The Voynich Manuscript
A 600-year-old book in an unknown script, full of plants no one recognises, has beaten every codebreaker who has tried it.
What was reported
The Voynich manuscript is a small book of about 240 vellum pages, written in a script found nowhere else. It's illustrated with plants that don't match any known species, charts of the stars, and small figures bathing in pools linked by tubes. It's named after Wilfrid Voynich, a book dealer who bought it in 1912.
Radiocarbon dating in 2009 placed the vellum in the early 1400s. Its earlier owners seem to have included the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Some of the best codebreakers of the 20th century, including William Friedman, tried to read it and failed.
Explanations offered
The text has patterns like a real language, which argues against meaningless nonsense, but also features no known language shares. Theories include an unknown or extinct language, a cipher, an invented language, or an elaborate hoax made in the 1400s. Many solutions have been announced; none has been accepted.
- When
- Made in the early 1400s
- Where
- Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- Witnesses
- Generations of codebreakers and scholars
- Status
- Unread
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