How did the Voynich manuscript become "the world's most mysterious book"?

Unbreakable bizarre bookVoynic manuscript"Since its discovery in 1912, its content has not been revealed even after more than 100 years have passed. I wonder why such a Voynich manuscript is regarded as "the world's most mysterious book"TED-EdIt is revealed in the movie.

The world's most mysterious book - Stephen Bax - YouTube


Deep inside of Yale University ... ...


Bainecke · Rare book & Manus clip library ... ....


The original book of one book covering 240 pages is kept.


Recently this radioactive carbon dating of this book revealed that it was around 1420, and on that parchment page I drawn a mysterious hand-drawn illustration as if it came out of my dream It is.


What is depicted in the book is a looking plant like the boundary between reality and imagination, a castle in the sky, a woman, a diagram of astrology,Zodiac Twelve Constellation, And various sun and moon with face drawn.



This 24 cm long x 16 cm wide book is called "Voynich manuscript".


And this book is known as "the world's most mysterious book". Why is said to be "the world's most mysterious book" because nobody knows what is written in this book.


The name of "Voynich manuscript" is named after discoverer Wilfrid Voynich. He is a Polish-American collector of old books and discovered this book in Italy in 1912.


Voynich was very confused when I found a book. Because he was unable to understand exactly who made the book, where it was, and what the content is indicating.


So Voynich purchased books in cash from the university priest who was the owner of the book and eventually brought books to the United States. But for over a century now the book's mystery has not been revealed.


The cryptographers who tried to decipher the Voynich manuscript all got together, "The words written in this book have the same characteristics as actual words, but I have never seen it before." I will.


The word written in the Voynich manuscript seemed to be "a word that actually exists" as characters and character groups appeared at a certain frequency like real words. Also, there was a "pattern" that can not be found in randomly generated languages.


Besides that it knows that the letters are of various shapes and heights, and there are characters common to other manuscripts, but many are unique.


Among them, tall characters are named "gallows characters (gallows characters)" from their shape.


Also, the Voynich manuscript is written by two or more hands, and the illustration is considered to have been drawn by another person. In other words, it is thought that there are multiple authors.


There are three hypotheses about such a Voynich manuscript. The first hypothesis is that this is a "document written in cryptography". In order to conceal the contents written in the Voynich manuscript, the letter encrypted with a secret code designed intentionally is used.


Second, the theory that this sentence is "written intentionally with random words" to earn money from buyers who are liable to be deceived. It is speculated that the culprit is medieval fraudsters, and Voynich himself may also have played the role.


Third, the theory that it is written in an unknown language although it is certain that the Voynich manuscript is written in language.


About this, the medieval scholar said that the purpose of the Voynich manuscript was to create alphabet of "language which had been spoken, but has not been written yet".


In this theory, the words written in the Voynich manuscript were born on Easter IslandLongongongoIt is like a word and it includes the possibility that it became unreadable due to the collapse of culture.


Because nobody can read the contents of the Voynich manuscript, people will not stop imagining what is being written.


Those who believe that the Voynich manuscript is "trying to create a new form of written language" speculate that this book might be an encyclopedia for civilizations that produced it.


Other than that, philosophers of the 13th centuryRoger BaconThe theory that the author is ... ...


It was also an alchemist / astrologer / mathematicianJohn DeeThere is also the theory that it wrote.


More than 100 years passed without mystery being deciphered, but recently the light hit a part of this mystery. The first breakthrough was the measurement of radioactive carbon age.


And according to the investigations of historians, the Voynich manuscript is from the emperor Rudolph II and the doctorJacobus SinapiusIt is estimated that in 1612 he moved from Rome to Czech Republic in Prague.



However, it is predicted that the mystery about the Voynich manuscript remains undecrypted and the decipherment will go slowly.


God only knows whether some of the forgotten civilizations will be revealed by decryption or the mystery of the mysterious illustration will be revealed.