• Edward Kelley
• Jakub Horčický (Sinapius) z Tepence
• Raphael (Soběhrd) M(n)išovský ze Sebuzina a Heršteina
• Georg Baresch [Jiři Bareš?]
• Jan Marek Marků (Marci) z Kronlandu

J. Truhlář, Catalogus manu scriptorum latinorum qui in c. r. Bibliotheca Publica atque Universitatis Pragensis asservantur, Pragae, vol. 1 (1905), vol. 2 (1906)

6                         I. A. 5.
chart. saec. XVII ex. ff. 42 num. 33 x 22 cm. 1 m.
f. 1^a (Titulus manu recentiori:) Historia regiae urbis Launae ab anno 1517 (usque ad a. 1631) combinata et conscripta opera Joannis Floriani Hammerschmid.
f. 2^a-42^b De Launa regni Bohemiae regia civitate. 
f. 3^a. De monasterio Launensi ordinis S. Mariae Magdalenae de poenitentia (auctor subscr: Raphael Mnischowsky, qui † 1644).
In fronte tegumenti chartacei hic titulus occurrit: »Memoriae Regiae Civitatis Launae. G. G. G.«, qui satis congruit cum MS. inter Hammerschmiediana a Ruffero (Čas. Mus. 1834 sub num. 55) consignato.

This is a 17th MS compilation about the city of Launa from the historical works of Joannes Florian Hammerschmid, there is a one page fragment on the monastery of St. Maria Magdalena in Launa, apparently rewritten from the printed work by Raphael Mnischowsky - nothing of special interest.

J. Truhlář, Katalog českých rukopisů c. k. Veřejné a Universitní Knihovny pražské, Praha 1906

243              XVII. F. 13.
papír, z r. 1493, ll. 240, 21.5 x 16 cm., 1 r. s mal. inic. a arabesk. na l. 1^a a 92^a.
»Kniehy Mistra Albertana tak rzeceneho. Naiprwee kladee naucenie, kterak sie ma Clowiek mieti przimluwenie a przi Mlceniee a o ginych o mnohych Mrawiech A przikladech a Ctnostech.« L. 239^b »Skonany gsu tyto Kniehy genz slowu Albertan o rozlicznych wiecech a cztnostech . . . letha . . . Tysyczieho Cztyrzisteho Dewadesateho Trzetieho . . . Ten pondieli Na den Swaty Panny Anežky et cetera.« Jungmann III, 880. Srovn. XVII. E. 11 a 14.
Na l. 240^b jsou zápisky rodinné pozdější ruky týkajíci se narozeni Majnuše (1540) a Jana (1538) synů pana Jana Bukovského z Hustiřan a manželky jeho Anny z Pilnikova. Na zadní desce zapsána jest berně z domů Pražských r. 1579. Přideštim přednim jest zlomek pergam. kodexu liturg. lat. XIV stol. Na přední desce: »E bibliotheca Georgii Bartholdi Pontani a Braitenberg praepositi Pragensis«; na l. 1^a »Jakuba z Tepence«. Poněvadž druhý tento majetnik, úplným jménem Jakub Horčický nebo Sinapius z Tepence, veškeré jmění své jesuitům r. 1622 odkázal, dostal se asi kodex nemaje žádného označeni některé kolleji jiné než Klementinské, a z této k nám.

This manuscript is of utmost interest because of its provenience. It was written in 1493 by one Master Albert and was probably owned in the mid-16th century by Jan Bukovský z Hustiřan because there are notes in a different hand about the births of his two sons in 1540 and 1538. The back cover has notes on taxes from Prague houses in 1579, while the front cover bears the later owner's inscription: "E bibliotheca Georgii Bartholdi Pontani a Braitenberg praepositi Pragensis". Most interestingly, however, folio 1r is signed "Jakuba z Tepence"! It is exactly in the same place as in the VMS and has the same form so there can now be no doubt that he was indeed the owner of both (I must admit that until now I was not quite sure what to think about his erased signature in VMS). As far as I know this is the first identified MS from Sinapius's library mentioned in VMS literature.

The other important information this MS brings is that Sinapius owned at least one item from the collection of Jiři Berthold Pontanus (d. 1616), who thus automatically becomes a possible earlier owner of VMS. Who was he? Born in Most, educated by Jesuits (again!), he became a secretary of archbishop Medek, a canon of St. Vit's cathedral in Prague (1582) and eventually its curate (1593). He wrote many books of poetry, sermons and Bohemian church history, for which he was crowned "poeta laureatus" by Rudolf II (1588), then nobilitated and finally made "comes palatinus" by the same emperor. Most importantly, Pontanus was a collector of scientific manuscripts and donated his large library to the chapter of the Prague cathedral (it was plundered in 1648 by the Swedes).

It seems more probable that Rudolf II (if he indeed owned VMS at all) gave VMS to Pontanus - the pastor of all Prague and known collector of manuscripts - than to the much less important Sinapius. As the latter had at least one MS from Pontanus's library, they were certainly in contact and probably discussed topics of scientific nature. It is thus possible that Pontanus gave VMS to Sinapius. The chronology further supports this hypothesis: Pontanus died in 1616 while Sinapius in 1622, so he may have owned VMS during that time (or part of it, or may have received it from Pontanus between 1608 and 1616).

