Dr Kat and the Ripley Scroll 

What I think is that if I had had teachers like you in school, I would have become a historian of some sort. I certainly would have looked forward to going to school!

I love the idea that may not be an instructive text. I had an art history teacher who appeared to be convinced that if we could just "translate" Ripley we would have answers to many questions. Your way of translation for understanding, rather than as a recipe, seems more true to me. Symbolism, belief, and questioning are valuable in themselves.

As always, coming late to the party... - But then again, I have only recently discovered this channel and am currently binging a little... - But seriously, I don't think there could be a better channel to binge on. Your videos are always interesting and insightful. Personally, I think, that we're not different at all from people in the past. We merely like to think ourselves to be superior and to judge these days and especially judge people from hundreds of years ago; judge their beliefs and actions while often we forget that historical figures were actual human beings just as bound to make mistakes as we are. In hindsight, we always know better, and yet, this hindsight won't keep us from making mistakes in the future. In the end, while we know more today in regards to science, I'm very sure that in the future, with even more advanced technology, we will find that many things of what we believe today are just as wrong as what people believed many centuries ago. Only because our horizon has opened up considerably, this doesn't mean that we now have the full picture and as it is, we simply cannot say how much we don't know. We cannot even be certain of how much we do know. Do we really know as much as we like to believe? Most likely not. I sometimes think that by dividing science into different sections, it hasn't done us any favours and looking at the present development in science, we see that many branches are currently merged because that separation is putting a halt to finding answers to questions being asked. In that respect, alchemy definitely had an advantage. I'm aware that I'm a little out there when I say, that perhaps we should throw religion and philosophy back into the mix as well if only to have some moral guidance to keep us from doing something unethical. And taking this a little further, is the theory of the four humours really such a silly one? I don't think so. I see many parallels to modern medicine, actually. If, for example, a person is anaemic, the levels of iron in their blood are low, or out of balance one could say and this balance has to be restored in order to make this person healthy again. Neither would it help, to keep the person in the present state, nor would it be beneficial for this person's health to overdo it. So, while the way the theory of the four humours was explained is completely alien to us now and in hindsight was (partly) wrong (partly, because instinctively they got some things right regardless) we're still trying to keep a balance to our body in order to not get sick. That there are other outside things influencing our health as well, is also true, but a body can get ill from within even though we often tend to forget that, despite this kind of diseases taking up speed and becoming more and more wide-spread. - Diabetes and gout, for example. And, coming back to modern-day science, while we now know about bacteria and viruses, we are still not fully able to understand why some people get sick and others don't. Yes, I know, genetics often is the answer, but seriously, finding the right chromosome responsible for this or that is like looking for one particular piece of plankton in the vastness of an ocean. And will it really be the answer, or will we find that we're wrong with this assumption that it has anything to do with genetics and there is something else that as yet we haven't discovered? Who will be the fool then? Before I write a complete novel, I better stop even though there are still many things swirling around in my mind. I think I rather go and bother my husband (who is a scientist, btw.) with yet another discussion of this kind. He'll be thrilled, I'm sure...

I'm grateful for your time in this quarantine. I find your voice very soothing and the presentation to be thoroughly enjoyable. So thank you.

A MODERN DAY EXAMPLE: People who use and read Tarot cards have an incredibly large choice in terms of decks. Some people use them for esoteric purposes, and some use them for mindfulness activities. However, some decks are more beautiful than others, and some have more " provenance" and history. In 500 years time, I can imagine that examples of Tarot decks being dominated by Rider Waite decks, which is the traditional deck with Esoteric symbolism. Tarot decks exist before that, but only as card games. The RWS was the first created specifically for Esoteric purposes, and therefore defined decks from then on. They are the most widely available and therefore will be the most common in 500 years. Second most popular might be the Alistair Crowley Thoth deck. In 500 years time, some of the more unique decks ( that display similar meanings but very different symbols) will be held up as " different types "available to people. The answer is simple. Some buy for belief, some buy for beauty. All buy because they connect to them in some way.

