The Voynich Manuscript

[submarine_bells]

Ever heard of the Voynich Manuscript? I hadn't, until a little while ago when I came across it while checking out the Astronomy Picture Of The Day. Following APOD links, I read a rather more detailed description of it in the Wikipedia. Here's the beginning of that entry, to whet your appetite:

The Voynich manuscript is a mysterious illustrated

Comments

[numbat]

If I was a sixteenth century alchemist who wanted the respect of my peers and to convince a local noble to fund my research despite my not being especially talented I would certainly consider bolstering my image with a mysterious work of philosophy only I could read. After all, if it resulted in a comfortable sinecure with some baron or duke it would be worth the months of preparation.

The advantage with this potential explanation is it helps to make sense of the manuscripts mysterious origins. If I was that sixteenth century alchemist I'd only show it to a select circle, that handfull of alchemists and philosophers I was hoping would be impressed enough to consider it a genuine repository of knowledge and whoever I was trying to hit up for money. I'd also make up a story about why it would be best if those I showed it to didn't write or talk about it publicly. Given the incompleteness of records from that era it would be easy then for the origins of such a document to be lost.

[nex0s]

i've heard of it. Yale owns it, and i always meant to make an appointment to look at it, but never did.

i'm just glad it exists.

n.

[cheshyre]

The July 2004 Scientific American also had a good and long article on the manuscript and its "decryption"