archaic Revival: speculations on
    psychedelic mushrooms, the Amazon, virtual reality, UFOs, evolution,
    Shamanism, the rebirth of the goddess, and the end of history._  San
    Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.  [Not seen.]

56. McKenna, Terence K.  ``Has the World's Most Mysterious Manuscript
    Been Read at Last?''  _Gnosis Magazine,_ 7 (Summer 1988) pp.48-51.
    [Mildly favorable review of Levitov.]

57. McKeon, Richard.  ``Roger Bacon.'' [Review of Newbold.]  _The
    Nation_ 127 (August 29, 1928) pp.205-6.  [Review of Newbold.]

58. Moses, Montrose J.  ``A Cinderella on Parchment: The Romance of the
    New 600 Year-Old Bacon Manuscript.''  _Hearst's International_ 1921,
    pp.16-17, 75.  [Not seen.]

59. Newbold, William Romaine.  _The Cipher of Roger Bacon,_ edited with
    foreword and notes by Roland Grubb Kent.  Philadelphia: University
    of Pennsylvania Press; London, H. Milford, Oxford University Press,
    1928.

60. Newbold, William R.  ``The Cipher of Roger Bacon.''  _Proceedings of
    the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Philadelphia,_ pp 431-74.
    Philadephia, 1921.  Read April 20, 1921.

61. _New York Times._  26 Mar 1921, p 6, col 1.  27 Mar 1921, sec II, p
    1, col 1.  21 Apr 1921, p 3, col 1.  22 Apr 1921, p 13, col 1.  [Not
    seen.  All on Newbold's findings.]

62. _New York Times._  ``Roger Bacon's Formula Yields Copper Salts,
    Proving Newbold Secret Cipher Translation.''  2 Dec 1926, p 5, col 4
    with follow-up articles 3 Dec, p 22, col 4 and12 Dec, sec XX, p 12,
    col 6.  [Not seen.  More Newboldism.]

63. _New York Times._  ``Will Orders Sale of Bacon Cipher.''  15 Apr
    1930, p 40, col 1.  [Not seen.  About Voynich's will.]

64. _New York Times._  ``Cipher Debunked But Not Decoded.''  6 May 1975,
    p 41, col 7.  [About Brumbaugh's Yale Library Gazette decipherment
    and general background.  Includes picture of 33v.  Not seen.]

65. Newsom, Eugene.  _A Split in the Mystery Curtain._  Pampflet.  20
    pages.  1995.  [Tommaso Campanella wrote it.]

66. O'Neill, Hugh.  ``Botanical Remarks on the Voynich MS.''  _Speculum_
    19 (1944): 126.

67. Poundstone, W.  _Labyrinths of Reason._  New York: Doubleday, 1988.

68. Pratt, Fletcher.  _Secret and Urgent._  New York: Bobbs Merrill,
    1939.  [Discussion of VMS on pp.30-38.]

69. _Publishers' Weekly._  ``Kraus Marks Anniversary With Catalog of
    Treasures.''  181 (25 June 1962) pp. 39-40.  [Kraus auction with a
    single paragraph about VMS.  Not seen.]

70. Jim Reeds.  ``William F. Friedman's Transcription of the Voynich
    Manuscript.''  _Cryptologia_ 19 (1995) pp.1-23.

71. Review of ``The Cipher of Roger Bacon (Newbold)''  _Quarterly Review
    of Biology_ (Baltimore, Md.) 3 (December, 1928) pp.595-596.  [Not
    seen.]

72. ``The Roger Bacon Manuscript.''  _Scientific American_ 124 (May 7,
    1921) p.362.

73. ``The Roger Bacon Manuscript: What It Looks Like, and a Discussion
    of the Possibilities of Decipherment''  _Scientific American_ 124
    n.22 (May 28, 1921) p.421[?], 432, 439, 440.

74. Roberts, R. J. and Andrew G. Watson, eds.  _John Dee's Library
    Catalogue._  London: The Bibliographical Society, 1990.  [Claim the
    folio numbers in the VMS are by John Dee's hand.]

