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October 28, 2016

John Lennon MBE Return Letter Valued At £60k

A letter John Lennon wrote to the Queen explaining why he was returning his MBE was found tucked in a record sleeve from a £10 car boot haul.

The anonymous owner took the document to a valuation day at The Beatles Story in Liverpool on Wednesday - and discovered it was worth about £60,000.

One expert believes the text is a draft of the letter Lennon sent in 1969, which remains in the Royal archives.

He returned the MBE in protest at Britain's involvement in a civil war.

The letter reads: "I am returning this MBE in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts."

Lennon, along with the other members of The Beatles, initially accepted the MBE when it was awarded in the Queen's 1965 birthday honours, but later returned it in 1969.

The letter, which was recently unearthed in the owner's attic, has been described as an "incredible find" by music memorabilia expert Darren Julien.

It was originally discovered inside the sleeve of a record that was part of a collection of 45s, picked up for £10 at a car boot sale 20 years ago.

"My theory is that John Lennon never sent this draft because of the smeared ink," said Mr Julien.

"If you're writing to the Queen, you want the letter to look pretty perfect, you don't want the ink to be smudged.

"This suggests that he wrote a second version of the letter, which was the one that was actually sent."

[....]
From the BBC

More about the Beatles here.

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Letter From Paul McCartney To Prince Sells For $15K

The Voynich Manuscript: World's Most Mysterious Manuscript To Be Released

500-Year-Old Hidden Images Revealed In Mexican 'Manuscript'

September 01, 2016

500-Year-Old Hidden Images Revealed In Mexican 'Manuscript'

Storytelling images on a deer-hide "manuscript" from Mexico have been seen for the first time in 500 years, thanks to sophisticated scanning technology that penetrated layers of chalk and plaster.

This "codex," a type of book-like text, originated in the part of Mexico that is now Oaxaca, and is one of only 20 surviving codices that were made in the Americas prior to the arrival of Europeans.

The codex's rigid deerskin pages were painted white and appeared blank, but those seemingly empty pages came to reveal dozens of colorful figures arranged in storytelling scenes, which were described in a recently published study. [10 Biggest Historical Mysteries That Will Probably Never Be Solved]

Known as the Codex Selden, the mysterious book dates to about 1560. Other Mexican codices recovered from this period contained colorful pictographs — images that represent words or phrases — which have been translated as descriptions of alliances, wars, rituals and genealogies, according to the study authors.

But Codex Selden was blank — or so it seemed. Made from a strip of deerskin measuring about 16 feet (5 meters) long, the hide was folded accordion-style into pages, which were layered with a white paint mixture known as gesso. In the 1950s, experts suspected that there might be more to this codex than its empty pages suggested, when cracks in the gesso revealed tantalizing glimpses of colorful images lurking underneath the chalky outer layer, which was likely added so that the book could be reused.

In the years that followed, scientists carefully removed some of the gesso in several areas of the codex, but the images were still mostly obscured. Infrared imaging provided general shapes of the pictographs under the gesso, but not much detail. And X-ray scanning — commonly used with art objects or historical artifacts to explore unseen layers — failed to reveal these hidden pictures because they were created with organic paints and don't absorb X-rays.

But a newer technique called hyperspectral imaging was able to penetrate the layers of gesso by collecting information from all frequencies and wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum. The researchers were finally able to view the underlying images without damaging the pages, and discovered a collection of images, inked in red, yellow and orange. [Image Gallery: Ancient Texts Go Online]

They analyzed seven pages of the codex, describing parades of figures that represented men and women, with 27 people on one page of the codex alone. The figures were seated and standing. Two figures were identified as siblings, as they were connected by a red umbilical cord. Some of the figures were walking with sticks or spears, and several of the women had red hair or headdresses.

The researchers also recognized a recurring combination of glyphs — a flint or knife and a twisted cord — as a personal name. That name, they said, might belong to a character who appears in other codices — an important ancestral figure in two known lineages. However, further investigation would be required before they could confirm whether this is the same person, the study authors said, and novel imaging technology will likely play an important role in filling in the missing pieces of this centuries-old puzzle.

Hyperspectral imaging showed "great promise" for this reconstruction of the hidden codex, according to David Howell, study co-author and head of heritage science at the Bodleian Libraries, where the codex is housed.

"This is very much a new technique," Howell said in a statement. "We've learned valuable lessons about how to use hyperspectral imaging in the future both for this very fragile manuscript and for countless others like it."

The findings were published online in the October 2016 issue of Journal of Archaeology: Reports.

