The Voynich Manuscript is the most mysterious book in history. It was created in the 15th century, but it is still unknown what is written and depicted in it. You can try to solve this riddle too.
"Russian" hypothesis
Yes, in the almost detective story of the most mysterious book of all centuries, there was a "Russian trace". The man who made the manuscript famous was born in the Russian Empire in 1865. His name was Wilfrid Mikhail Voynich. His biography was rich in sharp turns.
In his youth, after graduating from the Chemistry Department of Moscow University, Wilfrid was a member of the terrorist organization "Narodnaya Volya". Underground work led to his arrest and exile in Irkutsk, but three years later Voinich managed to escape from there. And not just anywhere, but to London, and not to anyone, but to his beloved Ethel Lillian. The one who would later become the author of the novel "The Gadfly".
Having celebrated the wedding, the young retired from revolutionary activities. Voynich had to take part in another revolution - the revolution in cryptography. He took up antiques, opened his own shop and began to travel the world in search of rare books.
In 1912, fate led him to a mysterious book, the language of which is still considered unsolved.
It is significant that Wilfried did not confess until his death who exactly he bought this manuscript from. The official version is that the antiquarian purchased the manuscript, along with 29 more books, from the Roman College, which needed funds and therefore arranged a "sale".
It is also known that one of the owners of the book was the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II, another proven keeper of the book is the Prague alchemist Georg Bares.
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Fake?
The idea that the manuscript is a clever fake of the modern era was one of the first that occurred to everyone who tried to decipher this book. The language is too "gibberish" in this tome. However, the following facts speak against such a conclusion.
First, hydrocarbon analysis conducted by Greg Hodgins at the University of Arizona showed that the manuscript was produced between 1404 and 1438.
Secondly, the text in the book is structured, the analysis of the ink showed that the scribe knew what he was writing about (letters were written quickly, 4 seconds per word). Linguistic analysis shows the presence of structures typical of known language systems. Finally, the manuscript is written on parchment, whereas paper was already used in the 15th century. Create such an expensive fake?
Eastern hypothesis
French philologist Jacques Guy, one of those who is trying to unravel the mystery of the manuscript, analyzed the text of the book and came to the paradoxical conclusion that the structure of the language is similar to Chinese and Vietnamese. Thus was born the theory of the oriental origin of the manuscript. In support of his hypothesis, Guy also makes the argument that some of the plants depicted in the book grew only in China at the time of writing. For example, ginseng. However, none of the East Asian scholars have been able to conclusively say which dialect the text is written in.
Editing
René Zandbergen of the European Space Agency believes that the manuscript has been revised several times. And we are not dealing with one text, but with several. This hypothesis is indirectly confirmed by a computer analysis of parchment sheets, which showed that yes - the text was retouched. However, it has not yet been possible to restore the original text and separate it from later layers.
Encrypted hypothesis
Some scholars believe that the Voynich Manuscript is a cipher. This was the opinion, for example, of William Newbold, who was one of the first to decipher the text of the book. He was considered one of the best cryptologists of his time. The scholar believed that the manuscript was written in encrypted Latin, the key to which is contained in the inscription on the last page "Michiton oladabas multos te tccr cerc portas".
If you remove the "extra" characters from there, and replace the letters "o" with "a", then the inscription Michi dabas multas portas will appear. ("You gave me many doors").
Dr. Gordon Rugg of Keely University is also convinced that the text of the book is a cipher, written with a Cardano lattice. In his opinion, the author of the manuscript inscribed Latin letters in the cells, and filled in the spaces with invented letters.
Riddle in Riddle
The Voynich manuscript is a riddle within a riddle. So far, no one has been able to explain in what language it is written, it is not known what the drawings in this book represent. The authorship is also unclear. At various times, it was attributed to Roger Bacon, and John Dee, and other alchemists, but there is still no concrete evidence for any of these versions.
Of the alleged versions of the origin of the manuscript, we want to note two more.
American cryptologist John Steiko believes that the text is written in the language of Kievan Rus, without the use of vowels. The scientist is sure that the manuscript is a correspondence between the mysterious ruler of Kievan Rus named Ora and a Khazar ruler named Manya Koza. Confirming this version, we can say that the manuscript depicts the walls of the city with the teeth of the "dovetail" shape. Such in the 15th century were only in Northern Italy and … the Moscow Kremlin.
According to another version, the manuscript is of Aztec origin. This hypothesis was put forward earlier this year by scientists Arthur Tucker and Rexford Talbert. They began their study of the manuscript with drawings and recognized many of the plants as endemic to South America. Researchers have put forward a version that the text was written in one of the many extinct dialects of the Aztec language, Nuatl, and was written in the 15th century by a representative of the Aztec elite who was in Europe.
By the way, you yourself can try to decipher the manuscript. Here is the link.