What happened to the book with naked women captured in King Charles VIII tent during the battle of Fornovo 1495? According to Julia Mary Cartwrite Ady in her book Isabella D'Este, Marchioness of Mantua the famous book (described by Alessandro Beneditti as ' book in which were painted various nude images of his mistresses, differing in appearance and age as his lust and insane love had impelled him in each city') ended with the Gonzaga family in Mantua:
![]()
The Dukes of Mantua had long-lasting relationship with the Holy Roman Emeprors - including royal marriages. So it is possible that the book ended up at some point in Prague - as a present or dowry.
In spectacular coincidence the Fornovo book and the Voynich manuscript share in common not only the naked women feature, but also a geographic location (at different point in time).
According to 1921 article in The New York Times Mr. Voynich discovered the famous unreadable manuscript in a lot from collections of the Dukes of Parma, Ferrara and Modena:
![]()
Fornovo is a province of Parma and the Google map shows that Mantua is not too far away either. In the scale of all Europe, it is basically - the same place.
![]()
![]()
The Voynichese location is probably just a coincidence. From the Prague correspondence we know that the Voynich manuscript was separately sent to Athanasius Kircher (read all the letters at Philip Neal's site here).
However, just for fun, we can imagine that somebody from the area between Fornovo/Parma, Mantua and Ferrara recognized the Voynich manuscript as belonging to this area and Kircher was happy to get rid of the unsolvable book.
UPDATE. The same author Julia Cartwrite mentions the Fornovo book in another work - Beatrice D'Este Duchess of Milan (read here ) :
In spectacular coincidence the Fornovo book and the Voynich manuscript share in common not only the naked women feature, but also a geographic location (at different point in time).
According to 1921 article in The New York Times Mr. Voynich discovered the famous unreadable manuscript in a lot from collections of the Dukes of Parma, Ferrara and Modena:
Fornovo is a province of Parma and the Google map shows that Mantua is not too far away either. In the scale of all Europe, it is basically - the same place.
The Voynichese location is probably just a coincidence. From the Prague correspondence we know that the Voynich manuscript was separately sent to Athanasius Kircher (read all the letters at Philip Neal's site here).
However, just for fun, we can imagine that somebody from the area between Fornovo/Parma, Mantua and Ferrara recognized the Voynich manuscript as belonging to this area and Kircher was happy to get rid of the unsolvable book.
UPDATE. The same author Julia Cartwrite mentions the Fornovo book in another work - Beatrice D'Este Duchess of Milan (read here ) :
Among the spoils sent to Mantua were a magnificent set of embroidered hangings from the royal tent, and a curious book of paintings, containing portraits of the chief Italian beauties who had fascinated King Charles.Isabella D'Este protested against her husband wishes to give the tapestries to her sister Beatrice in a letter quoted in the same book which shows that she insisted the spoils to be kept in Mantua:
Your Excellency has desired me to send the four pieces of drapery that belonged to the French king, in order that you may present them to the Duchess of Milan. I of course obey you, but in this instance I must say I do it with great reluctance, as I think these royal spoils ought to remain in our family, in perpetual memory of your glorious deeds, of which we have no other record here.The footnotes in both books show that Julia Cratwrite used the work of the Italian archivist Alessandro Luzio as source for the history of the trophies from the battle of Fornovo.