Voynich Manuscript Secondary Sources / notes
Yale University
Voynich Manuscript
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Not shown
Yale University
11/17/14
http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highl
ights/voynich-manuscript#page
 Described as a magical/scientific text

the contents of the manuscript falls into six sections: 1) botanicals
containing drawings of 113 unidentified plant species; 2)
astronomical and astrological drawings including astral charts with
radiating circles, suns and moons, Zodiac symbols such as fish
(Pisces), a bull (Taurus), and an archer (Sagittarius), nude females
emerging from pipes or chimneys, and courtly figures; 3) a biological
section containing a myriad of drawings of miniature female nudes,
most with swelled abdomens, immersed or wading in fluids and
oddly interacting with interconnecting tubes and capsules; 4) an
elaborate array of nine cosmological medallions, many drawn across
several folded folios and depicting possible geographical forms; 5)
pharmaceutical drawings of over 100 different species of medicinal
herbs and roots portrayed with jars or vessels in red, blue, or green,
and 6) continuous pages of text, possibly recipes, with star-like
flowers marking each entry in the margins.
 Written in the late 15th century or early 16th
century in Central Europe
 Named after Wilfred M. Voynich who acquired
it in 1912
Simon Worrall
The riddle of the Voynich Manuscript
BBC News
April 6, 2014
BBC
11/17/14
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26881734
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Roughly the size of a Penguins Classics Edition
Bound in limp vellum with the color of ivory
Contains 240 pages
Voynich supposedly acquired it at a Jesuit
seminary outside Rome, The Villa Madragone
 Attempted decryption by William Friedman
 Voynich referred to the manuscript as the
Roger Bacon Cipher Manuscript
Fox News
Researchers offer yet another explanation to
mysterious Voynich Manuscript
Mysterious Manuscript’s Code Has Been
Cracked, ’Prophet of God’ Claims
Secret of Voynich Manuscript, an Ancient
Book Written in ‘Alien’ Code, Partly revealed
Fox News
Sasha Bogursky
1/23/14
12/2/11
2/11/11
Fox News
11/19/14
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/01/
23/researchers-offer-yet-anotherexplanation-to-mysterious-voynichmanuscript/
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/12/
02/prophet-god-claims-solved-mysteryvoynich-manuscript/?intcmp=related
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/
11/history-mystery-scientists-age-voynichmanuscript/?intcmp=related
Continued next pages
 2 botanical scholars identified some of the
plant drawings with real world vegetation
 similarities between the xiuhamolli and
the plant illustration in folio 1v of the
manuscript
 a finish business man, a self-proclaimed
prophet of god claims he has decoded the
manuscript and its secrets
 Ari Ketola says the crazy squiggles are
sound waves and vocal syllables
 Ketola also claimed that it’s the life work
and science publication of medicine that
can still be useful today, and that the
writer was a scientist of plant, astronomy,
astrology, and pharmacy
 Latvala provided a translation of plant
16152, which he claimed can still be
found in Ethiopia today, the translation
follows; "The name of the flower is Heart of
Fire.
It makes the skin beautiful when made
as an ointment.
The oil is pressed from the
buds.
This ointment is used for the
wrinkles.
Is suitable for the kidneys and the
head,
as the flower prevents inflammations,
is antibiotic.
Plant is 10 centimeters by its
height.
It grows on hot and dry slants.
The
plant is bright green by its color."
 Latvala also claimed that no normal
person can decode it or read it, and that
it’s written in a channel language of
prophecy, and that the people who can
read it are extremely rare, and that they
have existed for millennium
 Katola also claimed that the sound
syllables are a mixture of Spanish and
Italian, as well as the language the man
used himself, and that his language was a
rare Babylonian dialect spoken in a small
area of Asia
 Katola also claimed that the writer didn’t
know how to write any known language
so he made his own alphabet and vocab,
and that it also might have been a type of
shorthand he used
 Carbon dating shows the manuscript to
have been made in between 1404 and
1438
Rich McCormick
Decrypting the most mysterious book in the world
The Verge
2/28/14
The Verge
11/19/14
http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/28/5453596/
voynich-manuscript-decrypting-the-mostmysterious-book-in-the-world
 Bax, a professor at the University of Bedford,
announced that he had decrypted 10 words,
and identified the approximate sound values
for 14 symbols
 Said to have been a hoax
 Bax did a Q&A on Reddit about the
manuscript, in it, Bax said that he believed
that the authors were probably a small group
writing in an invented text, trying to pass on
knowledge
Daniel Stolte
Experts determine age of book ‘nobody can read’
Phys Org
2/10/11
Phys Org
11/21/14
http://phys.org/news/2011-02-experts-age.html
 Some squiggles partially resemble Latin
 Voynich got the manuscript from the Society
of Jesus