#voynich manuscript

[nobrashfestivity]

Voynich Manuscript

[slaviclore]

there's this one historical power couple whose dynamic i'm just obsessed with, both born in the mid 1800s. michał wojnicz (anglicized wilfrid voynich) was a polish book dealer who discovered what's today called the voynich manuscript, a mysterious book made of parchment carbon-dated to the early 1400s, full of fantastical illustrations and written in a (possibly coded) language that to this day with all the tech we have is still unintelligible to us.

michał was married to ethel boole, an irish novelist and pianist who was the first person to translate fryderyk chopin's correspondence from polish to english (published under e.l. voynich). since i study chopin documents as a hobby, i can only imagine being the first person to try to put those into english with little historical research to go on, and polish wasn't her native language... it must've been super difficult, and she couldn't even say shit because there was poor michał sitting in the other corner pulling his hair out over a LITERALLY indecipherable manuscript.

ethel: gosh this passage is so odd, i don't know if --

michał: WHAT DID U SAY

[thebeautifulbook]

CIPHER MANUSCRIPT [aka VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT] by Roger Bacon[?] (Central Europe, c.1401-1599) 18th -19th century binding.

‘Scientific or magical text in an unidentified language, in cipher, apparently based on Roman minuscule characters; the text is believed by some scholars to be the work of Roger Bacon since the themes as the illustrations seem to represent topics know to have interested Bacon…. A history of the numerous attempts to decipher the manuscript can be found in a volume edited by R.S Brumbaugh THE MOST MYSTERIOUS MANUSCRIPT: The Voynich “Roger Bacon” Cipher Manuscript (Carbondale, IL, 1978). Although several scholars have claimed decipherments of the manuscript, for the most part the text remains an unsolved puzzle.’ — from an abstract by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale

source [digitized]

[crustaceousfaggot]

Anyone else just start thinking about the Voynich Manuscript sometimes

[acardinalisred]

The Voynich

[ancientorigins]

For 600 years, the Voynich manuscript has intrigued scholars and mystery lovers alike with its indecipherable text and cryptic illustrations. A new theory suggests that this medieval puzzle might partly detail subjects of sex and conception!

[zen17hdee]

Y'all I'm reading up on Wilfred Voynich, and this dude is low-key kind of Aziraphale coded. So my new head cannon is that Wilfred Voynich is actually Aziraphale using a pseudonym

[nextstopwonderland]

Kind of obsessed with the Cipher Manuscript (aka the Voynich Manuscript) as seen on Mystery Files. Here’s some of the photos from The Beinecke.

The book has been fully digitized by them and is available here.

[bracketsoffear]

Codex Seraphinianus (Luigi Serafini) "The Codex is an encyclopedia in manuscript with copious hand-drawn, colored-pencil illustrations of bizarre and fantastical flora, fauna, anatomies, fashions, and foods. It has been compared to the still undeciphered Voynich manuscript, the story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" by Jorge Luis Borges, and the artwork of M. C. Escher and Hieronymus Bosch. The illustrations are often surreal parodies of things in the real world, such as a bleeding fruit, a plant that grows into roughly the shape of a chair and is subsequently made into one, and a copulating couple who metamorphose into an alligator. Others depict odd, apparently senseless machines, often with delicate appearances and bound by tiny filaments. Some illustrations are recognizable as maps or human faces, while others (especially in the "physics" chapter) are mostly or totally abstract. Nearly all of the illustrations are brightly coloured and highly detailed. The false writing system appears modeled on Western writing systems, with left-to-right writing in rows and an alphabet with uppercase and lowercase letters, some of which double as numerals. Some letters appear only at the beginning or end of words, similar to Semitic writing systems. The curvilinear letters are rope- or thread-like, with loops and even knots, and are somewhat reminiscent of Sinhala script. In a talk at the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles […] Serafini stated that there is no meaning behind the Codex's script, which is asemic; that his experience in writing it was similar to automatic writing; and that what he wanted his alphabet to convey was the sensation children feel with books they cannot yet understand, although they see that the writing makes sense for adults. Take a look for yourself"

Voynich Manuscript (Unknown) "Many call the fifteenth-century codex, commonly known as the “Voynich Manuscript,” the world’s most mysterious book. Written in an unknown script by an unknown author, the manuscript has no clearer purpose now than when it was rediscovered in 1912 by rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich. It's a strange code describing alchemical formulae and unknown life forms, and no one understands it. It's a mystery waiting for you to lose yourself in its pages, as Voynich himself was lost. There's an episode of Mystery Files about it!"

[bruceandmary]

The Professor and Ryan Bergara, "Mystery Files: The World’s Most Mysterious Book That No One Can Decode

The Professor: Oh great work, Ber-goos, a jelly bean for you. Ryan: Ooh, jelly beans, toss one in my mouth. (The professor tosses a bunch of jelly beans and bonks Ryan in the face with them) Ryan: Ah! The Professor: All right, I'm gonna go, bye.

[wikiweird]

Voynich Manuscript -

The Voynich manuscript is an enigmatic and mysterious book that has puzzled researchers, linguists, and cryptographers for centuries. Named after Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish book dealer who acquired it in 1912, the manuscript is believed to have been created in the early 15th century. It is named after him because he played a significant role in popularizing and bringing attention to the manuscript.

The Voynich manuscript is written on vellum (animal skin) and contains around 240 pages of text and illustrations. It is written in an unknown script that has not been deciphered, making it one of the most famous and enduring unsolved mysteries in the field of cryptography. The script consists of unusual characters and symbols arranged in a structured manner, resembling a written language, but one that remains unintelligible to researchers.

Accompanying the text are numerous illustrations of various plants, astronomical diagrams, astrological symbols, and surreal scenes featuring naked women bathing in pools or interacting with mysterious tubes and machinery. The botanical drawings, in particular, depict plants that do not resemble any known species, adding to the intrigue surrounding the manuscript.

Over the years, many theories have emerged about the origins and purpose of the Voynich manuscript. Some hypotheses suggest it was an elaborate hoax or an encrypted code containing valuable information, such as alchemical or herbal knowledge. Others propose that it is a constructed language or an unknown natural language. However, despite numerous attempts by scholars and cryptographers to decipher the text, no consensus has been reached regarding its meaning or origin.

The Voynich manuscript has been studied extensively by researchers, including codebreakers during World War II, professional cryptographers, and historians. It has been carbon-dated, confirming its medieval origin, and has undergone various forms of analysis, such as linguistic, statistical, and computational methods. However, no breakthroughs have occurred that definitively unlock the mysteries contained within its pages.

The manuscript is currently housed at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University, where it remains a subject of ongoing research and public fascination. Despite the lack of progress in deciphering its contents, the Voynich manuscript continues to captivate imaginations and stands as a testament to the enduring power of unsolved mysteries.

Read more

[victusinveritas]

Random images from the Codex Seraphianus (Luigi Serafini, 1983).

[stardynamite]

NOBODY IS GONNA ANSWER THIS BUT I’LL ASK ANYWAY

IS THIS FOR REAL??? DID THAT ACTUALLY HAPPEN??? WHAT THE HELL

[jellyfisharcade]

Voynich Manuscript + ASCII + Midjourney & DallE3

Jellyfish Arcade

[mcfungy]

could the voynich manuscript be some ancient girlie’s like world building notebook or something cause like i’d make something like that

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

I think I have a new favorite book

A high-quality scanned reproduction of the Voynich Manuscript with essays explaining its history and the attempts to decipher it.