THE VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT
Unidentified language - THE VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT
"The most mysterious document in the world" (NewScientist, 172:2317,
November 2001, p 36).
The Voynich Manuscript is an amazing, bizarre and elaborate book of arcane
ancient manuscript. It was written on animal skins, apparently in the 13th
century AD. The earliest evidence of serious study of the document is dated
to 1666 AD. The manuscript has been extensively studied by an elite team of
independent researchers since it was re-discovered in 1912. "The whole book
is bursting with long-forgotten secrets" (NewScientist, Nov 01).
The mysterious secret was recently finally revealed to the world when the
manuscript was made public in the hope that someone will be able to decipher
the text. The script is a unidentified language, with no definitive
relationship to any known language families, comprising a completely unknown
Despite years of research by the worlds most elite scholars and
cryptographers, not a single verse, sentence, word, or even a single symbol
is yet understood. The presence of word-like character groups may indicate
that this is a phonetic script, comparable to scripts of the indo-European
language superfamily, in which characters are arranged in words to form
sounds or syllables of spoken words. However, cryptanalysis of the
cyphertext indicates that an unidentified encryption has been applied.
Studies have indicated properties of the cyphertext that would be consistent
with a number of languages, including ancient Enochian, old English, Hebrew,
Greek, and many others (Cryptologia journal, vol 25, Oct 01). The pages are
numbered using Arabic [modern western type] numerals.
Studies of the diagrams in the manuscript have been no more fruitful than
analysis of the script. The illustrations have been broadly categorised into
three main groups (1) technical diagrams of identified and unidentified
cosmological principles [including the zodiac constellations, and notably
the andromeda galaxy that should have been unknown at the time when the
manuscript is believed to have been authored], (2) pictures of unidentified
apparently organic plant-like structures, or unknown plants, and (3)
apparently organic structures connected by tubes which appear to incorporate
chambers containing naked humans. "The botanical section features crudely
drawn flowers and plants, unlike anything found in nature" (NewScientist,
See article in 17 Nov 01 issue of NewScientist magazine, (trial or
subscriber registration is required for access to www.newscientist.com
Here's a couple of great little examples from the Yale University (USA)
rare document research library website of a page from the manuscript.
"The Insider" mailing list article, 02 December 2001.
Tags: voynich, manuscript, alien, extraterrestrial, evidence, , conspiracy theories.