The Voynich Manuscript is an illustrated medieval codex dating to the 15th century, but it's written in an unknown script that experts in fields ranging from botany to cryptology have been unable to decipher.
In 1912, a rare book dealer named Wilfrid Voynich claimed to have come into possession of a mysterious medieval text that he claimed would “startle the scientific world.”
Voynich said that he had acquired a text written in secret code by Roger Bacon, a medieval philosopher and Franciscan friar who had spent his life writing about grammar, mathematics, physics, optics, astronomy, chemistry, magic, and alchemy. Voynich promised that this new manuscript, once fully deciphered, would demonstrate Bacon’s genius.
“When the time comes,” Voynich confidently declared, “I will prove to the world that the black magic of the Middle Ages consisted in discoveries far in advance of twentieth-century science.”
All he needed to do, Voynich explained, was decipher the manuscript’s text, which he claimed resembled ancient Hebrew. But though he said that he’d already deciphered 20,000 of the manuscript’s 800,000 words, his manuscript remains stubbornly un-deciphered to this day. Indeed, no one knows what the Voynich manuscript, as it’s now known, is supposed to say.
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript LibraryA page from the Voynich manuscript.
The manuscript, which is more than 200 pages long, is filled with page after page of text written in a strange code, as well as many surprising illustrations that range from plants to star charts to naked women bathing in green liquid, holding up rainbows, and otherwise cavorting through the pages. It was not written by Bacon, as Voynich thought — carbon dating of its pages proved that it was created after Bacon’s death — which means that its authorship, as well as its purpose, remains a head-scratching mystery.
Indeed, the Voynich manuscript has befuddled all those who have attempted to decipher it. Though written in a legitimate alphabet that appears to adhere to a linguistic pattern similar to other languages, it has defied all attempts at comprehension. Scholars cannot even agree on the exact form of the alphabet in the manuscript itself, with some believing that it has 34 distinct letters, and others believing that it contains as many as 70.
That said, many have tried over the years to grapple with the Voynich manuscript and discern its meaning. Though no one has succeeded in interpreting the text, many theories have been raised about its purpose. Theories include the idea that it’s full of medical advice, that it was written by aliens, or even that the whole thing was an elaborate medieval hoax.
But to this day, no one knows for sure.
Learn more about the music used in our podcast. History Uncovered is part of the Airwave Media network. Learn more about your ad choices by visiting megaphone.fm/adchoices.
