The obsession to decode Voynich Manuscript!

Numerous scholars and scientists the world over are obsessed with decoding a strange, illustrated six-hundred-year-old Voynich Manuscript, but without much success!

The mystery of the fifteenth-century manuscript continues to baffle numerous scholars, cryptographers, historians, and computer scientists, since its discovery in 1912. 

The manuscript has been associated with everyone from ancient Mexican cultures to Leonardo da Vinci to aliens. Some believe the book is a nature encyclopedia, while others claim it is a hoax.

The Voynich manuscript measures 22.5 × 16 cm (8.9 × 6.3 inches) and contains about 240 pages of handwritten text, in brown ink along with rich illustrations in a medieval coded language. The pages are full of strange diagrams of enigmatic multi-colored plants, naked women, and astrological symbols. 

The book dates back to the early fifteenth century as revealed by Carbon dating. The letters loop beautifully, and the text runs from left to right, top to bottom. Strangely, it has no title or author. Nobody has been able to decode the language of the book so far. 

How did the book get its name?

In 1912, the book was acquired by Wilfrid Michael Voynich, an American rare‐book dealer. Thus it became popular as – Voynich Manuscript! 

Origins of the book

The origins of the Voynich manuscript are as mysterious as its contents. The book was accompanied by a letter from Johannes Marcus Marci (1595-1667), of Prague, who claimed that the book had been “sold to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II at a reported price of 600 Ducats and that it was believed to be a work by Roger Bacon.”

The first written record of the book dates from 1666 when Joannes Marcus Marci, rector of Prague University, sent it along with a letter to Athanasius Kircher, a respected Jesuit scholar in Rome. Inviting Kircher to decipher the hook, Marci claimed that the book had been sold at a high price of 600 Venetian ducats to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, who believed the book had been written by Roger Bacon.

Who wrote the Voynich Manuscript?

Some theories suggest the codex could be the handiwork of Roger Bacon, the 13th-century philosopher, and alchemist. While other theories point out Wilfrid Voynich, Jakub of Tepenec, Athanasius Kircher, Raphael Mnishovsky, Antonio Averlino Filarete, Cornelis Drebbel, and Anthony Ascham as the author of the mysterious manuscript.

The enigmatic code could not be deciphered

Neither Marci nor Kircher could decipher the text written in the book. Possibly out of frustration, Kircher deposited the manuscript in the Jesuit Collegium Romanurn in Frascati, Italy, where it lay in obscurity for some 250 years. The book was later purchased by Wilfred Voynich, who found it buried in a cabinet in an Austrian castle in 1912.  

To decipher the code, Mr. Voynich sent photocopies of the book to numerous internationally acclaimed scholars, cryptanalysts, and paleographers. All tried but failed to break the code.

Voynich Manuscript is divided into Four Sections 

Herbal Section features vibrant drawings of mystical plants. 

The astrological section includes drawings of celestial charts that do not match up with any known calendar. The astrological wheels are dotted with drawings of nude women

The Balneological section has illustrations full of naked women. Naked women have been depicted bathing in green liquid, being propelled by jets of water, holding rainbows with their hands, and even hanging out on a pair of ovaries. 

The pharmacological section includes additional drawings of plants followed by pages of text.  

The quest to decode the enigmatic Voynich Code!

William Romaine Newbold

In 1919, William Romaine Newbold, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, proclaimed he had cracked the code. His findings were published in a study titled, “The Cipher of Roger Bacon”, which was praised as a breakthrough in scientific scholarship. However, Prof Newbold’s theories were later demolished by other experts.

William F. Friedman

In 1925, William F. Friedman, an army cryptographer, and his wife, Elizebeth, also a cryptographer, tried to break the code. They were among the first ones to use computers for textual analysis. However, the duo could not break the code.

Nicholas Gibbs

In 2017, history researcher and television writer Nicholas Gibbs seemed to have cracked the code, claiming that the book is a women’s health manual and that it is plagiarized from similar guides of the medieval era. Like with previous claims, Gibbs’s theory too was debunked by other experts. 

Rainer Hannig

In 2020, German Egyptologist Rainer Hannig claimed to have solved the Voynich manuscript. Hannig does not believe the Voynich Manuscript’s text was generated using an encryption technique. He contends that it was written in an unidentified script using a natural language.

Based on word-structure formation, he believes that the manuscript was not composed in an Indo-European language. Hannig thinks the text was written in Hebrew, despite other cryptologists claiming it was written in Latin, Greek, Armenian, or Arabic. But like other claims, Hannig’s claims too were debunked by skeptics.

For more than a century, some of the best cryptologists in the world have tried to decode the manuscript but without much success. 

The mysterious codex is available online

Since 1969, the book is locked safely in the vaults of the Beinecke Library at Yale University. The complete digital copy of the manuscript is also available online. 

The Voynich Manuscript remains one of the biggest mysteries in the history of cryptology. Many interpretations are offered each year, but a reliable code has yet to be determined. The fifteenth-century codex turns out to be the world’s most mysterious book.

You may also like to read some of the best unsolved mysteries at owwlogy.

Source – The Unread: The Mystery of the Voynich Manuscript