A GREAT CYPHER CODEX OF ROGER BACON OF XIII CENTURY.

Unpublished contemporary manuscript written in cypher either
in English or in Latin, most likely Latin, on botany, mor-
phology and biology of plants, astrology, and women (de gene-
ratione), very likely some part deals with magic. Profusely
illustrated by the author with plants, constellations, figures
of women, and some groups not understood.

This manuscript was bought by Emperor Rudolf for 600 ducats, an enormous sum at that time, and at the end of the XVI Century passed into the hands of King Ferdinand of Bohemia. Since then it has been locked up in one of the European royal collections, from which it was acquired by the exhibitor.

The key to the cypher is not yet discovered, but several scholars are working on it. Naturally the contents of the book can only be guessed at, but the importance of the manuscript can be judged from the illustrations. Research in morphology and sections of plants, for instance, was not made before the time of Braunschweig, at the end of the XV Century. No cypher manuscripts of Roger Bacon have been discovered before. Apart from manuscripts containing diplomatic correspondence, often carried on in cypher, only two early cypher manuscripts have survived the ravages of time: the famous treatise on aerial navigation by Leonardo Da Vinci, already transliterated and published, and a small pamphlet on magic, written in the XV Century and preserved in the National Library of Paris.

Written in England or France (?) XIII Century. (127)