It may be worth remembering that the greatest Czech alchemist Bavor ml. Rodovský z Hustiřan (1526-1592) was a relative of the earlier owner of this manuscript.

In the last sentence of his description Truhlář says that because Sinapius "gave all his possessions to Jesuits in 1622, this codex which has no provenience marks must have gone to some college other than the Clementinum and from there to us [ie. University Library]". This means that the manuscripts in the Clementinum college (which was merged with the Carolinum university in 1622, when the Charles-Ferdinand University was founded) had some special marks which allowed him to recognize them (there are 1165 Clementinum manuscripts in the catalogue out of the total of 2830 items described). All this seems to indicate that Jakub Horčický's library did not go to the Clementinum after his death because (1) he signed his manuscripts, (2) no other manuscript from the Clementinum is signed by him, (3) there is no manuscript written by him in the University Library or the National Library even though Pelzl clearly stated that Sinapius's medical works still remained in manuscript which means he must have been aware of them in the late 18th c. Thus it is still unknown how VMS passed from Horčický to Baresch. Interestingly, there are also no manuscripts identified as owned by Marci, who inherited Baresch's library which may have included the whole of Sinapius's library.

nothing found

this one has no index and I have not finished looking through it yet - but so far nothing found

nothing found

2. Soběhrda Mnišovského Trithemus.

Rukopis z r. 1628; sign. MS. Slav. 60; Upsalská universitní. 
Známá knížečka; popisovaná již Dobrovským (Literarische Nachrichten., 80—81) 1796, velice podrobně a důkladně Dudíkem, Forschungen, 326 až 328. K jeho popisu lze připojiti asi toto:
Text sám konči na l. 188^a; 188^b prázdno; na l. 189^a je přípisek zeleným inkoustem: »finii ultima Octobris 1628. L. D. B. g. M. S. V.«, ostatek prázdný. (Popsaných stran je tedy jen 375, nikoli 416.) Na první straně připsáno rukou Dobrovského: »Constructio grammaticae bohemicae secundum methodum trithemianam a Raphaele Mnischovský anno 1628. De authore vide Abbildungen der böhm. Gelehrten voň Pelzl IV. 50.« Dudík (l. c.) pokládá sice, dle zkráceného podpisu Rafaël Mnisch. (t. j. Mnišovský), pisatele za jakéhosi Mniše, rozdílného od Rafaele Mnišovského (píše jej chybně Mišovský). Ale domnění Dobrovského je správné; srovn. Jireček, Rukovět, II. 235-236, kde projevena (pravděpodobná) domněnka, že tento Rafael Soběhrd Mnišovský z Sebuzína a z Horšteina sepsal tento latinský spisek asi původně pro svého svěřence, mladého arciknížete Ferdinanda III. Jungmann (Historie Literatury, 2. vydání) tohoto spisku Mnišovského neuvádí.

This manuscript was most probably written for the later emperor Ferdinand III, as Mnišovský was his tutor of the Czech language. It was earlier described  by Dubrovský (1796) and Dudík (1852), and more recently in: Carin Davidsson, "Johannes Tritemius' Polygraphia als tschechisches Lehrbuch. Cod. Slav. 60 der Universitätsbibliothek in Uppsala", Scando-Slavica, tomus V (1959), p. 148-164. That article (brought to my attention by Jim Reeds) gives some general background but is concerned mainly with graphemic forms of Czech phonemes without discussing the art of secret writing announced in the full title of Mnišovský's manuscript:

Constructio, sive Strues Tritemiana, cuius hae sunt principaliores utilitates. Qui nullum unquam idiomatis Bohemici calluit verbum, per eam in momento scribet convenienter Bohemice, quantum volet. Per eandem potest quis spatio unius horae quam plurimas conficere periodos Bohemicas, quae etiam paginam unam atque alteram excedant, easdemque, quod caput rei est, intelligere et interpretari. Latet in eadem dispositio ad id, ut suo modo loqui possis fere, quod velis. - Accessoriae vero eiusdem utilitates sunt istae: Applicatio ad quodvis idioma. Occultus occulte scribendi modus, quem nemo mortalium queat penetrare. Variatio eiusdem pene in infinitum. Paradigmata Declinationum, Coniugationum et Syntaxeos. Opulenta Sinonymorum congeries. Repetitio Linguae Latinae. Eiusdem copia et augmentum. Reduplicata Bohemicorum lectio. Frequens et inevitabilis eorundem verborum, quo facilius haereant, commemoratio. Ad Bohemicum Characterem in scripto legendum assuetudo. Ex his liquet, quam brevi tempore, et quantum quis queat tali methodo proficere. Sed totum positum est in animo et propensa voluntate. Raphael Mnisch. [fol. 188r] Konec: Finij ultima Octobris 1628. L. D. B. q. M. S. V. [Laus Domino Beataeque Mariae Semper Virgini]

There are two pages reproduced in Davidsson's article which are interesting a a sample of Mnišovský's handwriting. Unfortunately, it is of rather poor quality so the scanned image is not very good, either. Some ligatures look interesting in the VMS context - and so does his manner of writing individual characters separately rather than joining them, which is somewhat reminiscent of the "bookish" humanist hand believed to be discernable in VMS.