This is a debriefing of the story I lived regarding this encrypted, bizarrely illustrated document. There is still not much information on the Internet about it, and I think it will remain this way for a long time as it's clearer each day that some power is not interested on it being available to the public.
It all started with this email:
From: Pavel Kolsinski <pavel.kolsinski@gmail.com> Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:24:45 +0600 Subject: A new strange, encrypted document Hi, Angelo. This is Pavel. So long. You know ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, my friend who works as a semiotic professr in Salamance, close to where you leave. He talked the other day about a document an anonymous source has sent him that is written in some kind of encrypted form using some strange symbols and shit. I asked him to show it to me and it's pretty strange. Its also full of phantastic drawings that i think you'll like much. They have been taking a look at it, but couldn't find a quick way of decyphering it. I thought you'll liek to take a look at it so I'll attach some scannings they have done to it. Do your email provider accept big pictures? Ah my friend wants his name undisclosed, his job is too serious for this crap ;-) Best regards, Pav
This is an example of Pavel's way; he disappears for months or even years without a word, and suddenly reappears from the void with some strange finding or story, either borderline believable or just batshit crazy.
I wrote a quick reply confirming that big attachments in my email are okay, waited for more news but real life got in the middle and I forgot about the full thing for several months.
And then I received this note from him:
From: Pavel Kolsinski <pavel.kolsinski@gmail.com> Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2010 12:17:10 +0600 Subject: Re: Av: A new strange, encrypted document Hey weirdo, how are you? Didn't forget, just got busy. May I send you some really big images from the crypto? ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ told me to warn you that the mistery it's probably some forged joke like Codex Serahinianus or something like that (don't know what it is), but that you probably know. I have seen the doc and it's crazy, is somewhat of a bestiary or atlas or something like that. It also has machines and planetary systems. I've given the domcument a name: Antichthon Universalis :-D Just wanted you to write some stuff on your blog or web page ot whatever you have so that people get involved. Regards, Pavel
I answered that yes, I know what the Codex Seraphinianus [1] is, that I'll write about his document here and that big attachments on my email are (still) fine. So, after a while, I wrote this entry [2] on July 29:
My friend Pavel Kolsinki has told me about a newly found document, called Antichthon Universalis, written in a strange, unknown language or code, with glyphs similar to those in the Rohonc Codex or other traditional cryptos. It also contains some very bizarre illustrations about plants, animals and what look like very symbolic maps.
For what he tells me, I think it's more like a Codex Seraphinianus than a Voynich Manuscript, but let's see. I'm looking forward to seeing some scannings he's about to send me.
I wasn't sure of what he meant with "getting involved", but I wrote it anyway, adding an arbitrary reference to the Rohonc Codex [3], which I imagined related (and later proved right).
Then finally a mail arrived in August (no subject nor body content, in pure Pavel style), containing some crappy scannings of some drawings and characters.
My initial impression was mixed. Regarding the symbols, I thought that they looked like the ideograms of far east scriptings, but later I wasn't so sure. The pictures were raw and not very well done, but they were interesting because of the motives: hybrid animals, plants with eyes, wooden machines with anotations.
So I wrote another entry [4], on August 4:
Pavel has sent to me some scans of Antichthon Universalis, the recently found encrypted text, and it's a rather curious document. The drawings are certainly strange and hard to understand, but what I find more surprising is the scripting:
[...]
All text is equally separated, glyph by glyph, as if it was a Chinese or Japanese text. I'm not sure if it's meant to be read horizontally or vertically.
Pavel is in contact with an old friend of him that is a linguistic scholar and had just sent him the book to have a more experienced opinion on it. It's certainly not a known script; some letters resemble Alchemical symbols, others seem deformations of the Enochian alphabet.
I'm busy these days so I had not time to dive into it yet; as soon as I have more information, I'll publish it here.
It wasn't true that I was busy; I was about to start my holiday trip, so I uploaded the entry, packed my luggage and took my flight.
When I returned I found my inbox flooded with messages from Pavel:
From: Pavel Kolsinski <pavel.kolsinski@gmail.com> Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2010 01:03:16 +0600 Subject: More on A.U. Angel I have news. I convinced ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ to publish the Antichthon document; he only says that he doesn't want to know a word nor be envolved. Well fuck him :-) Ive ben thinking on publishing the book, selling it and reserving the money to pay for investigation. What do you think? Ah I don't know a fucking word on publishing and, as you have some experience in self-publishing, I thought you can do it. Become the editor, as they say. Opinions? Bye, Pav
and
From: Pavel Kolsinski <pavel.kolsinski@gmail.com> Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2010 03:20:48 +0600 Subject: earth to Angel Hey Ange looking forward for your response. By, Pavel
and
From: Pavel Kolsinski <pavel.kolsinski@gmail.com> Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2010 12:06:07 +0600 Subject: SOB Hey lil wanker where are you? Pavel
and
From: Pavel Kolsinski <pavel.kolsinski@gmail.com> Date: Sat, 07 Aug 2010 14:46:05 +0600 Subject: Re: SOB Angel you fucker plz answer me. P.
