A Strange 600 Year Old Manuscript

Described as "the world's most mysterious manuscript", the The Voynich manuscript is indeed an enigma. Comprising about 240 vellum (made from calf skin) pages, mostly of illustrations, with some pages missing. This work is written in a script and language which is unknown and unreadable. As can be imagined, this manuscript has been the subject of many theories and much speculation.

Scientific analysis has found that the text and figure outlines, were written with a quill pen and iron gall ink; the painting may have been added later.

Written from right to left, there seems to be some evidence of some kind of phonological laws used in the text, with certain characters appearing in each word in a way similar to vowels in English. Statistical analysis also shows patterns similar to those used in natural languages. However mostly, the manuscript is unlike that of European languages in many ways. For example, a certain common word may appear up to three times in a row.

There are six sections of the manuscript, which according to the illustrations contain different subject matter. In the Astronomical section there is drawings of moons and stars, as well as the symbols of conventional zodiacal constellations e.g. a bull for Taurus. Another section has text, interspersed with figures of small naked women, with some wearing crowns and bathing in pools which are connected by a complicated network of pipes, which have a look of body organs.

There are many theories about the origin and purpose of this manuscript. Some propose that the text is a cipher, others speculate that it is a kind of hybrid language and yet others put forward the idea of an elaborate hoax.Yet maybe, the author was simply under the sway of a mental delusion.Who really knows?

The latest evidence supports the idea that this manuscript was written by an Italian Jew.