I love the amount of credit and respect that you give to the pastos. This is absolutely my new favorite channel. Thank you so very much!

I love history. Thank you, thank you, thank you Dr. Kat.

Thank you for these videos, Kat. Love history and you're a born storyteller. Happy to subscribe, and, please, stay safe.

My eye is always drawn to your books. The one on the Marquis de Sade always cracks me up! 😂 Thanks for another great video. This is something of which I had no previous knowledge. Keep up the good work! ~~Jarrod

I'm always so impressed with the way you explain all the little bits and pieces so that even our younger generation can understand. Well done! (As usual). Cheers!

As someone who did a degree in the history and philosophy of science find your videos brilliantly entertaining and thought provoking. So thank you. So glad I found this channel! Something I've often wondered is about the sons but more usually daughters, of the aristocracy who were betrothed and sent away to be married to some stranger in a foreign land. Thinking particularly here of the sisters of the princes in the tower. These women,girls, disappear from the record. How did that go? Could they speak the language? Did they, could they live a normal life? How did they learn to run a household in a new environment? Hope this makes sense! Thanks for all you do JR

Thank you very much for reminding us that faith was a major part of human understanding.

I like your approach to understanding our ancestors. They were the same as us in that they had hopes, dreams, disappointments, setbacks just the same as all of us. They viewed their world differently because they did not have our knowledge but there are definite parallels with their behaviour and ours. Human nature nearly always stays the same. This is why I love history - our ancestors are not from another country - they are from the same country and they deserve to be remembered and understood.

This blew my head off, Doc. You are ace. I'm going to explore the topic further. Love your content.

This is my new favorite channel. The videos are very interesting and informative.

I am so happy that I found your channel! I love your videos! I am in "quarantine" because of the coronavirus. In my county we have had "only" 13 dead persons (in a county 6.000 squarekilometers bigger than the whole kingdom of Denmark). As you understand, we are sparsely populated and blessed having our enormous forests, big lakes and snowy mountains here in the county of Jämtland.

These scrolls are amazing! Thank you so much for making a video about the Ripley Scrolls, I am now going to look for more images of them on Google 😍

Thank you, Dr. Kat, for this video. Its topic was new to me and your treatment of it I found thought provoking as well as insightful. Please, continue the good work! A suggestion: why not make a video in which you compare the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536-1537) with Kett’s Rebellion (1549) and the role the city of York played in both of these rebellions? I am really curious!

Dr. Kat, thanks for this; it is fascinating how book-as-object can transcend the contents thereof. Thanks again for your detailed research and unique perspective.

Hi Dr. Kat., I have so much enjoyed your video! Thank you from Hanna freakin' Utah.

Never knew much about the Ripley Scroll, this was a fascinating lesson thanks Dr. Kat. My opinion? Chaos has its own inherent sense of order, which we will only see once we have become the observer. Or, after the explosion is finished. Whichever comes first ;-)

I've learned so much through your videos. Thank you so kindly for the treasure of knowledge and the great way in which you present it keep it interesting and is well researched. You rock.

I love your intelligent thoughts. Your videos create more interesting thoughts for me, on topics I thought I understood. Thanks so much!

Thank you DK 💜 Great listen.

As usual Dr Kat, I think your analysis is 'spot on'. In some respects the late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period were foreign countries. Today, in the First World, life is generally safe and secure. We get sick or have an accident, we see a doctor, and usually are cured. 200 years ago and earlier, if you got a serious illness or had a serious accident, you died. Most couples had children who did not outlive them, so how did they respond. Like desperate people in any age, they clutched at anything that offered hope. Usually it was religion. Alchemy was another and as you suggest, there was a very fine line between them. I think there is also a fine line between alchemy and witchcraft - and some alchemists were accused of 'dabbling in the black arts' which put their lives in peril. This talk has given me a much better insight into the issue.

OMG! There are images in this scroll that remind me of the Voynich Manuscript! For instance there are naked ladies in liquid in a flask. There are lots of other things in this scroll not found in the VM. I have done a lot of work with the 'unreadable' VM and believe the language is Serb-Croatian, the writing based on Croatian Glagolitic cursive. I have gotten some fantastic translations from it. (My work is now stalled due to severe, chronic migraine which has intensified since the new year. I do not know if I will ever be able to return to it.) In the VM, the naked ladies frolicking in baths are accompanies by text that shows interest in evaporation, condensation, rainfall, etc. I had never heard of this Ripley Scroll. Thank you!

I think it's a both/and situation; the past is both different from the present but similar enough because it is a human enterprise and we can recognize those basic even existential facts that motivated earlier people

Great Dr. Kat. Enjoyed this greatly. What do we miss when looking through the limited eyes of both religion and science? The scrolls strike me as a Spiritual endeavor. If this is true, then additional answers would lie outside of what is perceived with 5 senses. Love your work!

Excellent video and analysis of the Ripley scrolls... Indeed, all your videos are excellent productions. Cheers to you!

They are so beautifully illustrated! Maybe adding such art was their way of balancing a scientific scroll and religion? 🤔

For some the mystical side of alchemy has nothing to do with gold, it's about transmuting base human nature into the gold of the spirit. There's a tantric side to it, hence the alchemical illustrations of a male and a female over a fire (passion). For some the philosopher's stone is the altar of this mystical union, and this is the real magnum opus. The unity of yin and yang, transmuting creative energy into the formation of the perfect soul and body ( = long life). This might explain the expensive style of the book - perhaps it's a sacred book for the initiated.

I enjoyed this. I like how you talk about the perspective of past beliefs and our more "modern-day" beliefs. And trying to make sense of chaos has not changed through the ages.

This video was beautiful. It adds more clarity to the past.

All good points, many of which I try to keep in mind while research early medieval info.

Wonderful channel! I’m so glad you’re here! I love this color on you! Very pretty.

Hi, love your work. Re the past being another country- there is one thing that absolutely never changes, and that is the prevailing elites' desire to *appear* more learned and elevated than the common person, via their ownership of exclusive, sumptuous artefacts such as these scrolls and later items of virtu etc. that were material proof of one's next-level access to travel, the divine and/or historical occult knowledge. IMHO, objects such as the Ripley scrolls are just bullshitty deliberately obscure woo woo/bling items designed to impress your influential friends with your on-point secret knowledge, your aesthetic sensibilities and of course your disposable income.

Love your channel, found u by accident and so glad I did!🙂

I love your videos.

I don't know about the Ripley scroll but I can tell you that most alchemical treatises were seriously used by students of alchemy and of the occult. There's lots of them and many are well known such as the Chemische Hochzeit and others and Rosekrucianism stemmed from this particular one. I think that most of it is allegorical but as I haven't seen this particular one I can only guess. There's quite a lot of them come from Germany though and I am quite surprised that the most of the Ripley Scrolls seem to be in Britain? I think the different types seem to conform to different alchemical schools or ideas that's what immediately springs to mind on hearing the names. You would have to read the Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreuz to see what I am speaking about though. I don't think it has anything to do with aesthetic preference and more to do with the ideas expressed by each school of thought. I would be surprised if they weren't all being produced at the same time but it's just the ones That have survived that are available rather than each being made at different times. Mind you I am no expert , like I say I have never seen one before but I have seen other alchemical pamphlets and writings. The Rosy cross is much much more than a pretty picture. I think what you are saying about ways in is more on the nail. And I would imagine, like me most buyers would want all three. But then that's getting a bit close to another Johnny Depp film lol! There's a lot of Scottish Templar links to all this too...Mind you I am maybe saying too much. What you are saying about vellum is true but magnify all those conditions of the skin by 10 when you are talking about what's required for any occult or alchemical use. It would be the very very best vellum, probably with all kinds of other exclusive conditions upon it than even the very best "normal" vellum.

Fascinating.

Love your channel. I don't know if this is the right time or the wrong time but could you do a video on the history of plagues or maybe one on the Village of Eyam.

Love your channel 🥰

Had you even given thought about creating a couple of episodes regarding Christopher Marlowe and his death?

Love your channel!...I would love to hear you talk about Shakespeare 's " problem plays".

Hello Dr kat this video has me thinking and wanting to learn more especially the ending of this video you were spot on about faith funny how a video could make me want to go deeper in my Bible and history to know more about the world when it was not modern and everything was done by hand many questions are filling my mind right now it's not easy finding reasons to not have faith in matters that happened in early centuries before us being that I have watched horror histories and linsey holiday who does videos about monarchs plus history buffs all three have me hooked on history of other countries and cultures funny thing is I got bite by British history bug now being a person that had books about Egypt mummies and there treasures I have more interest in learning about Stuart's and Tutors now especially queen anne she peaks my interest then any other queen besides Mary tutor and Henry 8th' s sisters ps my fuzzy babies are getting use to the song for the video they seem to know I am watching Dr Kat lol all four fall asleep when they hear your voice coming out of my phone lol lots of love from Columbus Ohio

dear Dr Kat I`m from denmark I love the funnu sides of History

I would love for you to do a video on Rosicrutianism (spelling?). Even after a visit to a Rosicrutian museum in San Jose, California as a teenager, I don’t have a clue what is was about.

Perhaps some collected it as an object of beauty.

the philosophy stone hasn't changed, Its now called the theory of everything, einstein and everyone has been looking for it

The notion that without the notion of miasma 🤔 we might never have discovered germs … mind-blowing.

Have you done a video on Mary Sidney?

Was the information/text of all the scrolls the same with the illustrations being the only difference among them? Or was the information/text on each scroll diffrrent?

The element Au (gold) is formed in stars gone nova due to nuclear fusion from "worthless" hydrogen to Helium to Carbon to Iron to (super) nova explosion to heavier elements than iron. So, the philosopher stone is the sun/star?

The first linear accelerator in atomic theory... the scientists after using it the first time smashing an of an free-proton into one of lead producing radioactive gold, "My god, we have done it! After all these centuries! Transmutation. We finally done it!" Scientist 2 - "Don't say that, they will start burning us at the stake."

I don't understand how under subscribed this channel is.

Isaac Newton was an alchemist as well as a mathematician and early « naturalist » (physicist, biologist and chemist, combined, in today’s classification). What might be next, the Emerald Tablet?

Ripley is my 15th great grandfather.

You ask me what I think. The problem is I'm having trouble getting to the content of your argument, because...I can't get past the gorgeousness of your accent and the wonderful quality of your sentences. If you were to read a grocery list you'd have me nodding in agreement.

It seems to us that in the past, the boundaries between science and superstition were less clear because people had so little understanding of the natural world. However, then as now, they are fundamentally different. Science is about gathering evidence. A true scientist (like a good historian) should always consider that their theory could be wrong and a) try to test that and b) be willing to change it if new information comes up. Superstition (astrology, homeopathy etc) is essentially akin to religion; it is based on faith, i.e. "we have no evidence for this but nevertheless believe it is the absolute truth and will consider no alternative". On this basis, some of the alchemists and early physicians and herbalists really were scientists (and others were not). However, it irresponsible, especially in these times, to suggest that science and superstition are essentially equivalent. This would mean that we should give the arguments of antivaxxers and people who hold that COVID-19 is a hoax or caused by 5G, the same weight as those of medical experts.

I have been told that part of a lead screen in a nuclear reactor did turn into gold. It was exposed to high levels of radiation. I do not know what type as I do not know more about nuclear fission than that atoms are split.

Order in Chaos... existence is fractal

I wonder if a Rose design (showing a Tudor Rose) a scroll made for Elizabeth or someone close to her? Or that she gave to someone such as John Dee?

Alcamy usuly get base types of subtance like mercury from ore. Breaking a plant down into liquids solides and distilates that later led to cemistry and medicine.

"If you want to find the secrets of the universe (and alchemy symbolism), think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration."---Nikola Tesla

Did you notice the rose resembles the Tudor Rose?

There was a noted Texas energy magnate named Glenn McCarthy who developed a process to extract perfume components from natural gas with his McCarthy Chemical Company. It didn't work, and the project lost a lot of money. Alchemy, huh.

If only these scientists from centuries past had turned their attention to investigating steam - power and the electric current.

Don't tell Dan Brown about this

A topic I don’t think you’ve done? Is the religious shift during the Tudor era and the effect of that on alchemy, magic, and other occult learning/practices. I know the Catholics went wild over this stuff but not as much about how the Church of England reacted… I know part of the motivation of the Catholic Church was seizing the property of the accused. But the Church of England had already done some major profiteering when shutting down the Catholics, so what role did that play in the UK? I hope I’m making sense. 😁

I'm glad you finally got to the point that we don't know the mindset (fully) of the people who lived in the past. Most Europeans daily lives were certainly centered around the decrees of the church, and the ultimate fate of their souls. Actually, it is possible to create elements!! It's just not very cost-effective! Elements differ from one another by the number of protons in their nucleus. The nucleus is held together by the "strong force" this is what holds the quarks together (the subatomic particles that make up protons and neutrons) and the force that overrides the repulsive force of all those positive protons in close proximity. When an atom loses protons , neutrons and energy, we call this radioactivity. Elements like Uranium (radioactive isotopes) go through stages in which they lose protons, neutrons and energy, and actually turn into new elements, the last one being lead. New elements (the really big ones that usually have funny symbols like UUT and UUP, Latin for the atomic number) are created by bombarding a heavy element with protons and neutrons and hoping it will hold together long enough for the scientist to get credit for discovering it! So, take a proton and three neutrons from mercury and, voila, you've got gold!! Considering that Mendeleev didn't come up with the periodic table until 1869, someone had great insight in considering that mercury could be turned into gold. I'm thinking there were scientific societies that shared hypotheses, that may not have been totally correct, but that also showed insight into the forces and composition of the universe. Maybe these scrolls were display pieces that illustrated and confirmed membership and an individuals credence or worth in these societies.

Dumb dumb here, but didn't alchemy have some start by turning substances into silver? Also thank you for the word of Esoteric into my vocabulary, it's been a long time since I read Wuthering Heights.

Hellsing lead me to the Ripley Scroll, the Ripley Scroll lead me here 😁

Maybe they bought them for their kids to be used in their lessons? Just an idea

😷🌍👍🇦🇺

Thankfully, for them, they failed. The levels of radiation required for lead to gold would have killed them and anyone nearby. The universal solvent, possibly anti matter, would again be dangerous.

Whenever I think of alchemy, I think of Harry Potter. Lol

I gave a thumbs down by mistake Dr Kat 😅 Rectified!

I can't help but point out that miasma is also the ancient Greek concept of ritual impurity (similar to kegare in Japan. I should know what the Hebrew equivalent is, but I suck at being Israeli). As far as horoscopes, my jyotishi found my birth time (later confirmed by my birth certificate), accurately predicted the 2016 election results in the US (much to my suffering), and accurately predicted that I would do better in Israel than in Texas.

14:25 I am a bit disappointed you took on this subject of the Ripley Scrolls to dismiss it to past folklore and generalizing that it was after all a faith-based society without understanding it much yourself. (Sorry!). That seems to me like drawing conclusions on no evidence.

We can’t compare our life today with these people. It’s utterly different. I’m an atheist today, if I’d been born in 1400’s I probably would have gone along with all this nonsense and died happy.

I find the reclining monk an odd symbolism - it looks decadent and at odds with what should be the traditional self sacrificing life style of a monk

I love this! It makes me think of John Dee...there doesn’t seem to be too much information and I think he is interesting and would love to hear your take.