Society and Culture Atlas
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.
Grouped by the shape of the gap rather than its subject: what sort of thing is unresolved.
Filter By Specialty 99 fields, 1 selected
Showing 3 of 608 questions, filtered to 1 specialty.
Provenance 3
Where something came from, and whether its origin story holds up.
Theban J J
Who first printed a Theban sign for J distinct from the sign for I, and where did that form come from?
Open Theban J J
Why It Is Open J was not a separate letter of the Latin alphabet Trithemius was ciphering in 1518, and the earliest Theban sets carry no sign for it: the sign for I served for both. The Theban J in circulation today is a later supplement, usually described as adapted from the I, but nobody has identified the chart or edition in which it first appears, or the hand that made it. The modern twenty six letter Theban set therefore contains one letter with no traceable origin at all.
What Would Settle It A bibliographic collation of printed Theban charts in sequence, from Polygraphiae in 1518 and Agrippa's De occulta philosophia in 1533, through the eighteenth and nineteenth century grimoire reprints, to the twentieth century witchcraft revival, to locate the earliest surviving witness of the supplementary sign and to name the edition that introduced it.
Expertise Needed History of the printed book, analytical bibliography of occult literature
Question posed in
Theban alphabet (reference article), Wikipedia contributors, Section on letters: the modern characters J and U are not represented and are often transliterated using the Theban characters for I and V..
Theban U U
Who first printed a Theban sign for U distinct from the sign for V, and where did that form come from?
Open Theban U U
Why It Is Open U and V were one letter in the Latin alphabet Trithemius was ciphering in 1518, and the original Theban set has a single sign covering both. The separate Theban U now in general use is a later supplement, conventionally taken over from the V, but the chart in which it first appears has not been identified and neither has whoever added it. The sign is used daily in modern practice with no known first witness behind it.
What Would Settle It A bibliographic collation of printed Theban charts in sequence, from Polygraphiae in 1518 and Agrippa's De occulta philosophia in 1533, through the eighteenth and nineteenth century grimoire reprints, to the twentieth century witchcraft revival, to locate the earliest surviving witness of the supplementary sign and to name the edition that introduced it.
Expertise Needed History of the printed book, analytical bibliography of occult literature
Question posed in
Theban alphabet (reference article), Wikipedia contributors, Section on letters: the modern characters J and U are not represented and are often transliterated using the Theban characters for I and V..
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
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..