75. Salomon, Richard.  Review of Manly's Critique of Newbold's
    Decipherment.  _Bibliotek Warburg, Kulturwissenschaftliche
    Bibliographie zum Nachleben der Antike_ 1 (1934),p.96.  [Not seen.]

76. Sarton, George.  Review of Manly's Critique of Newbold's
    Decipherment.  _Isis_ 4 (October 1921) p 404.  [Short support of
    Manly.  Not seen.]

77. Sarton, George.  Review of Newbold's Cipher of Roger Bacon.  _Isis_
    11 (1928) pp. 141-5.  [Critical of Newbold's decipherment, even more
    so of those who were taken in by it.  Not seen.]

78. Sebastian, Wencelas.  ``The Voynich manuscript; its history and
    cipher.''  _Nos Cahiers,_ Montreal, 2(1937), pp.47-69.  [Not seen.]

79. _The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages._
    Exhib. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975) p.203 (with
    illus.) and color pl. 9.  [Not seen.]

80. Seymour, Ian.  ``Thirteenth Century Magic Glass.''  _Astronomy Now._
    June 1992. p.59.  [Thinks Bacon saw spiral in M31.]

81. Shailor, Barbara A.  _Catalog of Medieval and Renaissance
    Manuscripts in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library._
    Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1984.  [Not
    seen.  Volume 2 said to contain a nice description and history of
    the MS and associated materials at Yale and a plate of 100r.]

82. Shailor, Barbara A.  _The medieval book._  (Medieval Academy
    Reprints for Teaching, 28).  Toronto: University of Toronto Press in
    association with the Medieval Academy of America, 1991.  [Brief
    mention of VMS on p.105.]

83. Smyth, Frank.  Two papers in _The Unexplained_ (an English weekly
    publication) in the 1980's., pages 1381-5 and 1418-20, according to
    Denis Mardle.

84. Sowerby, E. M.  _Rare People & Rare Books._  Constable, 1967;
    Williamsburg: The Bookpress, 1987.  [Contains reminiscences,
    biographical details, and a photograph of W. M. Voynich.]

85. Steele, Robert.  ``Luru Vopo Vir Can Utriet.''  _Nature_ 121 (11
    Feb. 1928), pp.208-9.  [About Bacon ``gunpowder cipher,'' not VMS.]

86. Steele, Robert.  ``Science in medieval Cipher.''  _Nature_ 122 (13
    October 1928), pp.563-65.  [Acerbic review of Newbold.]

87. Stojko, John.  _Letters to God's Eye: The Voynich Manuscript for the
    first time deciphered and translated into English_  New York:
    Vantage Press, 1978.  [Non Cathari sed Khazari.]

88. Stojko, John; edited by Dovhich, Vitality.  _Poslannya Oriyan
    Khozapam: Pam'yatka Drevn'oyi Ukrayins'koyi Movy i Publytsystyky
    ``Rukopys Voyinycha''._  Pershe Ukrayins'ke Vydannya.  Vypushcheno
    Koshtom Ahentstva ``Tak'spravy''.  Kyjiv 7503.  (c)Indoyevropa,
    1995.  (_Epistles from Ora's Camp to the Khozars: A Memoir of the
    Ancient Ukrainian Tongue and Writing: ``The Voynich Manuscript''._
    First Ukrainian Edition.  Released (on authority) of the agency
    ``From the Right.''  Kiev (issue number) 7503.  Copyright
    Indoyevropa, 1995.)  [Unauthorized 29 page abridged translation,
    augmented with modern Ukrainian version of Stojko's
    decipherements.]

89. Stokley, James.  ``Did Roger Bacon Have a Telescope?''  _Science
    News Letter_ 14 (Sept. 1, 1928), pp.125-26, 133-34.  [Not seen.]

90. Strong, Leonell C.  ``Anthony Askham, the author of the Voynich
    Manuscript.''  _Science,_ n.s. 101 (15 June 1945): 608-9.  [Folio
    f78, put into English: ``When skuge uf tun'c-bag rip, seo oogon kum
    sli of se mosure-issue ped-stans sku-bent, stokked kimbo-elbow
    crawknot.'']

