Rare "Lost" Book Turns Out to Be Simply Forgotten

Earlier this year, a rare 270-year-old book was found in a Charleston, South Carolina, library. Dissertation Upon Parties by Henry St. John Lord Bolingbroke was published in 1743. It was one of 800 books that John Mackenzie, a planter and diplomat, donated to the College of Charleston in the 1700’s. However, this book, one of 15 known to still exist, never made it to the college. When Mackenzie made the donation, the library at the college wasn’t ready for it. While a new library was being built, the books were stored at the Charleston Library Society. A 1778 fire nearly destroyed the Library Society and only 77 books were thought to have been saved. Dissertation Upon Parties makes 78 books. It was found after a multi-year search through the Library Society’s collection, which contains thousands of books. “We have lists Read more…

Trying to read the unreadable book

I just finished a thriller called The Voynich Cypher by Russell Blake. I enjoyed the story, but it made me curious about the Voynich Manuscript. It turns out that it exists and is considered one of history’s great mysteries. It has been called the most-unreadable book in the world. Wilfrid Voynich purchased a manuscript in 1912. It dates back to the early 15th Century probably from Northern Italy. It is 240 pages (some of the pages are missing) of illustrations and a text written in an undecipherable language. Some researchers have noted that it has similarities to herbal manuscripts of the time, which were used like medical reference books. The most of the plants in the Voynich Manuscript don’t match known plants. For centuries, cryptographers have attempted to decipher the text with no luck. Codebreakers from WWI and WWII also Read more…