FINDINGS FROM THE COMPLETED STUDY · public presentation of [preserved evidence reference]
MS 408 before Rudolf II: evidence, gaps and book networks
Completed research version v001 · 28–29 September 2026 · MacBook. Scope: the physical manuscript's possible transmission, approximately 1430–1599. No Voynich readings, language theories or proposed translations were used. Prior resemblance studies supplied no ownership premise.
Result
A continuous evidence-supported ownership path from approximately 1430 to 1599 cannot currently be reconstructed. There is a documented Augsburg-to-imperial-court book transaction in 1599 and a plausible identification of MS 408 within it. There is also an independently documented earlier route for Rauwolf's own herbarium volumes. Neither establishes MS 408's presence in either man's library.
The best conditional route is unknown earlier custody → possibly Rauwolf's estate → possibly Widemann's consignment → Rudolf II's Prague collection. Each “possibly” remains essential. A useful additional lead is Lorenz Dehn/Thenn → Widemann: actual manuscript loans in 1597 and 1599, with surviving source references. This supplies a concrete alternative to assuming all Widemann's sale material came from Rauwolf.
How evidence is graded
Two separate labels prevent a real relationship from turning into an invented ownership link:
| Claim label | Meaning |
|---|
| FACT | A record, inscription or identified object establishes the stated event; it need not establish MS 408's participation. |
| STRONG INFERENCE | Several mutually consistent observations support an identification or reconstruction, with an explicit remaining uncertainty. |
| SPECULATION | An unrecorded transfer or identification proposed as a research hypothesis. |
Connection grades are DOCUMENTED (the specified connection is attested), PLAUSIBLE (a realistic bridge supported by context but unproved), WEAK (generic or indirect support), and SPECULATIVE (a missing transfer without evidence). “DOCUMENTED network” never means “documented Voynich owner.” No numeric probabilities are assigned.
Access levels are recorded separately: A acquired/read digitization or scholarly edition of a primary record; B inspected modern scholarship identifying primary evidence; C located reference not independently inspected. Institutional catalogues are primary evidence for their present holdings, rather than contemporary witnesses to every historical assertion.
Start from the known end
The imperial transaction, not yet the manuscript's identity
The Kunsthistorisches Museum's Documenta Rudolphina edition of the 1 March 1599 outgoing Hofkammer protocol, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Hoffinanz 527-R, f.38v, orders Geizkofler to pay Widemann for books and arrange their delivery. Its relevant short wording is:
“Doctor Carln Weideman umb ain anzahl pücher 500 taller bezallen”
FACT / DOCUMENTED: Widemann, a plurality of books, 500 thalers, Geizkofler and courtward transport. Not specified: unreadable writing, parchment, plants, bathing figures, foldouts, dimensions or anything uniquely identifying MS 408. The same entry also concerns recruitment of woodworkers; these are not evidence about the books' contents. KHM primary-record edition.
The 25 February 1600 incoming protocol, Hoffinanz 531-E, f.45r, retrospectively records transport-related expenditure, names Geizkofler's counterpart Matthes Peugl, and says that books detained in Augsburg were released and forwarded to the deceased Hans Popp. The description is:
“ain väßl mitt allerlai selzamen büchern”
FACT / DOCUMENTED: a small barrel of assorted unusual books, detention/release and forwarding to Popp. “Seltsam” is a general description, not an assertion of an unknown alphabet. STRONG INFERENCE: this belongs to the preceding acquisition, following the archival reconstruction; the outgoing companion record explicitly refers to books bought in Augsburg in 1599. Incoming edition, outgoing companion.
The 600 Rheinische gulden payment is reported in the separate Geizkofler family accounts: Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg B 90 Bü 454, March 1599, and B 90 Bü 422, extraordinary expenditure, referencing Widemann's receipt no.127. FACT, primary record known through published transcription / DOCUMENTED transaction: payment of 600 fl. rheinisch for the books priced at 500 thalers. Original scans of these two Ludwigsburg entries were not independently inspected here. Published source transcriptions and locators.
