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Open Questions

Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which expertise the answer needs.

These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither one settles it alone.

You can send evidence on some of these. A pilot is open on 55 questions in one field, Palaeography. Each says what would resolve it; send something that meets that bar, with a source anybody can check, and an editor will weigh it. Sending evidence does not guarantee the question will be resolved, and it does not have to be your field to read what is being asked. See what is open.

Grouped by the shape of the gap rather than its subject: what sort of thing is unresolved.

Filter By Specialty 99 fields, 1 selected
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Showing 28 of 608 questions, filtered to 1 specialty.

Showing 21 to 28 of 28 open questions, page 2 of 2.

attribution 26

Who said or wrote or made something, where the record is incomplete.

Theban U U Where does the Theban sign for U come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?

Open Theban U U

Why It Is Open The three attributed-author facts recorded on Theban U are all marked unknown, and this is the question they leave open. Trithemius published the script in Polygraphiae libri sex in 1518, crediting Honorius of Thebes on the authority of Pietro d'Abano, but the credit has never been corroborated. The ascription is not known to appear in any writing attributed to d'Abano, the script is not known to appear in any manuscript of Honorius except British Library Sloane 3853, which names Agrippa as its own source, and no publication before 1518 has been found to carry it. A Trithemius era invention is widely assumed but has never been demonstrated, and no rival candidate has ever been named, which is why this is unknown rather than debated. It is one question about the whole Theban script rather than about this letter alone, and it is recorded on each of the twenty six letters because the atlas stores the attribution separately for every letter.

What Would Settle It A codicological survey of pre-1518 manuscripts in the ars notoria and Solomonic grimoire traditions for any script matching the Theban letterforms, together with archival work on Trithemius's own circle, including his students and correspondents such as Agrippa, and a collation of the Polygraphiae chart against the earliest surviving impressions. One dated witness earlier than 1518 would settle the priority; a draft, a letter or a working paper would settle the authorship.

Expertise Needed Palaeography and codicology of late medieval Latin manuscripts, history of the early modern printed book, history of Renaissance occultism

Codicology History of Renaissance Occultism History of the Book Palaeography

Question posed in Theban alphabet (reference article), Wikipedia contributors, Origin and attribution: the ascription is not known to be mentioned in any writing attributed to Pietro d'Abano, nor the script in any Honorius manuscript except Sloane 3853, which names Agrippa..

Theban V V Where does the Theban sign for V come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?

Open Theban V V

Why It Is Open The three attributed-author facts recorded on Theban V are all marked unknown, and this is the question they leave open. Trithemius published the script in Polygraphiae libri sex in 1518, crediting Honorius of Thebes on the authority of Pietro d'Abano, but the credit has never been corroborated. The ascription is not known to appear in any writing attributed to d'Abano, the script is not known to appear in any manuscript of Honorius except British Library Sloane 3853, which names Agrippa as its own source, and no publication before 1518 has been found to carry it. A Trithemius era invention is widely assumed but has never been demonstrated, and no rival candidate has ever been named, which is why this is unknown rather than debated. It is one question about the whole Theban script rather than about this letter alone, and it is recorded on each of the twenty six letters because the atlas stores the attribution separately for every letter.

What Would Settle It A codicological survey of pre-1518 manuscripts in the ars notoria and Solomonic grimoire traditions for any script matching the Theban letterforms, together with archival work on Trithemius's own circle, including his students and correspondents such as Agrippa, and a collation of the Polygraphiae chart against the earliest surviving impressions. One dated witness earlier than 1518 would settle the priority; a draft, a letter or a working paper would settle the authorship.

Expertise Needed Palaeography and codicology of late medieval Latin manuscripts, history of the early modern printed book, history of Renaissance occultism

Codicology History of Renaissance Occultism History of the Book Palaeography

Question posed in Theban alphabet (reference article), Wikipedia contributors, Origin and attribution: the ascription is not known to be mentioned in any writing attributed to Pietro d'Abano, nor the script in any Honorius manuscript except Sloane 3853, which names Agrippa..

Theban W W Where does the Theban sign for W come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?

