The Book That Can't Be Read
Men have always tried to encode secrets, military communication, love letters, forbidden knowledge, and most secret text is eventually decoded, but among all of history's cryptic writings one stands out. It's the world's most mysterious book written by an unknown author in an odd alphabet and brilliantly illustrated with puzzling images. For centuries, it defies all attempts to unveil its secrets. Now, for the first time, experts analyze the ink, pigments and parchments of the Voynich Manuscript.
What secrets are hidden between these lines? Who wrote them and why? At the headquarters of the US Military Intelligence Service, experts succeeded in decoding Japan's so called Purple Code. William Frederick Friedman, the service's Director is one of the world's best cryptographers. For practice between jobs, Friedman and his team decode ancient cryptic texts. One by one, the codes are cracked, but one book, The Voynich Manuscript, stubbornly defies all attempts to decode it. Unnerved, the cryptographers give up. It's the only code they're unable to crack.
The roughly 200-page manuscript, with its strange symbols has been a mystery for decades. At the beginning of the 20th century, an antiques dealer from New York visits Villa Mondragone near Rome looking for precious books. His name is Wilfrid Voynich. Villa Mondragone is home to many historical texts from a Jesuit school. Wilfrid Voynich is allowed to inspect a trunk that comes from the estate of Athanasius Kircher, one of the most famous scholars of the 17th century.
Among various manuscripts, the trunk contains an unusual book. Voynich buys the manuscript, and for the rest of his life tries to decipher it. He dies without even coming close to a solution. After Voynich's death, the manuscript ends up at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale. The library possesses a wealth of literary gems, but probably none as famous as the Voynich Manuscript. Rene Zandbergen is one of the leading experts on the Voynich Manuscript and has been working on it for years.
When Rene first saw an image of the page of the Voynich Manuscript, he immediately had the feeling this is something he can decipher, this is something he can read, but as the years went by, this turned out to be wrong, so he couldn't read it like so many other people before him.
A lot about nothing. Entertaining and intriguing at first... but eventually culminated to nothing
Well that was a lot about nothing... all buildups and let downs, and a non conclusion..
Anyone can cast an opinion of this book and all are right or not..
interesting.. i guess its hard to tell the difference between insanity and genius
Perhaps the mystery is as deep as the discovery 1000 years from now of a McDonald's 'M" unearthed and possibly esoterically linked to others found in other locations, buried under the flattened and carbon blackened remnants of a world that nuked itself in the name of 'whatever' xx
At least the burgers will still be edible :)
@ Dewflirt
You just made me laugh! Didn't think of that! xxx
Lol. There is something comforting in the knowledge that my great, great, grandchildren will still be able to get fries with that long after the nuclear holocaust. I'm sure children of the future will gobble them down while the adults shake their heads wondering how anyone could eat that crap. Like my dear mom used to say, "No matter how much things change, they stay the same"
Don't forget "Twinkies." 1000 years from now they'll still be fresh!
The paper is circa1420, but, does that mean is was used in 1420? I have in my home office reams of paper that are at least 3 years old. Maybe they should carbon date the pigments before making assumptions. They (radiocarbon dating) do not date the age of the writing but the preparation of the parchment itself. However, radiocarbon dating can often be used on the inks that make up the writing, since many of them contain organic compounds such as plant leachings, soot, and wine.[citation needed] Wikipedia
Paper wasn't really that abundant (it was kind of a luxury) at the time that you would sit on it for even 3 years before you'd use it.
It is possible... but not plausible.
Nice little round up of all that's known so far, don't see what's to complain about. Part of me hopes they'll never make more sense of it than they have already, makes a change to have an honest to goodness puzzle to enjoy instead of a made up mystery. Not quite sure why they bought da Vinci into it though, other than to make it enigmatic by association. He'd never draw a naked lady so crudely ;)
You know Da Vinci was a bit of prankster don't you? The Turin Shroud may be down to him?...can't remember... Speculating this was his genius expressing itself as a boy, well, all the more riveting really. I'll have to watch it again, but I think that was dispelled wasn't it? He was such a talented cat that if the paper was even dated to his lifetime, that would be enough to seal its fate, no doubt...and put it's value through the roof! lol.
Just pointing out that da Vinci is used like salt now, a pinch of him can make almost anything palatable. This doc didn't need him really - the curse of Dan Brown!! :)
They handle the book without gloves? Strange, indeed.
I noticed that too, the British Library prefers clean, dry hands to gloves. Gloves transfer dirt, dislodge pigments and make you cack-handed ;)
Who knew? My day is complete I learned something new, thank you
Not me, I only looked because you mentioned it. Thanks to you too :)
"Hue, I juret unakimeri sik tituna!" ---> What does it mean? Answer: Nothing, I just made it up for fun. Even I don't know what it means.
Why so much fuss about this book? Smart people with a sense of humour have lived since history began. It is obvious that this book as nothing more than the intellectual "fart" of some talented guy who created an elaborate mumbo jumbo just to perplex people - there is no secret in it. Small kids create words and sentences all the time that they don't know what they mean and their parents try to see meaning in it and interpret it.
What a time waster!
People absolutely believed the same as you about the 'scrawling pictures' in Egypt, look how that turned out.
This is something that's fascinated me for a while. I was thrilled to see it featured on SeeUat Videos. Then I spotted the yellow square of doom that is the NAT Geo logo - I should've known it would be an overdramatised piece of rubbish with constant buildups and music that wouldn't be out of place on Gladiator or 300. This is not sparta!
A truly curious topic but a wholly disappointing watch.
Okay, so after viewing this doc, we know NOTHING new. And the doc leaves out so much that the Voynich contains that points to the author (or authors) had extraordinary knowledge of plants, astronomy and other subjects.
Disappointing.
Just because the page is dated that old, why does it mean the writing is that old?
Every time "experts" get their hands on something we end up with more questions, arguments, and total confusion. And I haven't even watched the doc yet, but I'm betting that's what happens.