The Rohonc Codex
A Hungarian manuscript of 448 pages, in an unknown script with nearly 800 different signs, has never been read.
What was reported
The Rohonc Codex is named after the town of Rohonc, now Rechnitz in Austria, where it was kept in the library of Prince Gusztáv Batthyány until he gave it to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1838. It has 448 pages in an unknown script with about 800 different signs, and 87 pictures of religious and other scenes.
Scholars have suggested it's written in Hungarian, Romanian, Old Church Slavonic or an invented language, and several have claimed to decipher it.
Explanations offered
No decipherment has been widely accepted. The paper was made in Venice in the 16th century, though the text could be later. Some think it's a hoax, perhaps by the 19th-century antiques dealer Sámuel Literáti Nemes, known for forgeries; others think it's a genuine, if unusual, religious text.
- When
- Given to the Academy in 1838
- Where
- Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
- Witnesses
- Scholars
- Status
- Unread
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