Georg Baresch

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Georg Baresch (Czech: Jiří Bareš; 1585–1662), was a Bohemian antique collector and alchemist from Prague known for his connection to the Voynich manuscript. Baresch received his baccalaureate in 1602. He studied at the Jesuit College of Clementinum. Georg Baresch was the earliest confirmed owner of the Voynich manuscript. He was apparently just as puzzled as modern cryptologists about this "Sphinx" that had been in his library for many years. On learning that Athanasius Kircher, a Jesuit scholar from the Collegio Romano, had published a Coptic dictionary and "deciphered" Egyptian hieroglyphs, he sent a sample copy of the script to Kircher in Rome, asking for clues. His 1639 letter to Kircher, recently located by Rene Zandbergen, is the earliest known mention of the manuscript. In 1637, Baresch wrote his first letter to Kircher, and from his later reference to it, we may conclude that he was familiar with Kircher's Prodromus Coptus, which appeared in 1636. He sent this letter via the famous Prague mathematician Theodorus Moretus S.J. This letter (which should have been accompanied by some transcriptions of the Voynich manuscript) is lost. After no reply was forthcoming from Kircher, he sent a second letter in 1639.