Open Theban W W

Why It Is Open The three attributed-author facts recorded on Theban W are all marked unknown, and this is the question they leave open. Trithemius published the script in Polygraphiae libri sex in 1518, crediting Honorius of Thebes on the authority of Pietro d'Abano, but the credit has never been corroborated. The ascription is not known to appear in any writing attributed to d'Abano, the script is not known to appear in any manuscript of Honorius except British Library Sloane 3853, which names Agrippa as its own source, and no publication before 1518 has been found to carry it. A Trithemius era invention is widely assumed but has never been demonstrated, and no rival candidate has ever been named, which is why this is unknown rather than debated. It is one question about the whole Theban script rather than about this letter alone, and it is recorded on each of the twenty six letters because the atlas stores the attribution separately for every letter.

What Would Settle It A codicological survey of pre-1518 manuscripts in the ars notoria and Solomonic grimoire traditions for any script matching the Theban letterforms, together with archival work on Trithemius's own circle, including his students and correspondents such as Agrippa, and a collation of the Polygraphiae chart against the earliest surviving impressions. One dated witness earlier than 1518 would settle the priority; a draft, a letter or a working paper would settle the authorship.

Expertise Needed Palaeography and codicology of late medieval Latin manuscripts, history of the early modern printed book, history of Renaissance occultism

Codicology History of Renaissance Occultism History of the Book Palaeography

Question posed in Theban alphabet (reference article), Wikipedia contributors, Origin and attribution: the ascription is not known to be mentioned in any writing attributed to Pietro d'Abano, nor the script in any Honorius manuscript except Sloane 3853, which names Agrippa..

Theban X X Where does the Theban sign for X come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?

Open Theban X X

Why It Is Open The three attributed-author facts recorded on Theban X are all marked unknown, and this is the question they leave open. Trithemius published the script in Polygraphiae libri sex in 1518, crediting Honorius of Thebes on the authority of Pietro d'Abano, but the credit has never been corroborated. The ascription is not known to appear in any writing attributed to d'Abano, the script is not known to appear in any manuscript of Honorius except British Library Sloane 3853, which names Agrippa as its own source, and no publication before 1518 has been found to carry it. A Trithemius era invention is widely assumed but has never been demonstrated, and no rival candidate has ever been named, which is why this is unknown rather than debated. It is one question about the whole Theban script rather than about this letter alone, and it is recorded on each of the twenty six letters because the atlas stores the attribution separately for every letter.

What Would Settle It A codicological survey of pre-1518 manuscripts in the ars notoria and Solomonic grimoire traditions for any script matching the Theban letterforms, together with archival work on Trithemius's own circle, including his students and correspondents such as Agrippa, and a collation of the Polygraphiae chart against the earliest surviving impressions. One dated witness earlier than 1518 would settle the priority; a draft, a letter or a working paper would settle the authorship.

Expertise Needed Palaeography and codicology of late medieval Latin manuscripts, history of the early modern printed book, history of Renaissance occultism

Codicology History of Renaissance Occultism History of the Book Palaeography

Question posed in Theban alphabet (reference article), Wikipedia contributors, Origin and attribution: the ascription is not known to be mentioned in any writing attributed to Pietro d'Abano, nor the script in any Honorius manuscript except Sloane 3853, which names Agrippa..

Theban Y Y Where does the Theban sign for Y come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?

Open Theban Y Y

Why It Is Open The three attributed-author facts recorded on Theban Y are all marked unknown, and this is the question they leave open. Trithemius published the script in Polygraphiae libri sex in 1518, crediting Honorius of Thebes on the authority of Pietro d'Abano, but the credit has never been corroborated. The ascription is not known to appear in any writing attributed to d'Abano, the script is not known to appear in any manuscript of Honorius except British Library Sloane 3853, which names Agrippa as its own source, and no publication before 1518 has been found to carry it. A Trithemius era invention is widely assumed but has never been demonstrated, and no rival candidate has ever been named, which is why this is unknown rather than debated. It is one question about the whole Theban script rather than about this letter alone, and it is recorded on each of the twenty six letters because the atlas stores the attribution separately for every letter.

What Would Settle It A codicological survey of pre-1518 manuscripts in the ars notoria and Solomonic grimoire traditions for any script matching the Theban letterforms, together with archival work on Trithemius's own circle, including his students and correspondents such as Agrippa, and a collation of the Polygraphiae chart against the earliest surviving impressions. One dated witness earlier than 1518 would settle the priority; a draft, a letter or a working paper would settle the authorship.

Expertise Needed Palaeography and codicology of late medieval Latin manuscripts, history of the early modern printed book, history of Renaissance occultism

Codicology History of Renaissance Occultism History of the Book Palaeography

Question posed in Theban alphabet (reference article), Wikipedia contributors, Origin and attribution: the ascription is not known to be mentioned in any writing attributed to Pietro d'Abano, nor the script in any Honorius manuscript except Sloane 3853, which names Agrippa..

Theban Z Z Where does the Theban sign for Z come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?

Open Theban Z Z

Why It Is Open The three attributed-author facts recorded on Theban Z are all marked unknown, and this is the question they leave open. Trithemius published the script in Polygraphiae libri sex in 1518, crediting Honorius of Thebes on the authority of Pietro d'Abano, but the credit has never been corroborated. The ascription is not known to appear in any writing attributed to d'Abano, the script is not known to appear in any manuscript of Honorius except British Library Sloane 3853, which names Agrippa as its own source, and no publication before 1518 has been found to carry it. A Trithemius era invention is widely assumed but has never been demonstrated, and no rival candidate has ever been named, which is why this is unknown rather than debated. It is one question about the whole Theban script rather than about this letter alone, and it is recorded on each of the twenty six letters because the atlas stores the attribution separately for every letter.

What Would Settle It A codicological survey of pre-1518 manuscripts in the ars notoria and Solomonic grimoire traditions for any script matching the Theban letterforms, together with archival work on Trithemius's own circle, including his students and correspondents such as Agrippa, and a collation of the Polygraphiae chart against the earliest surviving impressions. One dated witness earlier than 1518 would settle the priority; a draft, a letter or a working paper would settle the authorship.

Expertise Needed Palaeography and codicology of late medieval Latin manuscripts, history of the early modern printed book, history of Renaissance occultism

Codicology History of Renaissance Occultism History of the Book Palaeography

Question posed in Theban alphabet (reference article), Wikipedia contributors, Origin and attribution: the ascription is not known to be mentioned in any writing attributed to Pietro d'Abano, nor the script in any Honorius manuscript except Sloane 3853, which names Agrippa..

Historicity 1

Whether a person or event is historical, legendary, or a composite of both.

Edward Kelley Did Edward Kelley report what he saw in the scrying sessions, or invent it?

Open Edward Kelley

Why It Is Open The Enochian material rests entirely on Kelley's reports of what appeared in the showstone, recorded by John Dee. Dee's diaries are strong evidence of what Dee believed and weak evidence of what actually occurred. Frances Yates called Kelley a fraud outright; others treat him as a genuine visionary or as self-deceived. The question is central to how the whole Enochian corpus should be read and is not settled.

What Would Settle It It may be unresolvable in principle, which is worth recording as such. It would move on evidence of Kelley preparing material in advance, or on linguistic analysis of the Enochian corpus bearing on whether it was composed rather than received.

Expertise Needed Early modern history, palaeography, and historical linguistics for the Enochian corpus itself.

Early Modern History Historical Linguistics Palaeography

Question posed in John Dee's Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of Nature, Deborah E. Harkness, Pages 11 and 24.

Provenance 1

Where something came from, and whether its origin story holds up.

Theban W W Which of the circulating Theban forms for W, if any, is the one Trithemius actually printed in 1518?

Open Theban W W

Why It Is Open W is the awkward letter of the set. It was not a letter of the Latin alphabet the cipher was built on, and in the original chart it stands after Z rather than in alphabetical position, as a recent addition. Later copyists appear to have misread that presentation, and the printed sign for W differs between sources. Which of the circulating forms is faithful to the 1518 chart has never been established, so the atlas cannot say which sign for W it is showing.

What Would Settle It A collation of the surviving copies and early impressions of Polygraphiae against the Theban charts in Agrippa's De occulta philosophia and the later grimoire reprints, reading the 1518 sign for W from the earliest surviving impressions directly rather than from any redrawing, and tracing where the divergent forms enter the tradition.

Expertise Needed Analytical bibliography and description of early printed books, palaeography

Analytical Bibliography Palaeography

Question posed in Theban alphabet (reference article), Wikipedia contributors, Sections on letters and on the original chart: in the original chart by Trithemius the letter W comes after Z, as it was a recent addition to the Latin alphabet..