91. Strong, Leonell C. and McCawley, E. L.  ``A Verification of a
    Hitherto Unknown Prescription of the 16th Century.''  _Bulletin of
    the History of Medicine_ (Baltimore, Md.) 21(November-December
    1947), pp.898-904.  [On f93: ``I up a bol koten wet with oil
    spindl, compound honei, a pine recin spagges gains piler ose firm,
    err-stirt.  Wanne orgie ebb, so koten bee remov'd.'']

92. _Sunday Times_ (London).  24 Apr 1921, p.15.  [Not seen.
    Presumably about Newbold.]

93. Theroux, Michael.  ``Deciphering `The Most Mysterious Manuscript in
    the World' The Final Word?''  _Borderlands_ 50(1994), pp.36-43.
    [Believes Newbold was right.]

94. Thorndyke, Lynn.  ``The ``Bacon'' Manuscript.''  Letter.
    _Scientific American_ 124 (June 25, 1921) p.509.

95. Thorndyke, Lynn.  Review of Newbold's Cipher of Roger Bacon.
    _American Historical Review_, 34(1929): 317-19[318?].  [Not seen.]

96. Tiltman, John.  _The Voynich Manuscript: ``The most mysterious
    manuscript in the world.''_  Baltimore: Baltimore Bibliophiles,
    1967.  [Not seen.  Unclear what relation it has to following
    entry.]

97. Tiltman, John.  ``The Voynich Manuscript, `The Most Mysterious
    Manuscript in the World.' ''  _NSA Technical Journal_ 12(July 1967)
    pp.41-85.  [Similar in outline to D'Imperio's book, but leaner.
    Many poorly reproduced illustrations.]

98. _Times_ [Newspaper of London].  ``The Voynich Collection of Unknown
    Books.''  23 Jul 1906, p 4 col 6.  [Puff piece for WMV; not seen.]

99. _Times_ [Newspaper of London].  ``Books not in the British Museum
    Sale.''  19 Oct 1907, p 7 col 3.  [Puff piece for WMV; not seen.]

100. _Times_ [Newspaper of London].  ``Catalog of Prints and Rare
     Books.''  8 Jul 1913, p 15 col 4.  [Puff piece for WMV; not seen.]

101. _Times_ [Newspaper of London].  ``Export of English Furniture and
     Pictures.''  24 Feb 1916, p 11 col 5.  [Mentions WMV's success in
     exporting books to America.  Not seen.]

102. _Times_ [Newspaper of London].  ``Cathedral Library Thefts: Old
     Volumes Traced.''  11 May 1916, p 4 col 1.  [Disputed ownership of
     book in WMV's possession.  Not seen.]

103. _Times_ [Newspaper of London].  ``Mr. W. M. Voynich.''  22 Mar
     1930, p 17 col 2; 25 Mar p 21 col 2; 26 Mar p 18 col 4.  [Obituary.
     Not seen.]

104. Toresella, Sergio.  ``Gli erbari degli alchimisti.'' [Alchemical
     herbals.]  In _Arte farmaceutica e piante medicinali -- erbari,
     vasi, strumenti e testi dalle raccolte liguri,_ [Pharmaceutical art
     and medicinal plants -- herbals, jars, instruments and texts of the
     Ligurian collections.]  Liana Saginati, ed.  Pisa: Pacini Editore,
     1996, pp.31-70.  [Profusely illustrated.  Fits the VMS into an
     ``alchemical herbal'' tradition.]

105. Von Schleinitz, Otto.  ``Die Bibliophilen W. M. Voynich.''
     _Zeitschrift fur Bucherfreunde_, 10 (1906/7) pp.481-7.  [Not seen.
     Contains information about Voynich's life.]

106. Voynich, Wilfrid M.  ``A Preliminary Sketch of the History of the
     Roger Bacon Cipher Manuscript.''  _Proceedings of the College of
     Physicians and Surgeons of Philadelphia,_ pp.415-30, Philadelphia,
     1921.  Read 20 April 1921.

107. ``Voynich Manuscript.  Botanical Clue, Evidence indicating Roger
     Bacon could not have written the Voynich manuscript...''  _Science
     News Letter_ July 29, 1944, p.69.  [O'Neill's sunflower.]

