Cthulhu.Science
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Here is the preface of a proposed story. Should I write out the entire tale? Interestingly this specific story started as a footnote to a different story. Perhaps it should stay that way.
The Travels of the Mad Monk, Bartolomea Corsi
Preface.
Bartolomea Corsi was a monastic scribe who is known among medievalists as the Mad Monk of Florence. While there are records of the twelfth century monk Bartolomea Corsi, the earliest stories of his madness were written centuries later.
The “Corsi Manuscript,” attributed to Bartolomea Corsi, is an answer to this mystery. The answer? Yes, he must have been completely mad.
Along with much of the Mason Collection, this volume was only recently made available for study by academics outside of Miskatonic University. To confirm the provenance of the volume, test have been conducted to determined that the velum, ink, bindings, glues, in short the entirety of the book, is a product of the late twelfth century. Historians have surmised Hyrum Mason brought this volume with him to New England in the early seventeenth century. If correct, there are four and half centuries between the book’s writing and possession by Hyrum Mason that are unaccounted for, and an additional three centuries that the volume was locked, unseen, in the Miskatonic University Library.
The manuscript is primarily written in Latin, a language which Corsi knew. However, there are quotes, excerpts and entire pages written in Arabic, Hebrew and other languages. Some of the text remains undeciphered. The most prominent unknown text is the curvilinear hieroglyphs that have been compared with those photographed during the Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition of 1930–31 and the Miskatonic Australia Excavation of 1935. Modern handwriting analysis has determined that the entire manuscript, including the various languages and hieroglyphics, was written by a single scribe. Though nobody can be certain if Corsi understood all that he wrote.
Despite the detailed analysis of the physical document, many have insisted that the manuscript must be a forgery. Corsi was known to have left his monastery in 1163, providing a start date for the writing. Not only does he describe his activities as he travels, Corsi also describes events that were long past during his time with greater accuracy than his contemporaries. He also prophesizes regarding events that would not take place for many years or centuries. All of his predictions for the time between his writing and the present have come to pass with uncanny accuracy. We can only hope the future he is predicting still to come does not also come true. While detailed investigations have verified that the physical book is in fact a product of the twelfth century, the knowledge, if the Mad Monk Bartolomea Corsi is to be believed, is the product of communication with an infinite mind.
Much has already been written about the prophesy, the religious interpretations, the grotesque philosophies, and the secrets and mysteries claimed by the author. Yet, the “Corsi Manuscript” stripped of predictions and philosophical lectures provides a fascinating view of a mad monk’s journey from Florence across Southern France and into the roiling religious wars of Spain. The Travels of the Mad Monk, Bartolomea Corsi extracts the travelogue leaving the philosophy for others to debate.
The Travels of the Mad Monk, Bartolomea Corsi
Preface.
Bartolomea Corsi was a monastic scribe who is known among medievalists as the Mad Monk of Florence. While there are records of the twelfth century monk Bartolomea Corsi, the earliest stories of his madness were written centuries later.
The “Corsi Manuscript,” attributed to Bartolomea Corsi, is an answer to this mystery. The answer? Yes, he must have been completely mad.
Along with much of the Mason Collection, this volume was only recently made available for study by academics outside of Miskatonic University. To confirm the provenance of the volume, test have been conducted to determined that the velum, ink, bindings, glues, in short the entirety of the book, is a product of the late twelfth century. Historians have surmised Hyrum Mason brought this volume with him to New England in the early seventeenth century. If correct, there are four and half centuries between the book’s writing and possession by Hyrum Mason that are unaccounted for, and an additional three centuries that the volume was locked, unseen, in the Miskatonic University Library.
The manuscript is primarily written in Latin, a language which Corsi knew. However, there are quotes, excerpts and entire pages written in Arabic, Hebrew and other languages. Some of the text remains undeciphered. The most prominent unknown text is the curvilinear hieroglyphs that have been compared with those photographed during the Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition of 1930–31 and the Miskatonic Australia Excavation of 1935. Modern handwriting analysis has determined that the entire manuscript, including the various languages and hieroglyphics, was written by a single scribe. Though nobody can be certain if Corsi understood all that he wrote.
Despite the detailed analysis of the physical document, many have insisted that the manuscript must be a forgery. Corsi was known to have left his monastery in 1163, providing a start date for the writing. Not only does he describe his activities as he travels, Corsi also describes events that were long past during his time with greater accuracy than his contemporaries. He also prophesizes regarding events that would not take place for many years or centuries. All of his predictions for the time between his writing and the present have come to pass with uncanny accuracy. We can only hope the future he is predicting still to come does not also come true. While detailed investigations have verified that the physical book is in fact a product of the twelfth century, the knowledge, if the Mad Monk Bartolomea Corsi is to be believed, is the product of communication with an infinite mind.
Much has already been written about the prophesy, the religious interpretations, the grotesque philosophies, and the secrets and mysteries claimed by the author. Yet, the “Corsi Manuscript” stripped of predictions and philosophical lectures provides a fascinating view of a mad monk’s journey from Florence across Southern France and into the roiling religious wars of Spain. The Travels of the Mad Monk, Bartolomea Corsi extracts the travelogue leaving the philosophy for others to debate.
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