600 gulden is not 600 ducats. The account supplies an exchange relationship for its 500-thaler transaction; this does not establish equality with 600 ducats. Nor does the accounting unit prove delivery of exactly 600 physical gold coins. A later substitution of denomination or attribution of the whole consignment's price to one book is possible, but SPECULATION / PLAUSIBLE explanation, not an accounting fact.
Why Rudolf remains a strong historical inference
Marci's accompanying letter, 19 August 1665, preserved with the manuscript as Beinecke MS 408A, reports that Raphael Mnišovský had told him Rudolf acquired it for 600 ducats. FACT: the letter reports this account. STRONG INFERENCE / PLAUSIBLE historical ownership: Rudolf possessed MS 408. SPECULATION / PLAUSIBLE identification: Widemann's 1599 consignment is that purchase. The sale amount and route are suggestive, but neither the letter nor the accounts connects Widemann's name to MS 408. Mnišovský's information source is unknown; the letter is not a contemporary bill of sale. Yale facsimile record, Yale's historical discussion.
Some Yale web summaries call Rudolf the first confirmed owner and retain 1666. The facsimile discussion gives 1665; this report distinguishes their shorthand provenance from the actual kinds of evidence. It also corrects neither historical witness nor record to make the denominations agree. Yale collection summary.
Earliest reasonably secure anchors outside the target interval
- Material association, after 1608 and conventionally within 1608–1622: f001r bears an erased ownership inscription naming Jacobus de Tepenec, a title acquired in 1608. Comparisons with his other books support attribution. FACT: the inscription exists; STRONG INFERENCE / DOCUMENTED physical association: it identifies Tepenec's ownership. It is not an exactly dated acquisition, and need not be his autograph. No record establishes a direct Rudolf-to-Tepenec handover. Comparative ownership inscriptions.
- First well dated surviving descriptive correspondence: 1639, Prague. Baresch's 21 April letter, APUG 557, f.353, describes an unreadable old codex with many plant illustrations, stars and other figures. Its identification as MS 408 is a STRONG INFERENCE, supported by the later Baresch–Marci chain. Kircher's response to Moretus dated 12 March 1639, Czech National Library VI B 12b, f.73, is an earlier surviving response concerning the submitted writing. A lost 1637 submission is recalled in those records; 1637 is therefore retrospective evidence rather than an extant dated ownership document. Letters, primary text reproduction and archival locators.
These anchors support a Prague history. They do not fill the 1400s–1500s gap.
Widemann: places, work and sources of books
| Date or interval | Attested or reported node | Evidence and limit |
|---|
| 1555; 1568 | Born Munich; father Georg obtained Augsburg citizenship in May 1568 | FACT / DOCUMENTED biography. Georg was a municipal wine official; do not silently replace that with a medical library. |
| Before 1585 | Ingolstadt, Leipzig, Padua, Dole studies | FACT in scholarly biographies; individual dates need matriculation records. Padua's German-nation matriculation is cited as 22 May 1582, Rossetti edition, p.53 no.456. This is more concrete than an inferred arrival from his age. |
| Padua; 1585 | A doctor bullatus credential at Padua; medical doctorate at Dole in 1585 | The medical-letters database distinguishes the credentials. No book purchase is established by either degree. |
| 1584 onward | Marriage into the Zimmermann family; Augsburg medical employment | Sources disagree on the first wife's forename (Regina in city lexicon; Sybilla in Ärztebriefe). Preserve the discrepancy; no inheritance route follows. |
| 1587–1588 | Prague/Bohemian alchemical activity; work at Třeboň for Vilém of Rosenberg | FACT in biographies and autograph notebook Strahov DD V 34. Johann Gruber and Edward Kelley are researchable associates; an MS 408 transfer through either is SPECULATIVE. |
| 1588 onward | Augsburg, including plague-hospital medical work; resident in Rauwolf's retained house | Appointment dates differ slightly between summaries. Household proximity is supported by Guzy's archival study; exact tenancy and books must be checked separately. |
| 1597–1599 | Received texts on loan from Lorenz Dehn; sold books to Rudolf | Actual manuscript supply and actual sales; no identified MS 408. |
| Later evidence | Extensive catalogues, copying and correspondence; offers to other courts | Useful for reconstructing sources; later lists cannot be dated back automatically to 1599. |
Augsburg city lexicon, medical-letters scholarly database, Keil's study with Padua matriculation locator, Guzy's archival investigation, pp.3–4 and notes.
Widemann's catalogue infrastructure survives: Kassel 2° Ms. chem.7, lists partly transcribed online, and Hannover Ms.IV 341, including book-search memoranda at pp.538a and 538e–h. Gilly reports additional inventories in Bremen and Wolfenbüttel. These are priority sources, but not a newly discovered identification. The catalogue addressed to Joachim Morsius contains material after 1604 and refers to Haslmayr's later captivity, so it is certainly later than the sale. Its “own hand” entries can describe copies rather than transferred medieval originals. Catalogue 1, catalogue 2, Hannover memorandum, Gilly's catalogue project.
A letter reproduced in the HAB scholarly edition refers to Widemann sending a manuscript ad imitationem Trithemii in 1621, obtained from Rudolf's library. DOCUMENTED: access to another manuscript. SPECULATIVE: identity with MS 408, for which there is no basis. Transmission could occur in both directions; do not assume every book Widemann discussed travelled to Rudolf. HAB primary-letter edition and commentary.
Rauwolf: routes and book contacts
| Date | Person/place/event | Grade and documentary basis |
|---|
| c.1535/1540 | Augsburg birth | Birth dating is disputed; no precise childhood library reconstructed. |
| 1554; 1556 | Tübingen reported; Wittenberg matriculation 6 November 1556 | DOCUMENTED academic network. The earlier Tübingen date is reported by the 2021 herbarium study; NDB begins secure biographical notice at Wittenberg. |
| 1560–1562 | Montpellier, Guillaume Rondelet; Johann Bauhin as fellow student/collecting companion; doctorate Valence 1562 | DOCUMENTED education and botanical network. Montpellier matriculation oath is reproduced in the research article. |
| 1563 | Northern Italy and Alpine return | DOCUMENTED plant collection in Italy; older biography gives Verona, Bologna, Florence, Parma and Gotthard–Lucerne–Basel route. City-level itinerary is weaker than the specimen-supported regional presence. No MS 408 purchase is recorded. |
| Return; 1565 | Contacts with Gessner and Fuchs; marriage to Regina Jung in Augsburg | DOCUMENTED network. Regina's father was physician Ambrosius Jung II; genealogy is not proof that his books passed to the couple. |
| 1569–1571 | Kempten, then Augsburg city physician | DOCUMENTED employment; Aichach practice also reported. |
| 1573–1576 | Manlich firm's eastern Mediterranean/Mesopotamian route, through Tripoli, Aleppo and Baghdad; return via the Levant | DOCUMENTED travel and commercial employment. Hans Ulrich Krafft supplies another travel witness. This establishes travel, not acquisition of a foreign-script medical codex. |
| 1579; 1584 | Letters to Joachim Camerarius II; letter to Clusius dated 6 September 1584 | DOCUMENTED correspondence; exact surviving records identified below. |
| 1588 | Moved to Linz, employed by Upper Austrian estates, retaining Augsburg house | DOCUMENTED biographical/estate context; Widemann's occupancy gives opportunity, not ownership. |
| 1593 | Four dried-plant herbarium volumes sold to Rudolf for 310 Reichstaler | DOCUMENTED separate object transfer. The specimens, paper, indices and known volumes distinguish these from MS 408. |
| 1596–1597 | Rauwolf died in Hungary in 1596; widow died in 1597; estate dispersal | DOCUMENTED deaths and reported estate dispersal. A surviving purchaser's note establishes resale of at least one Rauwolf book; complete library contents not reconstructed. |
NDB scholarly biography, Augsburg biography, primary-object herbarium study, Linz research institution biography, 1583 travelogue catalogue/digitization.
Surviving documentary targets: Camerarius letter 27 March 1579, identifier BV043447612; Clusius letter 6 September 1584, digital-edition entry 1428; Fuchs's autograph annotations in the early herbaria. These give actual text/object contacts. The Clusius endpoint returned a short stub here, so its text was not independently read. 1579 record, 1584 edition endpoint.
Estate warning: the estate book-list is reported missing from Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv, Ständisches Archiv, Landschaftsakten, Schachtel 487. Hofbibliothek Aschaffenburg, Inc.61, contains a purchaser's note saying a seller reported Rauwolf's earlier ownership. It establishes dispersal of that other book, not the contents of the entire estate. These are locators through Guzy, not archival files inspected in this session. A web claim that the library entered Augsburg's city library in 1599 was found, but its specific accession record was not recovered; treat that claim as C / unverified, rather than merging it with sale/inheritance. Guzy, notes 54–58, secondary city-library assertion.
Rauwolf remains PLAUSIBLE as a route, because books really dispersed and Widemann was close enough to handle them. The proposition Rauwolf owned MS 408 remains SPECULATION / SPECULATIVE. His botanical interests, foreign travel and Rudolf connection are not three independent proofs of ownership.
A concrete alternative immediately before Widemann
Lorenz Dehn/Thenn (c.1523/24–1599), Augsburg goldsmith and manuscript lender, supplied Paracelsian material to Widemann in 1597 and 1599. Manuscript references are Leiden Voss. Chym.Q.21, Wolfenbüttel 28.4 Aug.4°, and 32.1 Aug.4°. Sudhoff's descriptions at printed pp.555–556, 558, 565 preserve dated copying/source notes. His death is reported in early July 1599, with a day discrepancy discussed below. FACT / DOCUMENTED: a supplier-to-copyist relationship for specified texts; loan and copying must not be rewritten as ownership transfer of the original. SPECULATION / WEAK: MS 408 could have passed through that circle; no reference says it did. Paulus's sourced biography, Sudhoff digitized public-domain catalogue.
The downloaded Sudhoff facsimiles sharpen that chronology: p.565 explicitly records a loan in February 1599, immediately before the March sale; p.558 records material communicated in April 1599, after the payment order. Neither refers to an unknown-script book. Date discrepancy: the modern biography gives Dehn's death as 3 July; Sudhoff p.558 prints a marginal note giving 4 July 1599. These are preserved as competing reports, not silently harmonized. Primary manuscripts would decide the reading.
Dehn also lent manuscripts used by Johann Huser and had documented contact with Jacob Monau and Tycho Brahe. The latter's correspondence provides a useful independent historical sensor, not an extra Voynich owner. Wellcome MS.228 (Physiognomia) and MS.4889, pp.236–243 (a later copy preserving figures attributed to a 1598 communication), are follow-up targets. Their subject matter is insufficient for identification; MS.4889 is a 1760 copy, not an extant 1598 codex.
This lead is more specific than a list of Augsburg residents: named supplier → dated access → surviving codex → source note. It is newly identified within this project, not a claim of discovery in historical scholarship.
Earlier networks: documented movement of other books
These are separate historical networks, not nodes inserted into MS 408's blank custody interval.