108. ``Voynich Manuscript Translated.''  _INFO Journal_, #56 [ca. 1988.]
     [The International Fortean Organization's INFO Journal.  Not
     seen.]

109. Peter Way.  _Codes and Ciphers._  London: Aldus, 1974.
     [Perfunctory discussion, wretched illustrations.]

110. Werner, Alfred.  ``The Most Mysterious Manuscript.''  _Horizon,_
     5(January, 1963), pp.4-9.

111. Westacott, E.  _Roger Bacon in Life and Legend._  New York:
     [Publisher?], 1953.  [Not seen; has chapter on ``The Cipher of
     Roger Bacon.'']

112. Wickware, Francis Sill.  ``The Secret Language of War.''  _Life_ 19
     (26 November 1945) pp. 63-70.  [Only one sentence mentions the VMS,
     calling it ``possibly the only unbreakable code'' which provoked
     Strong to write an angry letter to the editor.  Not seen.]

113. Wilson, Colin.  _The encyclopedia of unsolved mysteries._  Chicago:
     Contemporary Books, 1988.  [Not seen.]

114. ``The World's Most Baffling Manuscript.''  _Parade Magazine._ Feb.
     21, 1982.

115. Zimansky, Curt A.  ``William F. Friedman and the Voynich
     Manuscript.''  _Philological Quarterly_ 49(1970): 433-42.

Last modified 4 November 1997.

-- Jim Reeds <reeds@research.att.com>

[ Editor: the Yale (Beinecke Library) catalogue entry for the Voynich
manuscript, MS 408, from a web page "Yale Catalogue Entry for the
Voynich Manuscript". ]

MS 408                                  Central Europe [?], s. XV^ex-XVI [?]
Cipher Manuscript

     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. R. S. Brumbaugh has, however,
     suggested a decipherment that establishes readings for the star names
     and plant labels; see his "Botany and the Voynich 'Roger Bacon'
     Manuscript Once More," Speculum 49 (1974) pp. 546-48; "The Solution of
     the Voynich 'Roger Bacon' Cipher," Gazette 49 (1975) pp. 347-55; "The
     Voynich 'Roger Bacon' Cipher Manuscript: Deciphered Maps of Stars,"
     Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 39 (1976) pp. 139-50.

          Parchment. ff. 102 (contemporary foliation, Arabic numerals; not
     every leaf foliated) + i (paper), including 5 double-folio, 3 triple-
     folio, 1 quadruple-folio and 1 sextuple-folio folding leaves. 225 x 160
     mm.
          Collation is difficult due to the number of fold-out leaves that
     are not always foliated consistently. I-VII^8 (f. 12 missing), VIII^4
     (leaves foliated 59 through 64 missing from center of quire), IX^2
     (double and triple fold-out leaves), X^2 (1 triple fold-out), XI^2 (1
     quadruple fold-out), XII^2 (f. 74 missing, followed by stubs of
     conjugate leaves), XIII^10, XIV^1 (sextuple fold-out), XV^4 (1 triple
     and 1 double fold-out), XVI^4 (1 double fold-out; ff. 91, 92, 97, 98
     missing, 2 stubs between 94 and 95), XVII^4 (2 double fold-outs),
     XVIII^12 (ff. 109-110, central bifolium, missing). Quire signatures in
     lower right corner, verso, and sometimes on recto.
          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. Based on the
     subject matter of the drawings, the contents of the manuscript falls
     into six sections: Part I. ff. 1r-66v    Botanical sections containing
     drawings of 113 unidentified plant species. Special care is taken in
     the representation of the flowers, leaves and the root systems of the
     individual plants. Drawings accompanied by text. Part II. ff. 67r-
     73v    Astronomical or astrological section containing 25 astral
     diagrams in the form of circles, concentric or with radiating segments,
     some with the sun or the moon in the center; the segments filled with
     stars and inscriptions, some with the signs of the zodiac and
     concentric circles of nude females, some free-standing, other emerging
     from objects similar to cans or tubes. Little continuous text. Part
     III. ff. 75r-84v    "Biological" section containing drawings of small-
     scale female nudes, most with bulging abdomens and exaggerated hips,
     immersed or emerging from fluids, or interconnecting tubes and
     capsules. These drawings are the most enigmatic in the manuscript and
     it has been suggested that they symbolically represent the process of
     human reproduction and the procedure by which the soul becomes united
     with the body (cf. W. Newbold and R. Kent, The Cipher of Roger Bacon
     [Philadelphia, 1928] p. 46). Part IV. ff. 85r-86v    This sextuple-
     folio folding leaf contains an elaborate array of nine medallions,
     filled with stars and cell-like shapes, with fibrous structures linking
     the circles. Some medallions with petal-like arrangements of rays
     filled with stars, some with structures resembling bundles of pipes.
     Part V. ff. 87r-102v    Pharmaceutical section containing drawings of
     over 100 different species of medicinal herbs and roots, all with
     identifying inscriptions. On almost every page drawings of
     pharmaceutical jars, resembling vases, in red, green and yellow, or
     blue and green. Accompanied by some continuous text. Part VI. ff. 103r-
     117v    Continuous text, with stars in inner margin on recto and outer
     margins of verso. Folio 117v includes a 3-line presumed "key" opening
     with a reference to Roger Bacon in anagram and cipher.
          Binding: s. xviii-xix. Vellum case. Remains of early paper
     pastedowns.