By Mindy Weisberger

With many thanks to Live Science

Leonardo da Vinci: The Leicester Codex

World’s Most Expensive Printed Book - “The Bay Psalm Book” - Sells For $14.2 mn

Rorke's Drift: Rare Account Of Zulu Battle Written The Day After Sells For £15k

Rare Copy of Old Testament Reunited With 'Twin' in Israel

Shakespeare First Folio discovered In French Library

Original Magna Carta Copy Found In Sandwich Archive

Scribbled Draft Lyrics of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” Sells for Record $2 Million

'American Pie' Lyrics Sell For $1.2 million In New York

Beatles’ First Recording Contract to Be Auctioned For An Estimated $150,000

Alan Turing Manuscript Sells For $1 million

Shakespeare’s World Revealed In 400-year-old Handwriting

William Shakespeare Folios Net $3.6 Million At Christie’s

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Press Pass for the Spanish Civil War Found

Letter From Paul McCartney To Prince Sells For $15K

The Voynich Manuscript: World's Most Mysterious Manuscript To Be Released

John Lennon MBE Return Letter Valued At £60k

August 27, 2016

The Voynich Manuscript: World's Most Mysterious Manuscript To Be Released - Updated

There are plenty of challenging reads out there, like Finnegans Wake or Gravity’s Rainbow. But those are nursery rhymes compared to the Voynich Manuscript, a mysterious text full of strange botanical drawings and an unknown script that has put scholars and code breakers in a frenzy since it was last discovered by Polish-American book dealer Wilfrid Voynich in 1912.

While interested readers have, for some time, had access to photos of the pages, the manuscript itself is locked away in Yale University’s rare books collection. But that will soon change. As Ben Guarino reports at The Washington Post, Spanish publisher Siloé has been granted permission to make copies of the book, and will produce 898 “clones” of the manuscript, reproducing each water stain, worm hole and strange illustration. So far, about 300 pre-orders of the reproductions have been purchased at around $8,000 each.

The idea is to get the manuscript into the hands of more libraries and more scholars in the hopes of cracking the code. “Touching the Voynich is an experience,” Juan Jose Garcia, editor at Siloé, which spent 10 years trying to get permission from Yale to reproduce the manuscript tells Agence France-Presse. “It’s a book that has such an aura of mystery that when you see it for the first time ... it fills you with an emotion that is very hard to describe.”

The origin of the manuscript is not completely known. Radio carbon dating places the paper in the 15th century, though the writing may have taken place in the 16th century as well, according to Yale University.

It is thought that the book may be the work of English scientist and philosopher Roger Bacon, and that the manuscript was once in the possession of John Dee, an astrologer, mathematician and polymath that advised both Mary I and Elizabeth I. The book eventually made it into the hands of Emperor Rudolph II of Germany before being passed along, fading out of history until Voynich found it in a Jesuit college near Rome.

Since then, scholars have attempted to figure out the meaning of the strange 240-page text. The first part includes 113 drawings of botanical specimens that don’t seem to correspond with any known plants, Yale University writes. The second section contains astral charts and drawings. Other sections contain drawings of female nudes near strange tubes, descriptions of medicinal herbs and long stretches of indecipherable writing in an unknown alphabet.

“The Voynich Manuscript has led some of the smartest people down rabbit holes for centuries,” Bill Sherman of the Folger Shakespeare Library, who curated an exhibit on the book told Sadie Dingfelder at The Washington Post. “I think we need a little disclaimer form you need to sign before you look at the manuscript, that says, ‘Do not blame us if you go crazy.’ ”

Some people claim the whole thing is an elaborate hoax or that the language is complete nonsense. But a 2013 paper examining the strange language determined that the distribution of the unique alphabet and words is consistent with a real language. Then, in 2014, a professor from England claimed he’d deciphered 14 words in the text, including the names of the plants hellebore, juniper and coriander.

According to the AFP, the Yale library gets thousands of emails per month from codebreakers who think they have figured out the text. Rene Zandbergen who runs a blog dedicated to the manuscript claims that 90 percent of the rare book library’s online users are accessing digital images of the manuscript.

It will take Siloé about 18 months to begin producing the facsimile editions. But for those who cannot wait that long or don't want to pony up thousands of dollars for an unreadable book, Yale University Press is releasing its own version of the Voynich Manuscript in November, which includes critical essays and fold-out sections of the text for $50.

By Jason Daley

With many thanks to The Smithsonian.

