The friar and the cipher Roger Bacon and the unsolved mystery of the most unusual manuscript in the world

This is a somewhat flawed book in the sense that it only tangentially is about the Voynich manuscript and mostly about Roger Bacon. This is not a bad thing, but if the reader was expecting a meaty exposition of said manuscript, he won't find it here. Fifteen of the nineteen chapters are background,

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and the final four actually deal with the Voynich manuscript. But the book is immensely readable, providing a veritable romp through 13th century history. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

For someone not steeped in the Medieval world, this is a relatively painless introduction, being short on citations and repleat with stories. For example, Goldstone writes, "In 1876, an English philosophy professor wrote," he then dutifully quotes the professor but doesn't identify him even in a footnote. This is a typical Goldstone omission.

Each chapter contributes to our knowledge of Roger Bacon, thus in a subtle way increasing anticipation for the denoument, which he only partially delivers, and thus reminding us that Bacon (Doctor Mirabilis) is the true subject of the book. However, the book reminds me of a tremendous shaggy dog story, in which we are just waiting for the punchline. Sadly that punchline for me, at least, is anticlimactic. The 13th century is endlessly fascinating. The Goldstones' approach provides a nice introduction to personalities who shaped events that seem to have affected Bacon's academic and literary activities from Rome to Paris to Oxford.

A further gimmick to keep one reading is the insertion without captions or comments of 12 color plates depicting pages from the mysterious manuscript, a subtle way of keeping one plowing ahead.

For the Medieval scholar, there will be some disappointment unless you are looking for an attractive way to review and get a different take on well-traveled material. There is not much that is new here, but the Goldstones have managed an interesting synthesis of historical information that I dare say the average reader doesn't know.

Finally, This is my first Kindle book. I don't actually own a Kindle and am reluctant to buy one merely because I don't need yet another device. But I downloaded Amazon's free PC app onto my laptop. Since there doesn't seem to be an index to this book, I found the highlighting, notes and search capabilities to be very useful -- and user friendly. And this definitely will not be my last e-book.

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