     Written in Central Europe [?] at the end of the 15th or during the 16th
     [?] century; the origin and date of the manuscript are still being
     debated as vigorously as its puzzling drawings and undeciphered text.
     The identification of several of the plants as New World specimens
     brought back to Europe by Columbus indicates that the manuscript could
     not have been written before 1493. The codex belonged to Emperor
     Rudolph II of Germany (Holy Roman Emperor, 1576-1612), who purchased it
     for 600 gold ducats and believed that it was the work of Roger Bacon;
     see the autograph letter of Johannes Marcus Marci (d. 1667, rector of
     Prague University) transcribed under item A below. It is very likely
     that Emperor Rudolph acquired the manuscript from the English
     astrologer John Dee (1527-1608) whose foliation remains in the upper
     right corner of each leaf (we thank A. G. Watson for confirming this
     identification through a comparison of the Arabic numerals in the
     Beinecke manuscript with those of John Dee in Oxford, Bodleian Library
     Ashmole 1790, f. 9v, and Ashmole 487). See also A. G. Watson and R. J.
     Roberts, eds., John Dee's Library Catalogue (London, The
     Bibliographical Society, forthcoming). Dee apparently owned the
     manuscript along with a number of other Roger Bacon manuscripts; he was
     in Prague 1582-86 and was in contact with Emperor Rudolph during this
     period. In addition, Dee stated that he had 630 ducats in October 1586,
     and his son Arthur (cited by Sir T. Browne, Works, G. Keynes, ed.
     [1931] v. 6, p. 325) noted that Dee, while in Bohemia, owned "a
     booke...containing nothing butt Hieroglyphicks, which booke his father
     bestowed much time upon: but I could not heare that hee could make it
     out." Emperor Rudolph seems to have given the manuscript to Jacobus
     Horcicky de Tepenecz (d. 1622); inscription on f. 1r "Jacobi de
     Tepenecz" (erased but visible under ultra-violet light). Johannes
     Marcus Marci of Cronland presented the book to Athanasius Kircher, S.
     J. (1601-80) in 1666. Acquired by Wilfred M. Voynich in 1912 from the
     Jesuit College at Frascati near Rome. Given to the Beinecke Library in
     1969 by H. P. Kraus (Cat. 100, pp. 42-44, no. 20) who had purchased it
     from the estate of Ethel Voynich.

     Included with MS 408 is the following supplementary material in folders
     or boxes labelled A - N.

