The Voynich revisted..... The Voynich a 230 page long, 7 inch by 10 inch, vellum covered, unsigned manuscript which continues to be a mystery. It consists of 17, 16 page, quires and approximately 170,000 glyphs. It was found in 1912 by Wilfrid M. Voynich, a Polish-American book dealer, in the library of a Jesuit college near Rome and now languishes, as item MS408 in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University.
The text is written with a quill pen in an unidentified script using a unique alphabet and the pages decorated with strange and mystifying water-color images of astrological symbols, naked nymphs and unfamiliar flowers. It is suggested that it was written in the late 1400's but so far it has defied all attempts at decoding and has baffled the world's leading cryptographers and linguists. Some believe that Roger Bacon orchestrated the manuscript writing it in code to avoid persecution.
Recent thoughts are that the strange language is actually an old form of Welsh however as it seems there is not any recent examples of this type of text it can only, at best, be counted as one of the theories on the table. It has also been suggested that the language is a polyglot oral tongue based on a type of Flemish, French, Italian and High German but again all attempts at a plausible cipher has eluded historians to date. According to the nomenclature there are unfortunately several pages missing and currently the manuscript holds 240 pages of the original estimate of 270. The script reads smoothly and does not appear to be a labored attempt to lay down a difficult code but more an easy script describing items which are commonplace to the author. The red, blue, brown, yellow, and green drawings, although captivating and attractive, are however somewhat crude and, in some instances, physically incorrect. Additionally a couple of the plants which bear resemblance to identifiable vegetation appear to have mismatched roots producing odd looking hybrid plants.
It appears to have six sections: Herbal, Astronomical and Zodiac, Biological, Cosmological, Pharmaceutical and Recipes. On face value the type of hairstyles evident on several of the nude bathers would suggest that it was created some time in the latter part of the 1400's. It is a shame that the bathers were not clothed as their dress would have provided another valuable clue. The first documentation regarding the book states that it was purchased by the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II for a princely sum of 600 gold ducats but his scholars failed in their quest to break the code and the manuscript was lost for decades until Voynich discovered it again.
Is it an example of an elaborate hoax written purely to extort money from a gullible, occult obsessed monarch? Or does it actually hold valuable information awaiting its day of explanation. Will it only be deciphered when we are ready to know and understand the hidden meanings? The unusual mixture of items from strange plants to bathing nymphs may lend itself to the idea that it was written as an herbalist homeopathic, possibly alchemistic book but written in code to protect the author from accusations of heresy.
Some scholars feel that it is Glossolalia (speaking in tongues) a stream of consciousness or channeling by the author as there are some similarities between the illustrations and those drawn by people with intense migraines however to prove this is in fact Glossolalia the text would have to be deciphered. Steganography or micrography have also been put forward as possible explanations that is that the words themselves do not actually mean anything but there are hidden meanings within the text. Could the script be, as it conforms to parameters within Zipf’s Law, an old natural language? Maybe one used by the Cathars? Or did Wilfrid Voynich himself pen the codex?
One thing is certain however that after all these years and intense study by brilliant minds the secret of the Voynich has yet to be disclosed. It is beyond belief that it has withstood all attempts to unlock its hidden words. It is as mysterious today as it ever was and if it was written as a hoax than it was masterfully engineered and one wonders who on earth would take such time and meticulous care to perpetuate such a deception.
My thoughts however are that the manuscript was written by a young boy who is both confused by his sexuality and fascinated by the process of reproduction. Leonardo de Vinci lived in the recognized time period, he was brilliant, homosexual, loved mirror writing and enigmas, studied plants and the human form and even from a young age was a truly unique individual. Could the Voynich have been written by this troubled, creative and inquisitive mind as he quantified his adolescent dull days in rural Florence? If you compare the magnificent sketches in his later Journal there are similarities and how many people in history could have written a codex which has defied interpretation and translation for centuries other than the truly incredible genius of De Vinci? So, I feel that, the Voynich screams its penmanship secret to all: The one and only, Leonardo De Vinci.

AS far as I know, no one has ever been able to even scratch the surface of this one. A lot of people are starting to think that it was probably a hoax but, it still facinates the hell out of me. If it is a fake, someone went to a lot of trouble to fake it. It's a lot of pages and info to be remembered by a person who saw it in a book on a UFO and then copy it from memory once they were back on the ground. It's long enough that if it would have had to have been copied from an original document. Trouble is, there are no similar languages or similar info anywhere else.

Well, that's my take on it anyway.

I do not think its a hoax for one reason, if it is the hoaxer is getting no satisfaction. Whats the point of spending that kind of time over a hundred years ago and still no one has come forward saying it was a hoax.

I think the Manuscript doesn't warrant /another/ thread.

I don't think it's a hoax, I think it's a certain kind of Renaissance intellectual joke. I think its whole point is to try to drive people crazy trying to find a meaning for it, even though it look like it ought to have one. And so far, it's worked perfectly.

And believe me, if there were a connection to da Vinci, art historians would have hopped on the bandwagon decades ago.

--Jaylemurph

My take on historians is that they tend to sit on the fence until the weight of evidence makes them fall off and take notice.

Then you don't actually know many historians do you? Very few of them are particularly afraid to commit themselves to an opinion.

--Jaylemurph

I mostly agree with jaylemurph. I think it does not have a particluar meaning, but was made as a piece of art. Probably commissioned by some noble, who spent an extravagent amount of money for the time.

A computer program was used on the script not too long ago and the computer returned that the manuscript is most likely jibberish and the symbols are random. No discernable language traits were found.

You are quite correct I do not know many historians personally but then readers rarely see the entire picture when they view the works of the professional historian based on their public papers, privately their papers and letters portray an entirely different picture.

http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~stolfi/voynich/

all the info you need

If you really want to discuss it majordomo@voynich.net

Could it have been a dyslexic school kid's work book or journal???

It certainly looks like what was taught in the middle ages at school.. various sciences. biology. astrology..ancient folklore...it could have been a young child of position...eg royalty... where the tutor.. teacher could have been too intimidated to correct his/her work.. for fear of future retribution.. imagine trying to correct a you Borgia.. or Medici... ...they would have been quite spoilt...

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/V...le/voyniche.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/8389/voygal1.htm




Or could it have been an ?? alien child's study of earthlings????


http://www.darkstar1.co.uk/voynich1.jpg

Do some of these plants look like earth plants to you????

A lot of detail is spent on detailing plants...their root systems...(for medical purposes?) for propogation???

A botanical book... the other drawings of naked people could be wood nymphs faeries... as they look like they are coming out of flowers...
..the astrology bit ...could be the best time to plant ..prune ..harvest etc these plants...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3e/sets/72157600089509882/

This isn't the only manuscript like this. There is also the Rohonc Codex and the more recent Codex Saraphimianus. These are the two others that I found, and I'm sure there are probably more.