The Most Mysterious Manuscript – Voynich Code

Military communication, love letters, forbidden knowledge… Sooner or later most secret texts have been decoded, but among all history cryptic writings one has stood out. This text has defined all the attempts to unveil their secrets for centuries – the Voynich Manuscript. It’s the world’s most secret book written by an unknown author in a singular alphabet and illustrated with some weird images. What is the secret hidden between these lines?

Many have tried to decode and find out more about this puzzling manuscript. Questions about this writing have already been raised for decades.

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At the beginning at 20^th century a New York antique dealer visited villa Madragone near Rome, he was looking for interesting books. The name of the American dealer was Wilfrid Voynich . In villa Madragone many Jesuit books have been stored. Among various manuscripts there was one special book. Voynich spent whole of his life trying to decode it, but he never succeeded. Among more than 200 pages lies a whole new universe. What bothers most of the people who have tried to decipher it is that every theory you may have can be used because there are so many numbers, drawings and letters in the book. The drawings are the ones which separate book into different sections. Some of the drawings seem to be inspired by reality. There is one part which is obviously about herbs, then another one about zodiac. In the Middle Ages if you were to be cured medicine was all about herbs and zodiac. Then, there is a part which looks like somewhat of a recipe which says how herbs should be cut and treated. If we were to guess just looking at the drawings this looks like a medical herbal book.

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Was the author a medical genius who tried to hide his knowledge from others? If this is just a recipe book containing medical advices, why would a doctor crypt it? I guess the answer lies in the way the science was treated at that time, since medicine and alchemy were very close. The church didn’t look to kind at those who practiced any kind of “magic”.

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Another enigma is that most of the drawings of plants don’t correspond to any natural plant. Details are out of proportion or of abstract symbols. They appear to be somewhat of allegorical images more than botanical illustrations.

The letter found in the book was written by Bohemian botanist Johanes Marcus on August 19, 1665 or 1666, and it was sent to Kircher. It claims that the book once belonged to Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), who paid 600 gold ducats (about 2kg of gold) for it. The letter was written on Latin. The book was given to Jacobus Horcicky de Tepenecz, the head of Rudolf’s botanical gardens in Prague. Marci’s cover letter written in Latin was still with the manuscript when Voynich purchased it. This is the translation on English of the letter:

Reverend and Distinguished Sir, Father in Christ: 

This book, bequeathed to me by an intimate friend, I destined for you, my very dear Athanasius, as soon as it came into my possession, for I was convinced that it could be read by no one except yourself.

The former owner of this book asked your opinion by letter, copying and sending you a portion of the book from which he believed you would be able to read the remainder, but he at that time refused to send the book itself. To its deciphering he devoted unflagging toil, as is apparent from attempts of his which I send you herewith, and he relinquished hope only with his life. But his toil was in vain, for such Sphinxes as these obey no one but their master, Kircher. Accept now this token, such as it is and long overdue though it be, of my affection for you, and burst through its bars, if there are any, with your wonted success.

Dr. Raphael, a tutor in the Bohemian language to Ferdinand III, then King of Bohemia, told me the said book belonged to the Emperor Rudolph and that he presented to the bearer who brought him the book 600 ducats. He believed the author was Roger Bacon, the Englishman. On this point I suspend judgment; it is your place to define for us what view we should take thereon, to whose favor and kindness I unreservedly commit myself and remain

At the command of your Reverence,

Joannes Marcus Marci of Cronland

Prague, 19th August, 1665 (or 1666)

The Emperor Rudolf was known for sponsoring the science, but in his days there was no distinction between magic and science. Rudolf had an enormous collection of occult objects and manuscripts. He spent a lot of money for these object, and that’s how this book got into his possession. The letter even names the author Roger Bacon. He was known as Doctor Mirabilis. He was regarded as wizard and particularly famed for the story of mechanical and necromantic brazen head. He often got into conflict with the church, he was imprisoned several times. He was known for working with magnifying glasses. Many drawings in book resemble the objects seen through microscope.

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For his discoveries he must have been scared of being persecuted like infidel. Most of the illustrations look like they have been detached from reality. Can this book bee just a product of imagination? Examining the book these days we have found out that more than 200 pages of text have been written without any error. Almost a superhuman feature. This raises a suspicion. There is only one source of discovery of the book, Voynich himself. Could it be possible that and antique dealer created this book himself? Several people suspected that Voynich could be a fraud? The paint and ink is proof that the manuscript is real. Arabic gum was used to bind the pigments. The author had to be very skilled to make drawings as ones in the book. But there are some drawings which look too sloppy like if they were made by infants’ hand. There are some theories that these are the drawings of young Leonardo Da Vinci.

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Considering how making paint and how much money was needed for making a book at that time, we come to one thing that this is one expensive book. So, someone dedicated years of his life and had enough means to produce a book like this? This leads to only one thing that this book had big value, so great in fact that it had to be encoded. What ways of encoding did the author have?

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After testing the book, the results show that it was created between 1404 and 1438. This result is amazing since overthrows all of the presumed authors of the book. None of them could have been the ones who created the book.

The one drawing shows a picture of city. Those kinds of cities were only built in that period in Italy, Milan and Venice. This is the only clue so far and the manuscript will remain what it has been for 600 years – a mystery!