girls wearing outfits straight out of The Matrix. I know it has to be tough on you, luv. Do try to keep your spirits up through all this,” Gwen observed sweetly.
“It’s not what you’re thinking,” Steven protested.
“It never is,” Gwen responded. “Call me if you need anything, and enjoy your holiday. Do be careful, and try not to overexert yourself or pull anything. You’re not a young man anymore.”
“Don’t I know it. Thanks for the well wishes. I’ll talk to you later. Let me know what the crew finds out about the number,” Steven fired back.
Natalie regarded him with one eyebrow cocked.
Steven summarized the discussion. She shook her head.
“They got to you awfully fast. I’m not surprised. Everyone’s playing for high stakes here. Now do you believe me?”
“Let’s just say I’m still gathering data, but the scales are tipping in your favor,” Steven acknowledged.
“Hallelujah…” Natalie sighed, rolling her eyes.
Steven sank into the ample seat and fiddled with the center armrest. Natalie didn’t seem to scare easily, he reasoned, and was obviously extremely smart, judging from her oration in his office. He wondered how familiar she was with the Voynich.
“Since your father was one of the leading experts on the Voynich, I’m presuming you know quite a bit about it?” Steven floated as a trial balloon.
“ One of ? One of the leading experts? He was the expert. Nobody else could hold a candle to him on the topic,” she corrected.
“Sorry. You’re right, of course. But my question is, how up to speed are you ?” he persisted.
“What do you want to know?” she asked innocently.
He waited without speaking.
She gave him a neutral look and cleared her throat. “The Voynich Manuscript was discovered, or rather rediscovered, by rare book dealer, Wilfred Voynich, in 1912, here in Italy. He got it from among the possessions of a top Jesuit general who’d recently died. It’s two hundred forty pages written entirely in an unknown language, which most cryptographers agree is some sort of a cypher, although what kind remains unknown. The author remains a mystery, as do the illustrations, which depict unknown species of plants, prescriptions or recipes, nude women and astronomical data. The parchment was carbon-dated to roughly 1430, although it’s possible that the vellum was created then, and it was written at some later point. There are many theories as to who wrote it, and why, most of which have fallen apart over the years. And it’s no closer to being decrypted now than it was a century ago, when it first resurfaced.” She stopped. “Did I leave anything out?”
“Wow. That’s the most succinct description I’ve ever heard. I usually take a lot longer to describe it,” Steven said.
“That’s probably because you get caught up in the minutiae, like ‘word entropy’, which isn’t relevant to a general overview,” Natalie countered.
“ Touché . Did you happen to pick up any of your father’s thinking as to who the author was, or what language was used as its basis?” Steven asked, genuinely curious.
Natalie’s demeanor became guarded. “He didn’t like to speculate. Over the years, he considered and then rejected several possibilities, but in the end I’m not sure he really had a favorite. I do know that he believed it wasn’t a fraud, as some earlier ‘scholars’ of it posited,” she concluded.
Steven was impressed with her grasp of the document’s intricacies. There were few people in the world he could discuss the Voynich with who had any idea what he was talking about ten seconds into the conversation.
“What about speculation that the whole thing was concocted by Edward Kelley?” Steven countered.
“To fool John Dee, or Emperor Rudolf? Not a chance. The text doesn’t in any way resemble a random character set or an invented language. The likelihood is close to zero. No, it may be a mystery, but it isn’t a hoax,” Natalie
“It’s not what you’re thinking,” Steven protested.
“It never is,” Gwen responded. “Call me if you need anything, and enjoy your holiday. Do be careful, and try not to overexert yourself or pull anything. You’re not a young man anymore.”
“Don’t I know it. Thanks for the well wishes. I’ll talk to you later. Let me know what the crew finds out about the number,” Steven fired back.
Natalie regarded him with one eyebrow cocked.
Steven summarized the discussion. She shook her head.
“They got to you awfully fast. I’m not surprised. Everyone’s playing for high stakes here. Now do you believe me?”
“Let’s just say I’m still gathering data, but the scales are tipping in your favor,” Steven acknowledged.
“Hallelujah…” Natalie sighed, rolling her eyes.
Steven sank into the ample seat and fiddled with the center armrest. Natalie didn’t seem to scare easily, he reasoned, and was obviously extremely smart, judging from her oration in his office. He wondered how familiar she was with the Voynich.
“Since your father was one of the leading experts on the Voynich, I’m presuming you know quite a bit about it?” Steven floated as a trial balloon.
“ One of ? One of the leading experts? He was the expert. Nobody else could hold a candle to him on the topic,” she corrected.
“Sorry. You’re right, of course. But my question is, how up to speed are you ?” he persisted.
“What do you want to know?” she asked innocently.
He waited without speaking.
She gave him a neutral look and cleared her throat. “The Voynich Manuscript was discovered, or rather rediscovered, by rare book dealer, Wilfred Voynich, in 1912, here in Italy. He got it from among the possessions of a top Jesuit general who’d recently died. It’s two hundred forty pages written entirely in an unknown language, which most cryptographers agree is some sort of a cypher, although what kind remains unknown. The author remains a mystery, as do the illustrations, which depict unknown species of plants, prescriptions or recipes, nude women and astronomical data. The parchment was carbon-dated to roughly 1430, although it’s possible that the vellum was created then, and it was written at some later point. There are many theories as to who wrote it, and why, most of which have fallen apart over the years. And it’s no closer to being decrypted now than it was a century ago, when it first resurfaced.” She stopped. “Did I leave anything out?”
“Wow. That’s the most succinct description I’ve ever heard. I usually take a lot longer to describe it,” Steven said.
“That’s probably because you get caught up in the minutiae, like ‘word entropy’, which isn’t relevant to a general overview,” Natalie countered.
“ Touché . Did you happen to pick up any of your father’s thinking as to who the author was, or what language was used as its basis?” Steven asked, genuinely curious.
Natalie’s demeanor became guarded. “He didn’t like to speculate. Over the years, he considered and then rejected several possibilities, but in the end I’m not sure he really had a favorite. I do know that he believed it wasn’t a fraud, as some earlier ‘scholars’ of it posited,” she concluded.
Steven was impressed with her grasp of the document’s intricacies. There were few people in the world he could discuss the Voynich with who had any idea what he was talking about ten seconds into the conversation.
“What about speculation that the whole thing was concocted by Edward Kelley?” Steven countered.
“To fool John Dee, or Emperor Rudolf? Not a chance. The text doesn’t in any way resemble a random character set or an invented language. The likelihood is close to zero. No, it may be a mystery, but it isn’t a hoax,” Natalie
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