William Romaine Newbold

20 November 1865-6 September 1926
He held various university posts, teaching philosophy and Latin, and the Adam Seybert Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy chair at the University of Pennsylvania from 1907 to 1926. 
American antiquarian and author: various of his claims were subsequently shown to be mistaken.
Wilfrid Voynich invited Newbold to investigate - and Newbold developed a complex system of interpretation, claiming that Roger Bacon, whom he believed had written the Voynich Manuscript had made many discoveries.
His book on the Manuscript 'The Cipher of Roger Bacon.' Edited with foreword and notes by Roland Grubb Kent. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1928 was published posthumously by Roland Grubb Kent.
However, in 1931 John Matthews Manly disproved the thesis. The natural cracking process in the ink used on the Manuscript had been used as evidence of micrography, employing a system capable of multiple interpretations
Member of the Society for Psychical Research.
Jim Reeds' paper on Friedman's description can be found at .
The University of Penn biography can be found - here, and details of his archives at the University can be found here.
Voynich Manuscript discussion group thread can be found here .
The Wikipedia page is 
WorldCat Identities page .
There are those who consider Newbold's system to have some validity - eg this.
A list of articles can be found here.
Wikisource page .
The Philadelphia Area Archives Research Portal page is here.
Category:Voynich associates
Category:Voynich Manuscript articles
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