Georg Baresch

Georg Baresch , latinized Georgius Barschius, Jiří Bareš in Czech, (* probably between 1580 and 1585 in Synkov near Častolovice ; † probably between 1650 and 1655) was a Bohemian scholar, alchemist and lawyer in Prague, the first well-documented owner of the Voynich manuscript .

Baresch's probable date of birth can be derived from the little news of him, in particular the time he graduated and the news that he was 70 years old. He died between 1646 and 1662, probably between 1650 and 1655. Marci writes in his book Philosophia vetus restituta 1662 that he inherited the library from Baresch.

He studied at the Jesuit college of the Clementinum in Prague with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts and philosophy on May 9, 1602 and the master's artium on May 15, 1603. From April 1605 he studied at the Sapienza in Rome. How long he was there is unknown, but he was back in Prague by 1616 at the latest. Apparently he had not earned a PhD. From 1624 he was registered as a citizen in Prague. From 1630 to 1646 he was a senior lawyer at the highest court of the castle counts in Prague. He never married and does not appear in the tax registers of 1654 (Berni Rula) (either he was already dead or he had no taxable property, including no house).

He had been friends with the scholar Johannes Marcus Marci since the 1620s and, like many scholars in Prague, was interested in alchemy. In his letter to Kircher in 1640, Marci attested that he had great skill in chemistry. In 1637 he contacted Athanasius Kircher for the first time and sent him a copy of the Voynich manuscript, which was already in his possession at that time. He probably got it from the library of the imperial chemist and drug supplier Jakub Horčický z Tepence , who came to the Clementinum after his death in 1622 (his name is on the manuscript). Kircher was a famous Jesuit scholar in Rome and known as a supposed decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs, his knowledge of cryptography and his grammar of Coptic. Baresch hoped that he would give him clues to the deciphering of Voynich's handwriting, which he believed to be Egyptian medicine transcribed in cipher. Since he received no answer, he contacted Kircher again in 1639 and 1640 via Marci, who was friends with Kircher. In the letter, Marci writes that Baresch would understand some of the drawings enclosed as copies of the manuscript. He emphasized Baresch's interest in medicine (Kircher's negative attitude towards alchemy in the sense of the transmutation of metals or gold production was known). Most of Baresch is known from these (preserved) letters. Kircher himself did not answer (although Marci continued to correspond with him).

Baresch continued to work unsuccessfully with the decipherment and bequeathed the Voynich manuscript with other bequests to his friend Marci on his death, who left the manuscript to Kircher in Rome, as he was not interested in its decipherment. In a letter accompanying the manuscript sent to Kircher, Marci wrote in 1666 that he was from Rafael Mišovský , the private tutor of Ferdinand III. and a fellow lawyer von Baresch, heard that Emperor Rudolf II bought the manuscript for 600 gold ducats and that it was attributed (either by the Emperor or Mnisovsky) to Roger Bacon .

literature

• EH Peter Roitzsch: The Voynich manuscript: an unsolved riddle of the past, Edition Octopus 2008 (the letters to Kircher are printed there in translation, p. 18ff)

Web links

• Biography of Barschius , biography page for the Voynich manuscript by René Zandbergen