The mystery Surrounding the Voynich Manuscript
December 12th 2010 02:27
Category: No Category
illustrations from the Voynich Manuscript
The Voynich manuscript is a book handwritten on parchment, the date of the manuscript is said to be written around the 15th or 16th century. The manuscript comprises some 240 pages most are illustrations and written in a language yet unknown. The book was acquired by the Polish-Lithuanian-American book dealer Wilfrid M. Voynich in 1912.
Voynich spent a lifetime trying to decode the book to no avail. Many renowned code brakes and cryptographers tried to break the code even American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II could not break the code.
Why has it taken so long to break the code?.
Perhaps the answer is not meant to be a code just a series of cipher texts or anagrams. The use of anagrams was a very popular practice in the middle ages.
The illustrations are colourful depicting nymphs bathing. There are drawing of plants and trees perhaps suggesting that the author was writing about the medicinal properties of herbs and medicine.
It is very difficult to get a high definition image of the original manuscript but there are examples available on the net. The intriguing use of unusual text and illustrations is fascinating. Some say that a young Leonardo da Vinci was the author, there is no evidence to say that he was.
The most likely languages use was the language of Dante taking into account that the Italian alphabet only uses 21 letters. Therefore translation of the text into English could be problematic.
The way the original text was written shows that any corrections were minor given that parchment was very expensive in the middle ages.
It seem that the text and illustrations were entered in very fluently as if dictated. There is even a suggestion that the text used was a code and that any controversial ideas that the church did not approve would use a code in this manner to hide the true meaning from the inquisitions.
The use of anagrams was very popular throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.
Some astronomers in 17th century , while engaged in verification of their discoveries, used anagrams to hide their ideas.
When Galileo announced his discovery that Venus had phases like the Moon in the form of an anagram.
As did Robert Hooke (an English natural philosopher, architect ) in 1660 first published Hooke’s Law in the form of an anagram.
Professor Gordon Rugg suggested that the text was nothing but a meaningless jumble of letters! If he was correct then the suggestion that anagrams were used is a plausible theory. The true meaning of the manuscripts may never be decoded yet the challenge remains.
References: Rene Zandbergen , Crystalinks, Richter, J.P., 1970, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, vol I, Dover Publications, New York, p.1-4.
CarlCan.et al
| 63 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief