Editing Voynich manuscript (section)

=== Early history ===
[[File:AACHEN, Hans von - Portrait of Emperor Rudolf II - WGA.jpg|left|thumb|upright|[[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor|Rudolf II]], portrait by [[Hans von Aachen]].]]
Marci's 1665/1666 cover letter to Kircher says that, according to his friend the late [[Raphael Sobiehrd-Mnishovsky|Raphael Mnishovsky]], the book had once been bought by [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor]] and King of [[Bohemia]] for 600&nbsp;[[ducat]]s, {{convert|{{multiply|54/480|600}}|ozt|kg|lk=on|abbr=on}}<!-- see calculation above --> of actual gold weight. (Mnishovsky had died in 1644, more than 20&nbsp;years earlier, and the deal must have occurred before Rudolf's abdication in 1611, at least 55&nbsp;years before Marci's letter. However, [[Karl Widemann]] sold books to Rudolf&nbsp;II in March&nbsp;1599.)

[[File:Roger Bacon in his observatory at Merton College, Oxford. Oi Wellcome M0001840.jpg|upright|right|thumb|alt=Wellcome Library, oil|Ernest Board's portrayal of Bacon in his observatory at [[Merton College, Oxford|Merton College]]]]
According to the letter, Mnishovsky (but not necessarily Rudolf) speculated that the author was 13th-century [[Franciscan]] friar and [[polymath]] [[Roger Bacon]].<ref name="Bacon/Mnishovsky">
{{cite web |url=http://www.voynichcentral.com/users/philipneal/seventeenthcentury/raphael_sentence.html |title=Philip Neal's analysis of Marci's grammar |website=Voynich Central |access-date=8 June 2016<!-- 17 November 2011 --> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007181002/http://www.voynichcentral.com/users/philipneal/seventeenthcentury/raphael_sentence.html |archive-date=7 October 2011}}</ref> Marci said that he was suspending judgment about this claim, but it was taken quite seriously by Wilfrid Voynich, who did his best to confirm it.<ref name=Schuster-2009 /> Voynich contemplated the possibility that the author was [[Albertus Magnus]] if not Roger Bacon.<ref name=Zandbergen-solvers />

[[File:John Dee Ashmolean.jpg|upright|left|thumb|Mathematician [[John Dee]] may have sold the manuscript to Emperor Rudolf around 1600.]]
The assumption that Bacon was the author led Voynich to conclude that [[John Dee]] sold the manuscript to Rudolf. Dee was a mathematician and astrologer at the court of Queen [[Elizabeth I of England]] who was known to have owned a large collection of Bacon's manuscripts.

[[File:EdwKelley.jpg|upright|thumb|right|[[Edward Kelley]] might have created the manuscript as a fraud]]Dee and his ''[[scryer]]'' ([[spirit medium]]) [[Edward Kelley]] lived in Bohemia for several years, where they had hoped to sell their services to the emperor. However, this sale seems quite unlikely, according to John Schuster, because Dee's meticulously kept diaries do not mention it.<ref name=Schuster-2009 />
If Bacon did not create the Voynich manuscript, a supposed connection to Dee is much weakened. It was thought possible, prior to the carbon dating of the manuscript, that Dee or Kelley might have written it and spread the rumour that it was originally a work of Bacon's in the hopes of later selling it.<ref name=Winter-2015 />{{rp|page=249}}