Wilfrid Voynich | |
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Wojnicz c. 1885
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Native name | Wilfrid Voynich |
Born |
Telšiai, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire, present-day Lithuania |
12 November 1865
Died | 19 March 1930 New York City |
(aged 64)
Nationality | Polish |
Occupation | Revolutionary, Antiquarian Book Dealer |
Known for | Discovery of the Voynich manuscript |
Spouse(s) |
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Wilfrid Voynich, born Michał Wojnicz (Telsze, 12 November [O.S. 31 October] 1865 – New York, 19 March 1930), was a Polish revolutionary, antiquarian and bibliophile, and the eponym of the Voynich manuscript.
Wilfrid Michał Habdank-Wojnicz was born in Telsze (since 1918 Telšiai—a town in then Kovno Governorate, which was part of the Russian Empire now it's Lithuania)—into a Lithuanian - Polish noble family. The "Habdank" part of his surname is the name of a Polish heraldic clan. He was the son of a Polish petty official (titular counsellor).
He attended a gimnazjum in Suwałki (a town in northeastern Poland), then studied at the universities of Warsaw, St. Petersburg, and Moscow. He graduated from Moscow University in chemistry and became a licensed pharmacist.
In 1885, in Warsaw, Wojnicz joined Ludwik Waryński's revolutionary organization, Proletariat. In 1886, after a failed attempt to free fellow-conspirators Piotr Bardowski (1846-1886) and Stanisław Kunicki (1861-1886), who had both been sentenced to death, from the Warsaw Citadel, he was arrested by the Russian police. In 1887, he was sent to penal servitude at Tunka near Irkutsk.