VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT

VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT – A COLURFUL ENIGMA

Voynich Manuscript

To be able to solve a puzzle is a success. For this success, knowledge play a vital. Now, what happens when this knowledge itself becomes an unsolved mystery ??

From 1912, one more riddle in the name - Voynich Manuscript was added to the list of decoding to paleographers. The book itself is an artifact with many colorful depictions of herbs, nymphs, cosmological and astrological, rosette, recipe, etc. Voynich codex is carbon-dated to 15th century and was considered as the most mysterious and hard to decode manuscript. Some believed that the book is symbolical to a cult phenomenon. 

In the year 1865, Villa Mondragone at Frascati, Italy, a construction of 1573, was reconstructing. As a part of selling the many parts the library, Wilfred Voynich, a

Wilfred Voynich

Polish book-dealer, bought an untitled book. He believed that this mysterious manuscript belonged to the Roger Bacon (1219/20 – 1292), a medieval English philosopher. Wilfred’s plan of selling this book at higher price was a failure. In 1960, after his wife’s death, the book was sold to H.P. Kraus, a book dealer. From 1969, the book is a part of Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University as Manusript 408. However, the author or mastermind of this enigma is unknown.

The Symbolic scripts in ‘Voynich codex’ is called “Voynichese” and many controversies on the organization of its language, distribution of words, and so on, made some people to conclude it as gibberish, while others concluded it as forgery. Pages of this manuscript held different scripts along with colorful pictures. Some of these pictures of botanicals led the researchers to conclude that book has included New World Plants. Furthermore, the manuscript can be described as ‘folios’, folded sheets, where two pages are demonstrated as recto (r) for the right side and verso (v) for reverse side and hence numbered in the pattern of 1r, 1v, 2r, 2v, … ending with 116v. Adding all the 14 missing folios to the existing 234 pages, the Voynich Codex is a 262 pages work.

Works are distributed such a way that this book was meant to be a guideline or an authenticated work due to its systematic way of classification. About 131 images of plants are categorized into the section of herbal consisting of 127 pages, followed by 20 pages of pharmaceuticals as small plants and plants and apothecary jars with symbolic script labelling is illustrated in this section. Balneology (study of medicinal springs and its therapeutic effects while bathing on them) are shown in 19 pages portraying single or groups of naked nymphs along with weird type of plumbing or vascular systems. Astrological and cosmological descriptions consists of 12 and 16 pages respectively with zodiac signs, stars, moon, planets and sun. 23 pages of recipe is believed to be medicinal prescriptions or poetry or such things. A rosette with 11

Voynich Rosette

circles which is similar to ‘tree-of-life’ is also shown. Here, we can see that tree-of-life comprises 11 energies together known as “Sefriots” was previously mentioned by Kabbalah masters. 

Later on, Nicholas Gibbs, a history researcher and television writer has brought an end to the mystery of Voynich Codex. He successfully decoded the manuscript and enlightened others by proving that the book can be presumed as a guideline, specifically for women’s health. He continued that this work is a summarization or conjoined works of some other similar guides existed at the same era. 

Yet again, a piece of information may now lead to many other riddles, as it happens in other cases. Then again, that’s the beauty of the goddess named ‘mystery’ !!!

Reference

Tucker, A. O., & Janick, J. (2019). An Introduction to the Voynich Codex. In: Flora of the Voynich Codex (pp. 1-11). Springer, Cham.