Unravelling the Mystery of The Voynich Manuscript -
The Voynich manuscript is an illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system. The vellum on which it is written has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century (1404–1438), and it may have been composed in Northern Italy during the Italian Renaissance.[1][2] The manuscript is named after Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish book dealer who purchased it in 1912.[18]
Some of the pages are missing, with around 240 remaining. The text is written from left to right, and most of the pages have illustrations or diagrams. Some pages are foldable sheets.
The Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II.[19] No one has yet demonstrably deciphered the text, and it has become a famous case in the history of cryptography. The mystery of the meaning and origin of the manuscript has excited the popular imagination, making the manuscript the subject of novels and speculation. None of the many hypotheses proposed over the last hundred years has yet been independently verified.[20]
Illustrations in the Voynich Manuscript :
A detail from the "biological" section of the manuscript
The illustrations are conventionally used to divide most of the manuscript into six different sections, since the text itself cannot be read. Each section is typified by illustrations with different styles and supposed subject matter[14] except for the last section, in which the only drawings are small stars in the margin. The following are the sections and their conventional names:
Herbal, 112 folios: Each page displays one or two plants and a few paragraphs of text, a format typical of European herbals of the time. Some parts of these drawings are larger and cleaner copies of sketches seen in the "pharmaceutical" section. None of the plants depicted are unambiguously identifiable.[13][35]
Astronomical, 21 folios: Contains circular diagrams suggestive of astronomy or astrology, some of them with suns, moons, and stars. One series of 12 diagrams depicts conventional symbols for the zodiacal constellations (two fish for Pisces, a bull for Taurus, a hunter with crossbow for Sagittarius, etc.). Each of these has 30 female figures arranged in two or more concentric bands. Most of the females are at least partly nude, and each holds what appears to be a labeled star or is shown with the star attached to either arm by what could be a tether or cord of some kind. The last two pages of this section were lost (Aquarius and Capricornus, roughly January and February), while Aries and Taurus are split into four paired diagrams with 15 women and 15 stars each. Some of these diagrams are on fold-out pages.[13][35]
Biological, 20 folios: A dense continuous text interspersed with figures, mostly showing small nude women, some wearing crowns, bathing in pools or tubs connected by an elaborate network of pipes. The bifolio consists of folios 78 (verso) and 81 (recto); it forms an integrated design, with water flowing from one folio to the other.[23][35]
Cosmological, 13 folios: More circular diagrams but of an obscure nature. This section also has foldouts; one of them spans six pages, commonly called the Rosettes folio, and contains a map or diagram with nine "islands" or "rosettes" connected by "causeways" and containing castles, as well as what might be a volcano.[13][35][36]
Pharmaceutical, 34 folios: Many labeled drawings of isolated plant parts (roots, leaves, etc.), objects resembling apothecary jars, ranging in style from the mundane to the fantastical, and a few text paragraphs.[13][35]
Recipes, 22 folios: Full pages of text broken into many short paragraphs, each marked with a star in the left margin
Purpose
The overall impression given by the surviving leaves of the manuscript is that it was meant to serve as a pharmacopoeia or to address topics in medieval or early modern medicine. However, the puzzling details of illustrations have fueled many theories about the book's origin, the contents of its text, and the purpose for which it was intended.[14]
The first section of the book is almost certainly herbal, but attempts have failed to identify the plants, either with actual specimens or with the stylized drawings of contemporaneous herbals.[37] Only a few of the plant drawings can be identified with reasonable certainty, such as a wild pansy and the maidenhair fern. The herbal pictures that match pharmacological sketches appear to be clean copies of them, except that missing parts were completed with improbable-looking details. In fact, many of the plant drawings in the herbal section seem to be composite: the roots of one species have been fastened to the leaves of another, with flowers from a third.[37]
Botanist Hugh O'Neill believed that one illustration depicted a New World sunflower, which would help date the manuscript and open up intriguing possibilities for its origin; unfortunately, the identification is only speculative.[14]
The basins and tubes in the "biological" section are sometimes interpreted as implying a connection to alchemy, yet they bear little obvious resemblance to the alchemical equipment of the period.[citation needed]
Astrological considerations frequently played a prominent role in herb gathering, bloodletting, and other medical procedures common during the likeliest dates of the manuscript. However, interpretation remains speculative, apart from the obvious Zodiac symbols and one diagram possibly showing the classical planets.[14]
Continued-
Image Credit/Source : Google Images
Video: YouTube
Text Source: Wikipedia
Roughly translated, many parts of the Voynich Manuscript say that women should take a nice bath if they are feeling sick. Here you can see a woman doing just that.