and
From: Pavel Kolsinski <pavel.kolsinski@gmail.com> Date: Sat, 07 Aug 2010 23:03:02 +0600 Subject: Re: Re: SOB I'm fed up of you Im gonna break your legs HAHAHA LOL As you are probably fucking some sheep wherever you are, I undestand you are busy rite now so I'm gonna find a published on my own. See ya Pablo
I inferred from the stream of messages that he was somewhat nervous and that he, probably, have forgotten about me and started searching for help elsewhere.
Anyway, I published this new entry [5] on Aug the 9th assuming that I was doomed to become the editor:
It seems that Pavel has gotten permission from the source to reproduce Antichthon Universalis. He is searching for publishers like crazy, but I'm afraid they won't find the document as interesting as he does (provided that he can find anybody not on holidays these days).
He says he doesn't have the technical knowledge to do it; maybe I'll help him. Who knows, it's not impossible that I even become the editor...
There are still no words from the language teacher on the subject.
On my part, I've finished taking a look at the book itself. I'm almost sure it's a forgery like the Oera Linda, but funny to look at anyway.
Couldn't resist mentioning the Oera Linda [6], sorry.
Back on September I had news from him:
From: Pavel Kolsinski <pavel.kolsinski@gmail.com> Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 11:12:19 +0600 Subject: All praise the editor Hi Angel welcome back to earth. I read what you wrote in your shitty blog and found that you decided to become the editor. Congrats! I saw you mentioned some Opera Linda crap that I dont understand but I'm glad to see this project going on. I'll send you the complete manuscript ASAP so you can start giving it form or whatever you have to do to send it to the publisher. Dovidenia, Pavel
So this is how I became Antichthon Universalis' editor. I got the full document, wrote a foreword [7] to it and elaborated some statistics on symbol usage. It was a funny project and I was motivated enough to have it fully formated in a couple of days. I sent it to an online publisher that I don't want to mention (our relation ended up very badly), announced its availability and finally received the first copy on paper:
The finish was suboptimal, so I asked for a second copy highlighting the defects and finally got a decent copy.
The following months were much less hectic; Pavel disappeared, as always, but the book was selling well. He used the money to pay some investigators found using his awkward acquiatances and contacts. His efforts reached somewhat far away [8], but interest seemed to languish and finally was lost.
One night Pavel called me on the phone and asked me to scan and publish some sample pages [9] on my blog because a researcher needed them right now; I did it, and my web site received a DOS (Denial Of Service) attack some hours later (probably related, but cannot be sure). There was again some respawn of interest and I received a bunch of emails from people trying to decypher the text, but with no luck. Silence on the topic returned.
Then finally I received the following message:
From: Kolsinski, Pavel J. <pavel.kolsinski@gmail.com> Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:14:16 +0900 Subject: STOP IT Hi Angel this is Pavel. I'm a bit worried. My life has been threatened. These weeks have been worrisome as I seem to have stepped on some toes making public the Antichthon Universalis document. I've received threatening messages from people I don't know. The police have been here doing questions. A friend of mine lost her life on an accident on a bus I was meant to catch. Please finish the selling of the book; I'm not into risking my life because of all this shit anymore. Won't spend another buck in sponsoring the decyphering. I give up. You may call me a chicken but I'm really frightened. Yours, Pav
Understandably, I was worried about him. I tried to call him on the phone, but couldn't reach him. He didn't reply to my emails. I tried calling mutual friends, the hotels where he used to drop by, but to no avail. I hadn't news from him since then. I don't know where he is.
I stopped selling the book, but decided to publish it freely. You can download the full Antichthon Universalis document from here:
Full facsimile text of Antichthon Universalis, in PDF format
Any additional information about Pavel, the cypher system of the document, its origin or whatever related to this issue is welcome; please email me at angel@triptico.com if you know anything to clarify this mistery.
References
[1] Codex Seraphinianus[2] My first blog entry about the subject
[3] Rohonc Codex
[4] My second blog entry about the subject
[5] My third entry on the subject
[6] Oera Linda
[7] Foreword to Antichthon Universalis
[8] Some analysis about Antichthon Universalis on AboveTopSecret.com
[9] Antichthon Universalis sample pages