     A: Autograph letter of Johannes Marcus Marci of Cronland in which he
     presents the manuscript to Athanasius Kircher in Rome, in the belief
     that Kircher would be able to decipher it. "Reuerende et Eximie Domine
     in Christo Pater. Librum hunc ab amico singulari mihi testamento
     relictum, mox eundem tibi amicissime Athanisi ubi primum possidere
     coepi, animo destinaui: siquidem persuasum habui a nullo nisi abs te
     legi posse. Petijt aliquando per litteras ejusdem libri tum possessor
     judicium tuum parte aliqua a se descripta et tibi transmissa, ex qua
     reliqua a te legi posse persuasum habuit; uerum librum ipsum
     transmittere tum recusabat in quo discifrando posuit indefessum
     laborem, uti manifestum ex conatibus ejusdem hic una tibi transmissis
     neque prius huius spei quam uitae suae finem fecit. Verum labor hic
     frustraneus fuit, siquidem non nisi suo Kirchero obediunt eiusmodi
     sphinges. Accipe ergo modo quod pridem tibi debebatur hoc qualecunque
     mei erga te affectus indicium; huiusque seras, si quae sunt, consueta
     tibi felicitate perrumpe. retulit mihi D. Doctor Raphael Ferdinandi
     tertij Regis tum Boemiae in lingua boemica instructor dictum librum
     fuisse Rudolphi Imperatoris, pro quo ipse latori qui librum attulisset
     600 ducatos praesentarit, authorem uero ipsum putabat esse Rogerium
     Bacconem Anglum. ego judicium meum hic suspendo. tu uero quid nobis hic
     sentiendum defini, cujus fauori et gratiae me totum commendo maneoque.
     Reuerentiae Vestrae. Ad Obsequia Joannes Marcus Marci a Cronland.
     Pragae 19. Augusti AD 1666 [or 1665?].

     B: Correspondence between W. Voynich and Prof. W. R. Newbold concerning
     Newbold's supposed decipherment of the manuscript (1919-26).
     Correspondence between Anne M. Nills, executrix of the estate of Ethel
     Voynich, and the Rev. Theodore C. Peterson, dated 1935-61, concerning
     the provenance, dating and decipherment of the manuscript.

     C: Cardboard tube containing articles from international newspapers and
     magazines; among them The New York Times, The Washington Post, Der
     Zeitgeist, and others, concerning the announced sale by H. P. Kraus of
     the cipher manuscript.

     D: Scrapbook of newspaper clippings (1912-26) concerning the cipher
     manuscript, compiled by W. Voynich.

     E: Miscellaneous handwritten notes of W. Voynich.

     F: Miscellaneous material, including handwritten notes by A. Nills
     about the cipher, and her correspondence about the sale of the
     manuscript.

     G: Five notebooks handwritten by Ethel Voynich containing notes on the
     identification of the plants, medicinal herbs and roots; miscellaneous
     notes by A. Nills listing some characters or combinations of characters
     as they appear in the manuscript.

     H: Box of negative and positive photostats.

     I - L: Lectures, pamphlets, reviews and articles concerning the
     manuscript. Includes (in K) the transcript of a seminar held in
     Washington D. C. on November 1976 entitled "New Research on the Voynich
     Manuscript."

     M: Miscellaneous correspondence between R. Brumbaugh and J. M. Saul
     (Paris) and J. Arnold (Oak Grove, Mo.). Handwritten transcription of
     ff. 89v-116r by R. Brumbaugh.

     N: Temporary folder of negative photostats.

     Select Bibliography: Exhibition Catalogue, pp. 271-72, no. 85.
          W. R. Newbold and R. G. Kent, The Cipher of Roger Bacon
     (Philadelphia, 1928).
          J. H. Tiltman, The Voynich Manuscript Baltimore, 1968).
          C. A. Zimansky, "William F. Friedman and the Voynich Manuscript,"
     Philological Quarterly 49 (1970) pp. 433-43.
          The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages,
     exhib. cat. (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975) p. 203, no.
     217.
          R. S. Brumbaugh, ed., The Most Mysterious Manuscript: The Voynich
     "Roger Bacon" Cipher Manuscript (Carbondale, Illinois, 1978), with
     additional bibliography.
          M. E. D'Imperio, The Voynich Manuscript: An Elegant Enigma
     (National Security Agency/ Central Security Service, Fort Meade,
     Maryland, 1978), with additional bibliography.