Researcher finds evidence that the 'world's most mysterious book' is an elaborate hoax

More on documents:

Leonardo da Vinci: The Leicester Codex

World’s Most Expensive Printed Book - “The Bay Psalm Book” - Sells For $14.2 mn

Rorke's Drift: Rare Account Of Zulu Battle Written The Day After Sells For £15k

Rare Copy of Old Testament Reunited With 'Twin' in Israel

Shakespeare First Folio discovered In French Library

Original Magna Carta Copy Found In Sandwich Archive

Scribbled Draft Lyrics of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” Sells for Record $2 Million

'American Pie' Lyrics Sell For $1.2 million In New York

Beatles’ First Recording Contract to Be Auctioned For An Estimated $150,000

Alan Turing Manuscript Sells For $1 million

Shakespeare’s World Revealed In 400-year-old Handwriting

William Shakespeare Folios Net $3.6 Million At Christie’s

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Press Pass for the Spanish Civil War Found

Letter From Paul McCartney To Prince Sells For $15K

500-Year-Old Hidden Images Revealed In Mexican 'Manuscript'

John Lennon MBE Return Letter Valued At £60k

July 16, 2016

Letter From Paul McCartney To Prince Sells For $15K

Someone shoveled out a pretty penny for a two-page, handwritten letter from Paul McCartney to Prince, in which McCartney asks Prince to donate money to the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

The undated letter went for $14,822.50 through Boston’s RR Auction.

“Dear Princely person,” the letter reads. “I know how hard it is to always be getting letters that ask for some favour or another, so it was not easy for me to accept the job of Lead Patron for a Performing Arts School to be located in my home town, Liverpool. But, you guessed it! I did agree to do it, so now I’m writing to ‘friends and all good people’ to try and interest them in the scheme.”

The letter continues to explain how McCartney co-founded the institute, which opened in 1996. He wrote that he liked the idea of a “Fame”-type school for locals and kids overseas.
The Beatle continued, “A donation from you would be a great boost to the project, and I know your involvement in some way, would be a thrill for everyone concerned. Hope you didn’t mind me writing this, it’s so long since I’ve written letters I feel like I’m back at school myself. Anyway, one of these days you’ll have to come and teach a class some moves!! Who knows, it may turn out to be something special for thousands of future kids. Thanks for looking at this.”

McCartney signed the letter and added a smiley face to the bottom.

It has not been confirmed whether or not Prince, who tragically died this year, donated to the school.

By Lindsey Kupfer
With many thanks to Page Six

More posts on The Beatles can be found here.

The Leicester Codex sale price.

World’s Most Expensive Printed Book - “The Bay Psalm Book” - Sells For $14.2 mn

Rorke's Drift: Rare Account Of Zulu Battle Written The Day After Sells For £15k

Rare Copy of Old Testament Reunited With 'Twin' in Israel

Shakespeare First Folio discovered In French Library

Original Magna Carta Copy Found In Sandwich Archive

Scribbled Draft Lyrics of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” Sells for Record $2 Million

'American Pie' Lyrics Sell For $1.2 million In New York

Beatles’ First Recording Contract to Be Auctioned For An Estimated $150,000

Alan Turing Manuscript Sells For $1 million

Shakespeare’s World Revealed In 400-year-old Handwriting

William Shakespeare Folios Net $3.6 Million At Christie’s

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Press Pass for the Spanish Civil War Found

The Voynich Manuscript: World's Most Mysterious Manuscript To Be Released

500-Year-Old Hidden Images Revealed In Mexican 'Manuscript'

John Lennon MBE Return Letter Valued At £60k

July 07, 2016

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Press Pass for the Spanish Civil War Found

In the 1930s, European writers who believed in the possibility of a revolution came to Spain, where the leftist republican fighters were fighting against Franco’s Nationalists. Among the famous correspondents—Ernest Hemingway was covering the war for American newspapers, George Orwell joined the republican army to see the war firsthand—was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - above.

Saint-Exupéry had not yet written The Little Prince, but he had gained some literary fame for his accounts of his adventures in aviation. In 1937, he was working for Paris-Soir, a French newspaper, to cover the war. He was 36.

In June, the Guardian reports, Saint-Exupéry’s press pass, issued by the propaganda bureau for the republican side of the war, turned up for the first time in decades. It had not been stored with the press documents of other luminary journalists; Polisario Sánchez, an amateur historian, found it in a small village in Toledo while he was researching civil war cinema.

The pass reveals a few details of Saint-Exupéry's stint as a war correspondent. He identified himself not just as a writer, but also an aviator. Like many of war correspondents, he stayed at Madrid's Hotel Florida.

At one key moment, though, Saint-Exupéry left this document behind. As Maria Popova writes at Brain Pickings, he was once apprehended by rebel forces, who wanted to see his identity documents. He had left them at his hotel. Turned out, he didn't need them, though:

As one of my guards was smoking, I asked him, by gesture, showing the vestige of a smile, if he would give me one. The man first stretched himself, slowly passed his hand across his brow, raised his eyes, no longer to my tie but to my face, and, to my great astonishment, he also attempted a smile. It was like the dawning of the day.

By Sarah Laskow

With many thanks to Atlas Obscura

These quotes from BBC Culture: