Section 2: Preface

In examining the document, its make and inscription can be precisely dated to 47+/-2.3 of that century, a period which coincides with the author's death. The manufacture is unremarkable, in keeping with many similar thread-bound tomes of the day. The paper as well is consistent with composition, tone, degradation, weight, and refinement of other period examples[1]. The ink, similarly, is standard iron-based formula, well within standard deviation of that time[1].

Given this, the fact that the writing on the parchment, on all pages but one, are in no known language. The symbols bear elemental similarities to Nordic runes[2], the Cyrillic alphabet, and period English-German alphabets. Numerous attempts at decrypting the contents have been made, and will be discussed in greater detail in sections 7 through 9, and we present our own analysis in sections 10, 11, and in the conclusion. This debate remains ongoing, and this volume makes no illusion to supplying a definitive resource on the matter.

What bears noting before the analysis of the book in question is its context as it pertains to the (supposed) man who wrote it. From available information[3][4], the parchment was manufactured and likely sold within a year of the advent of his dark chapters of life, if such a term any longer applied. Mystics are quick to suggest that its contents then reflect the 'demonic channeling'[2][5] that lead to (or stemmed from) his reported otherworldly abilities. His deeds speak for themselves—including the defiling of graves and crypts, consumption of raw animal and human flesh, and the immolation of a cathedral full with Christmas mass—but none are beyond explanation by rational means. The text itself is no more likely the product of demons than it is of a fractured mind, creating a code of inscription that it alone could read.

This volume aims, if indirectly, to supply context to the tale. Biographical reports consistently note[4][6][7] two prominent players in his life. First, in his prime of life, a lover, consort, or other liaison or affiliate by name of Emily. Little is known of her beyond her name and that the two were, for a time, very close to one another. Fondness, even romance, cannot be ignored, even in scholarly debate on the issue. In his last days, the record shows another Emily, a frail girl of pre-teen age and purported servant, who appeared with his madness and disappeared in his death.

From this, then, it is curious and important to note again the only sentence in the entire tome written in recognizable glyphs:

[center]"For Emily"[/center]