| Network and period | Surviving evidence | MS 408 connection |
|---|
| Jung physician family, Ulm/Augsburg, 1400s–1565 | NDB genealogy links Johannes Jung, Ambrosius I and II, then Regina Jung/Rauwolf | Family relationship DOCUMENTED; book inheritance SPECULATIVE. Seek wills and inventories before assuming a library bridge. |
| Hartmann Schedel, Padua-trained physician; Nuremberg → Johann Jakob Fugger, Augsburg, 1552 → Bavarian court, Munich, 1571 | Schedel's catalogue, lecture notes, medical recipes, correspondence and surviving books; BSB identifies acquisition chain | Other-books transfer DOCUMENTED. MS 408 participation SPECULATIVE. This route has positive destinations, not just shared cities. |
| Konrad Peutinger (1465–1547), Bologna/Padua → Augsburg | Autograph library catalogues, estate inventory and later Oefele excerpts; approximately 200 manuscripts among his volumes | Academic and book-import network DOCUMENTED; a transfer to Rauwolf/Widemann WEAK and presently unrecorded. |
| Nicolaus Pol (c.1470–c.1532), imperial physician; Tyrol/Innichen library | Surviving ownership inscriptions and Fisch/Schullian's inclusive list of known books/manuscripts | Library DOCUMENTED; an Alpine-to-Augsburg MS 408 bridge SPECULATIVE. No Pol inscription identified on MS 408. |
| Rondelet–Bauhin–Fuchs–Gessner–Rauwolf, 1560s | Matriculation, letters and independently attributed annotations on specimens | Contact/object use DOCUMENTED; copying or exchange of MS 408 SPECULATIVE. |
| Camerarius–Clusius–Rauwolf, 1570s–1590s | Dated letters; the herbarium purchase supplies an actual courtward botanical transfer | Network DOCUMENTED; MS 408 inclusion SPECULATIVE. |
| Dehn–Huser–Widemann, 1589–1599 | Acknowledgements, dated copying notes and surviving volumes | Specified-text supply DOCUMENTED; unknown-codex identification WEAK. |
| Jonas Adelwert, Würzburg; catalogue copied/preserved with Widemann material | Leiden Voss.Chym.Q.56, ff.42–56, catalogue of books and objects; Boeren catalogue | Catalogue presence DOCUMENTED through catalogue scholarship; direct purchase of every listed object by Widemann SPECULATIVE. Priority C target, not inspected folio by folio. |
Schedel collection and 1552 sale, BSB estate/1571 acquisition evidence, Peutinger catalogue project, Pol library bibliography, Leiden Q.56 catalogue locator.
The geographical coverage is deliberate: Padua has real academic connections, Verona and the Alps have Rauwolf itinerary evidence, Augsburg has actual acquisition/sale evidence, and Linz/Bohemia have employment and court links. Venice and Milan offer richly documented collections, but no direct bridge was found here. No specific Tyrolean journey by MS 408 is established. Widemann's later Haslmayr contacts in Tirol cannot be backdated into a pre-1599 route.
Leonardo as a historical sensor
The investigation checked institutional reconstructions of Leonardo's library, the digital folio commentary, the 2021 Max Planck exhibition catalogue's book lists and medical sections, and Royal Collection documentation of his anatomical work. This is a targeted examination of published/documented evidence, not a search of every surviving notebook or associate's archive.
The key lists are Trivulziano f.2r, Codex Atlanticus f.559r (earlier numbering f.210ra, around 1490–1495), and Madrid II ff.2v–3v (1503–1504, outside his first Milan residence). Lists can record owned, left-behind or desired books; a reconstructed library does not mean that the original copies survive. Museo Galileo identifies only one surviving personally annotated volume: Francesco di Giorgio's treatise. Institutional library reconstruction, Atlanticus folio commentary, Max Planck catalogue.
Positive references: Madrid's list includes “erbolaio grande” (a large herbal), “fasciculu medicine latino”, Guy de Chauliac's surgery, Montagnana on urine, Pliny, Albertus Magnus's secrets and Albumasar. The medical collection can plausibly resemble MS 408 at the broad level of plants, medical figures and astrology. The Fasciculus medicinae, however, is an identifiable printed collection; it is not an unreadable herbal. The large-herbal entry is too short to identify an alphabet, illustrations, manufacture or later owner. FACT / DOCUMENTED descriptions; WEAK visual/content resemblance; SPECULATIVE identification with MS 408. Lists and medical commentary, catalogue PDF p.45 (Madrid list) and medical commentary.
Associates: medical contact with the Marliani family and probable collaboration with Marcantonio della Torre at Pavia, c.1510–1511, provide real paths for obtaining anatomical information. Royal Collection notes and objects support the latter, with appropriate qualifications. The library reconstruction also documents knowledge transmitted through Arabic-to-Latin traditions, including optics. Neither translated Arabic learning nor mirror writing supplies a foreign-script manuscript ownership link. Royal Collection, RCIN 919012.
