Definition of Voynich Manuscript

The Voynich Manuscript is actually a book shrouded in mystery. Its content is full of images, graphics and texts about which its true meaning is completely unknown, since this work was written in a language that has not yet been deciphered.

This is not the only mystery that surrounds the manuscript, since the author of it is also an enigma.

Data of interest

The surname Voynich is related to an antiquarian who happened to come across this document in 1912, the Lithuanian Wilfrid M. Voynich. Over the years the book changed hands and eventually made it to Yale University. It is currently listed in the rare books section of the Beinecke Library at Yale University.

After studying the ink and other components of the book, it has been concluded that it could have been written at the beginning of the 15th century and that it was surely published in an Italian city.

The book was written on parchment and consists of 240 pages. The alphabet used is completely unknown, but the images and graphics provide some information on different topics:

astronomy, biology, pharmacology, astrology and botany. It is believed that these themes could maintain a certain interconnection.

The description of the plants would have been made in combination with the planetary cycles and these could have a projection on the character of the people through astrology.

The description of the plants strongly draws the attention of researchers, since some of them form part of the American flora and at the beginning of the fifteenth century the American continent was totally unknown in Europe

In the astronomy section there are circular diagrams of the planets and a large number of stars. It must be specified that a large part of this information was ignored by astronomers of the 15th century (in the period in which predictably the manuscript telescopes did not exist and for this reason the reference to some stars that can only be observed through the telescope). In the book there are also strange images of women emerging from circular spheres.

All of this information could indicate that the Voynich Manuscript is actually a scientific document, probably an encyclopedic manual.

Many experts have tried to decipher the riddle

In the media communication news occasionally appears about the Voynich Manuscript. Researchers from around the world expose their theories and conjectures to shed light on the enigmatic book.

In 2014, British linguist Stephen Bax managed to decipher some of the 35,000 words in the manuscript through cryptographic techniques. According to this study the language employed in his drafting it could be an ancient language of Asian origin.

Photos: Fotolia - F11 / Annykos

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