Voynich Manuscript, the 15th-century scroll we still can't understand

There are many unsolved mysteries in the world. One of them is the Voynich Manuscript, the 15th century scroll that we still cannot understand.. It dates back, according to evidence, more than 500 years and contains an indecipherable language.

The Voynich Manuscript is considered the holy grail of cryptography, as it thoroughly explains and defines a range of knowledge using graphics, allegories, and texts. It remains a mystery who wrote it, what language they used, or what knowledge resides in its 240 pages.

The book's fluidity and the author's knowledge are highlighted. Since The manuscript does not present any corrections, deletions or erasures that suggest any mistake at the time of writing.

A Brief History of the Voynich Manuscript

The manuscript was acquired in 1912 by Wilfrid M. Voynich, an antiquarian and bookseller born in Telšiai, Kaunas Province, Poland, on October 31, 1865A graduate in chemistry and a graduate in pharmacy, he studied at the universities of Warsaw and St. Petersburg, completing his doctorate at Moscow University.

This bookseller bought the manuscript, among other books, from the Jesuits at the Villa Mondragone College in Italy. Hence its name, Voynich Manuscript, in reference to its first known owner.

For the last century the Voynich Manuscript It had already passed through different hands that tried to decipher it. Among them is William Newbold, professor of philosophy and medieval history at the University of Pennsylvania, who in 1921 He made public that he had discovered the key to the scroll, but later retracted his statement.  

The American military They also got involved in the issue with their cryptographers, however, according to public opinion reports, they were also unable to decrypt it.

By the 1930s, Voynich Manuscript became the property of Hans Peter Kraus, an American bibliologist who also failed to unravel the mysteries of the book. Finally, he ended up donating it to Yale University in the United States.

In 2009, The University of Arizona in the United States conducts the first study to determine its age using the method of carbon 14, managing to specify with a reliability of 95% that the Voynich Manuscript had one Approximately over 500 years old. That is, it could have been written between 1404 and 1438.

Composition of the Voynich Manuscript

Based on the observations and studies carried out By different scholars, scientists and students of cryptography, it has been determined that the Voynich Manuscript possibly found composed of 6 sections;

Herbalism

In this section Each page shows a type of plant with different characteristics. Always accompanied by a text.

Apparently they are trying to classify plants as if they were a manual. Exhibiting specimens that They couldn't have known each other 500 years ago. Since some came from regions of the planet that had not been uncovered. Or that were very difficult to access. Like, for example, the American continent.

Astronomy

Here you will find circular diagrams, suns, moons and stars. As a curious fact, each symbol contains the presence of 30 women naked and with a star in the hand that surrounds them.

You can also observe 15 stars separated into 4 diagrams, which could refer to several constellations. Dand some of which, to date, have not been able to be identified.

Something that cannot be left unmentioned in this section of the Voynich Manuscript It is the way the manuscript represents some figures three-dimensional. Since there is volume within the spheres.

Biology

In this section you can see drawings with a lot of text showing body parts human, who connect to tubes. They can be observed mwomen in strange places bathed in liquids. Some of them carry crowns and others are pregnant.

Cosmology

This might be the section with the most puzzles of all.. Since, it is presumed, it makes an allegory to the secrets of the universe showing pie charts unknown.

Similarly, a series of fold-out pages. When you open one of them, transforms into a huge page containing something resembling a star map.

The curious thing is to see stars that could not be known in the 15th century without telescopes powerful of high precision. In addition to stars that cannot be seen without being in other parts of the solar system.

Pharmacy

It is the part of the Voynich Manuscript which refers to pharmaceutical knowledge. Images of are observed plants and roots associated with other images of containers or jugs.

It seems that this section talks about healings or to obtain extraordinary properties extracted in nature through plants.

Recipe book

Here we “talk” about something that seems to be recipes. It must be remembered that these are only interpretations. They can be look at some lists which are shaped like stars, suggesting the creation of medicinal products for human benefit.

Fun facts about the Voynich Manuscript

It is thought that it was written by a single person. Since the morphology and spelling of the letters are exactly the same throughout the parchment.

At the beginning of the manuscript are found 100 pages of different plants. Each page a plant.

The detail in the plant drawings is amazing, showing in detail each of its parts: pistils, leaves, etc.

Some of the figures that are drawn give the impression that they were created according to the historical context of the 15th century, That is, based on how people of that time saw and understood the world around them.

In many Drawings show parts of plants or the human body that are normally microscopicHowever, they are drawn in an enlarged and sectioned manner for the reader's better understanding.

It was achieved identify the drawing of the melatonin molecule, as well as the pineal gland expanded and with a series of explanations.

Apparently the manuscript was written from left to right.

It seems that There are phonetics and spelling rules within the writing. Strange symbols have been detected that would fit these characteristics.

There are no words with more than 10 letters, making it a simple language.

Based on the drawings, it has been possible to identify a approximately 31 different kinds of plants of the more than 300 that the Voynich manuscript.

The Voynich Manuscript It is cataloged as item MS408 in the Beinecke Library at Yale University, within the rare books category.

On the last page of the Voynich Manuscript There is a text that contains German words with a font that seeks imitate the original which was added later, but not achieving the same accuracy as the true author's handwriting.

Zipf's Law

A was carried out statistical analysis from the text in the Voynich manuscript. This was carried out by the University of Manchester, demonstrating that has patterns similar to natural languages, with a pattern of 10 bits per word. Complying with the well-known Zipf's law.

Reissue

He Voynich manuscript was edited and reproduced in 2016 by the Siloé Publishing House, The editor Juan José García is responsible for this work.

Voynich Manuscript Today

Recently, Yuri Orlov, from the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has achieved decode the Voynich Manuscript.

For this he made a parchment analysis using statistical tables applied to the different characters found there. Managing to discover that in Specific parts of this manuscript are written in several known languages.

Contains a 60% of German and English. And another 40% of Italian, Spanish and Latin. All mixed into a single, new language.

In the words of this scientist, the secret of the Voynich Manuscript is located in the vowels. To do this, Orlov has eliminated, proving that the enigmatic writer of this scroll He added random vowels to make it illegible to read.

In doing so, the manuscript begins to make sense. Since the consonants that remain have phonetic sounds that correspond to various words from different languages mentioned. But this has only been accomplished to carry out in a fragment of the manuscript.

Specifically, this fragment, according to Orlov, mentions the right time to plant the poppy and thus obtain its opium.

Likewise, Yuri is sincere and explains that there is many words that, even applying the method he discovered, have not been able to be deciphered. Since the creator of the Voynich Manuscript could have used various encryption methods.

Could it be that history is not as it has been told to us?

“Come on, Reed. You, of all people, should know that there's more to human history than ordinary people are allowed to know.”

Image: Yale University