Negative result, limited to the checked sources: no Leonardo reference located to an unreadable illustrated herbal combining an unknown script with recognizably matching MS 408 features, and no documented library bridge from his associates to Rauwolf/Widemann. Leonardo's presence in Milan does not place MS 408 there. The gaps and dispersal of his library make silence weak evidence; this is not a proof that he never encountered it.
Description search: what was actually found
Searches combined named persons with German/Latin/English descriptions of unfamiliar or secret writing, illustrated herbals, baths/women, pharmaceutical recipes and astrology. Exact online inventories were preferred to search snippets. Query groups and access outcomes are preserved in search_log.json. Whole undigitized inventories were not searched, and snippets are not accepted as full-text negative results.
| Record / exact short wording | What it does and does not establish |
|---|
| 1600 protocol: “allerlai selzamen büchern” | Assorted unusual books. No script or image description. WEAK identifying specificity. |
| Geizkofler accounts: “600 fl r[heinisch]” | A monetary amount; the expanded transcription's brackets are editorial. No manuscript identity. |
| Widemann catalogue 1, item 4: “15. kreüttern .15. characteren” | Plants and characters in an attributed Hermetic work. Not an explicit unknown alphabet; no bathing/cosmological foldouts. WEAK resemblance. |
| Same list, item 7: “ain Büechel in gold bunden” | Small gold-bound book of secrets; binding description is no match to an identified historical MS 408 binding. WEAK lead. |
| Catalogue 2, item 1: “Rogerij Bachonis Anglj tractatus de secreto secretissimo” | An attributed, titled Bacon tract. Bacon attribution alone cannot identify MS 408. WEAK lead; catalogue not securely dated here. |
| Hannover memorandum: “Gehaime Büecher v. manuscripta” | Heading for collectable secret works; includes 1617 material. No pre-1599 presence follows. |
| Leonardo: “erbolaio grande” | A herbal, with no unknown-script description. WEAK lead. |
| Baresch, 1639 | Unknown writing plus numerous plants, stars and other figures: genuinely resembles MS 408 and belongs to its accepted later chain. Outside the requested early interval. |
Primary catalogue 1, catalogue 2, Hannover edition.
No pre-1599 description checked here genuinely identifies the whole combination. “Characters” can mean magical signs, “secret” can mean restricted knowledge in ordinary writing, and “herbal” can mean many identifiable books. A conjunction of vague words is not a manuscript identification. Baresch's medical interpretation is his historical guess, not this project's conclusion about content.
Rudolf's inventory sources are further controls: Blotius, ÖNB ser.n.4451; Tengnagel, ÖNB 13541; Fröschl's 1606–1611 Kunstkammer inventory. Guzy reports no identifiable MS 408 entry. These are reported negative searches, not complete inventory audits repeated here. Some entries lack detail; absence is not exclusion. Guzy, pp.1–2, references 4 and 14–17.
The later Kunstkammer inventory is an instructive false lead. Its generic old figured philosophical book was once proposed as MS 408, but subsequent identification points to copies of Hrabanus Maurus, Liber de laudibus Sanctae Crucis. The inventory also lists Arabic/Turkish books, which establishes those books rather than this manuscript. It covers only part of the imperial collections, so omission cannot exclude MS 408. These conclusions are known through the published inventory discussion; the complete Bauer–Haupt 1976 edition was not independently audited here. WEAK former resemblance; no accepted identification. Inventory discussion and correction.