Since its discovery in 1912, the 15th century Voynich Manuscript has been a mystery and a cult phenomenon. Full of handwriting in an unknown language or code, the book is heavily illustrated with weird pictures of alien plants, naked women, strange objects, and zodiac symbols. Now, history researcher and television writer Nicholas Gibbs appears to have cracked the code, discovering that the book is actually a guide to women's health that's mostly plagiarized from other guides of the era.
Source / Image Courtesy
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Oho Samj, most intriguing, great Thread.
Wow that really was interesting... never heard of it before. I like the part about the bath being a cure-all... sounds like good advice.
I have studied this before, and concluded that it is a very good and well thought out...Fake.
At this time there was a great interest in accurate maps from overseas, and as new lands were being discovered accurate pictures of new plants were being documented. Many would be edible, but even more would have healing properties, and those with cash would pay dearly for such information - such that there was a shortage of these manuscripts and those that were discovered fetched high prices -as much as a years salary.
So.... if you have sold several similar books before, and needed a few more....what would you do?
Thus this was created to satisfy a demand. Pictures of similar plants and sketchy maps were compiled with just enough differences to make the work seem authentic. A new language was created to make it look foreign in origin, but basically just kept repeating the same phrases using simple substitution in an old dialect, and you end up with an amazing book that looks wonderful! Flicking through you would see a lot of pictures, fold-out maps, tales of treasures and maps of new lands to explore the riches.
But like a treasure map - mostly fake. - But sold for a high enough price to keep you in business long enough that they will never find out that it is a fake. And still they haven't worked it out!
This PDF was written by cryptographers that that have attempted to decipher it. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1407/1407.6639.pdf
It is interesting as it tries to describe the language used - which is unusual as a language or even an encrypted language.
I found page 78, which had a picture of women taking baths, but also of a structure above it , and various tubes with holes, and liquid running through them.
It dawned on me that the structure was in fact a bunch of grapes, and the women were not taking baths - but treading grapes !
This would put a whole new meaning to it, that the manuscript could be a recipe book which includes other botanicals in the main drink which is wine!
It was translated by Ahmet Ardic, and it's a subset of the Turkish language using phonetic spellings.
See:
Hello’ Samanthaj:
Question: Why cannot this manuscript be solved or decoded and where did it originate from and why?
Now, in attuning and going back in time to read this manuscript accurately…it appears that….this particular manuscript was re-written many times over the centuries.
And as I move deeper into the past…it is clear that this manuscript goes back to the Atlantean beginnings, even before the history of Atlantis…going deeper……it appears that before this manuscript appeared in Atlantis, that this ancient manuscript was originally created by those known as “The Elohim”.
The reason why this manuscript cannot be solved or decoded is because….it appears the original language no longer exists and that there is no historical dialog or blueprint to compare against.
Therefore, historian and researchers are clueless to finding the answer to this mysterious manuscript. As to the purpose of this manuscript….it is seen that the creators of this , the Elohim, wanted to share their cultural language with those of Atlantis and this manuscript was the method they chose to accomplish that.
It is seen that….there are a few individuals out there who can and would want to decipher this manuscript and identify this ancient language but it would have to be in a trance state, in order to have any accuracy.
Thank you for this kind offer to share in your challenges.
I am grateful for the opportunity.
I send you encouragement in your current explorations of self.
If I can be of further assistance to you, please feel free to inquire at my web page here in ABT
In Light & Harmony, Wandering Soul
Wanderer
Your absolutely right about this being rewritten. That's how they used to preserve ancient writings. As for the language you are also right, this is definitely a long lost language. And in deciphering such a language you need to have a cultural reference which to base it off, and since none exists.... Now that we know the Younger Dyras event was an impactor hitting North America 12,800 yrs ago we can definitely assume that any civilizations at that time would have been driven to near irreparable numbers. It brings the stories of Atlantis and the Great Flood in the Bible into historical fact. If Atlantis had been anywhere near North America, it would surely be destroyed by floods and fire as described by Plato. This manuscript is indeed wonderous.