The Voynich Manuscript
- Dec 12, 2015
- 3 min read
It's been a few years since I have looked back in to any news about the Voynich Manuscript. When I first read up about the manuscript it was still pretty mysterious at the time. I found it pretty interesting because when I first looked it up it had been speculated that it was potentially a fake document and some had wondered whether it was worth decoding or not, stating at the time that it mainly appeared to be gibberish. I found it interesting as I like codes and mysteries... providing they arent too difficult or time consuming that is. Ah codes are fun but not much fun if there is no key for cracking them. I cant say I am as fair though as when I write in code. I have plenty of fun but all my keys are inconclusive.
For example, ILTWICSICTYTGFY..... I like to write in code so I can tell you....
Thats my typical coding, without one half of the message you probably cant work out the other. Codes are for privacy. Enough said.
Anyways, back when I originally read about the manuscript it was given alittle bit of time to investigate if it was a languge or a code. Seeing that it did not seem to be of any known language it was presumed to be a code or (a bunch of meaningless ramblings or a fake) and that either way it was potentially worthless. Quite a few years have passed since then. Here's what information seems to be available now.
According to the Daily Mail, the Voynich Manuscript was first discovered in 1912 in monastary. The manuscript has contained illustrations of unusual plants within pages and pages of text. It's now thought not to be a hoax but there's still very little decoding going on. Theres not many words decoded so far. BBC says the manuscript has 240 pages (NBC says 250), that it is quite small in size. BBC portrays the belief in it still being a potential fraud by Wilfred Voynich whom the manuscript was named after.
Carbon dating confirms the age of the paper to be 15th Century. If this is the case then how come we arent familiar with many of the flora illustrated or what this book was for?I'm not that old but human history and record keeping takes us back far enough to be able to be familiar with most species in most countries.
The world is an interesting place and there is plenty of things we still don't know. Are all our unexplored regions that unknown? Is there anything to see and are there species of plants and animals out there that we are yet to discover? In the depths of our seas and the thickest of our jungles is it just like everywhere else? Who knows. Is it even related to the manuscript? Maybe not. I'm probably just trying to make you think about it.
The Voynich Manuscript. Real or Fake? I wonder if we will ever find out...
Resources
You can link to the Daily Mail article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2564325/Has-Voynich-manuscript-decoded-First-words-mysterious-15th-century-text-
Something NBC said about carbon dating and coding at http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/25/19134561-worlds-most-mysterious-manuscript-has-genuine-message?lite
Discovery News released their spin on the carbon dating at http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/voynich-manuscript-mystery-age-110211.htm
BBC link is http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26881734
You can check out the stored documents, online and page by page here at http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3519597
You can also view a dedicated website which you might find useful here to get a starting point http://www.voynich.nu/writing.html
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