Timeline: manuscript custody versus contextual history
The manuscript column is intentionally blank where an ownership node cannot be supplied. Contextual rows do not fill those blanks. The chart and machine-readable timeline retain the same distinction.
| Date | Physical MS 408 custody | Separate contextual node |
|---|
| c.1430 | — | Parchment's reported radiocarbon interval is 1404–1438; dates material, not a place, owner or exact writing date. |
| 1430–1499 | — | Northern Italian and transalpine medical libraries existed; none identified as its owner. |
| 1500–1551 | — | Leonardo's lists; physician/collector libraries. |
| 1552 | — | Schedel library sold to Fugger: other books. |
| 1560–1563 | — | Rauwolf Montpellier/Valence/Italy, botanical contacts. |
| 1565 | — | Rauwolf–Regina Jung marriage; no book inheritance shown. |
| 1571 | — | Schedel/Fugger books reach Munich; Rauwolf's Augsburg appointment. |
| 1573–1576 | — | Rauwolf's eastern travels. |
| 1582–1585 | — | Widemann Padua matriculation and Dole doctorate. |
| 1587–1588 | — | Widemann Bohemian work; Rauwolf subsequently in Linz. |
| 1593 | — | Rauwolf herbaria sold to Rudolf; identified separate volumes. |
| 1596–1597 | — | Rauwolf/widow deaths and dispersal context. |
| 1597 | — | Kunstbuch purchase reported in accounts; Dehn supplied Widemann texts. |
| 1599 | Possibly Widemann → imperial court, Prague: PLAUSIBLE identification, not documented MS 408 | DOCUMENTED Widemann–Geizkofler sale; payment; Peugl–Popp transport. Dehn loans are another documented supply route. |
| 1600, retrospective | — | Transport accounting refers to the 1599 acquisition. |
| after 1608, conventionally by 1622 | Tepenec: reasonably secure physical ownership association | Erased name on f001r; acquisition date unknown. |
| 1637, reported in 1639 | Probably Baresch, Prague | Lost submission recalled by surviving correspondence. |
| 1639 | Baresch's descriptive correspondence: strong MS 408 identification | Herbs, stars and unintelligible writing; Moretus/Kircher bridge. |
| 1665 | Marci sends the manuscript to Kircher | Letter reports Rudolf/600 ducats at second hand. |
Radiocarbon evidence discussion and its publication limits. The Arizona news URL was located but returned 404 during acquisition; no text from it is claimed as newly inspected.
Strongest network, with edge meanings
flowchart LR
R["Rauwolf: Augsburg / Linz"] -->|"DOCUMENTED: own herbaria, 1593"| C["Rudolf II: Prague court"]
R -.->|"PLAUSIBLE: estate handling; unproved MS 408"| W["Widemann: Augsburg"]
D["Lorenz Dehn: Augsburg"] -->|"DOCUMENTED: loans for copying, 1597 / 1599"| W
W -->|"DOCUMENTED: books sold, 1599"| G["Zacharias Geizkofler"]
G -->|"DOCUMENTED: counterpart in transport record"| P["Matthes Peugl"]
P -->|"DOCUMENTED: books released / forwarded"| H["Hans Popp"]
H -->|"STRONG INFERENCE: court receipt"| C
V["MS 408: earlier custody UNKNOWN"] -.->|"PLAUSIBLE identity; no item list"| W
Solid edges describe specified other books or a consignment, not continuous MS 408 provenance. The manuscript's ownership in Rauwolf's library is SPECULATIVE, even though estate handling by Widemann is PLAUSIBLE. A reproduced research diagram is clearly labelled as analyst work, not an archival illustration.
Keep four geographical layers apart
| Layer | Finding |
|---|
| A. Material/manuscript manufacture | Parchment date constrains chronology. No demonstrated northern Italian workshop or parchment supply location. |
| B. Source knowledge | Plant, star and bathing imagery permits historical comparison; does not prove a medical, alchemical, Turkish or Italian origin. Translated learning could travel independently of the codex. |
| C. Language/script | Unidentified. Historical ownership and ordinary Latin book networks do not identify it. No decipherment attempted. |
| D. Physical travel | Reasonably secure Prague association in the early seventeenth century. A 1599 Augsburg–Prague route is conditional. No physical custody location established for the 1400s. |
Ranked archival targets and a discriminating test
- One strongest missing-link lead: the 1597–1600 Widemann–Geizkofler transaction dossier, especially receipt no.127, referenced attachments, dispatch papers and sale-specific correspondence. Compare StAL B 90 Bü 409, 422, 454, Augsburg Reichspfennigmeisteramt Sign.2, and Vienna Hoffinanz 527-R f.38v / 531-E f.45r / Akten216 f.277r. A list giving unknown writing plus illustrations, parchment, foldouts or dimensions could identify or exclude MS 408. Guzy already reports missing account appendices and no recovered transport passport; their existence must not be promised. Finding more copies of the same generic payment is not enough.
