William Romaine Newbold

William Romaine Newbold (November 20, 1865 – September 8, 1926) was an American philosopher who held the Adam Seybert Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy chair at the University of Pennsylvania from 1907 to 1926.

Newbold was considered an authority on the psychology of religion, Christian Gnosticism, and cryptography.

After his initial study Newbold quickly agreed with Voynich that the manuscript had been authored by the English polymath Roger Bacon.

Newbold's theory was entirely disproved in a 1931 paper by his friend John Matthews Manly[3] and it is now mostly disregarded.

[7] Newbold died suddenly in Philadelphia on 26 September 1926 of acute indigestion.

Preface to a 1908 copy of "The fragments of Empedocles," translated to English by William Ellery Leonard. Leonard dedicated the book to Newbold.
Preface to a 1908 copy of "The fragments of Empedocles," translated to English by William Ellery Leonard . Leonard dedicated the book to Newbold.