- Widemann's source registers and letters, Kassel 2° Ms.chem.7, Hannover Ms.IV341, HAB correspondence. Look for source names, loans, prices, dates and a combination of distinctive physical descriptors. Date each list before using it to reconstruct the sale.
- Dehn/Thenn loans and estate, beginning with source notes in 28.4 Aug.4°, 32.1 Aug.4°, Voss.Chym.Q.21, and Huser acknowledgements. This is the best newly identified project lead for a named supplier immediately before Widemann. Seek originals versus copies and specific acquisition notes; no MS 408 clue currently found.
- Rauwolf/Regina Jung estate and city accessions, Linz Landschaftsakten Schachtel487, Augsburg house/estate and library accession records, Aschaffenburg Inc.61. Check the asserted 1599 city-library accession and any dispersal exclusions. The couple's medical relatives warrant inquiry only if inheritance documents give books.
- Jonas Adelwert catalogue, Leiden Q.56 ff.42–56, then the Peutinger/Schedel and Pol inventories as lower-priority controls. Adelwert is linked to an actual catalogue in Widemann-related material; the older collections offer documented book movement but no bridge to MS 408.
An attractive matching title is insufficient. A useful candidate needs multiple independent physical features and a dated path to the Augsburg transaction. Every intermediary must carry the same object, not merely similar knowledge or copied text.
Seven answers
- Earliest reasonably secure provenance point: the Tepenec ownership association on f001r, after 1608, conventionally before his 1622 death; the first closely dated surviving descriptive correspondence is 1639, supporting Baresch in Prague and retrospectively 1637. Rudolf is a strong historical inference; 1599/Widemann remains a candidate identification.
- Immediately before Widemann: no identified MS 408 owner. Rauwolf's estate offers proximity and dispersal; Dehn's dated loans demonstrate another actual source of Widemann material.
- Rauwolf route: yes, plausible and worth archival work; no evidence yet that MS 408 was his or was inherited by Widemann.
- Additional people/libraries: Dehn/Thenn is the most useful addition; Jonas Adelwert's catalogue and the Jung estate/accession records are targeted secondary leads. These are known historical sources newly brought into this project's inquiry.
- Northern Italy in the 1400s: no ownership, inventory, travel or sale evidence located that places the physical manuscript there. Later contacts and visual resemblance do not establish it.
- Genuinely resembling historical witness: Baresch in 1639, outside the early interval. No checked pre-1599 description has comparable identifying specificity. Leonardo's large herbal and Widemann's secret/figured works are generic.
- Strongest missing link: an item-level description tied to the Widemann–Geizkofler consignment/receipt no.127. It tests the key identification before attempting to extend an assumed chain backward.
Verdict: plausible late-sixteenth-century transmission machinery, unresolved identification of the physical manuscript, and a visibly unfilled earlier provenance gap.
Preserved evidence and access limits
[preserved evidence reference] preserves acquired source bytes/hashes, failures, searchable derivatives, the evidence/edge/timeline ledgers, catalogue-description records, analyst diagrams, source-linked review cards and validation. Original Yale TIFFs and earlier results were not rewritten. The 1599/1600 KHM editions were acquired and read; the Hungaricana facsimile endpoints returned 403, the Philip Neal site had a certificate error, the Yale letter endpoint returned an empty response, and some correspondence endpoints were stubs. None counts as an inspected facsimile. Guzy's 2023 German study was bibliographically located in Herold-Jahrbuch NF28 (published announcement 2024), but its full text was not acquired. Publisher contents.
This is a completed focused online investigation with reviewable archival targets, not an exhaustive physical-archive search or a newly proven provenance chain. No correspondence was sent and no new archival orders were placed.